Bonus AI Safety Lunch + Coworking @ CIC

​Join us for a bonus AI Safety Berlin lunch and coworking on Friday, September 4th to connect local AI safety technical & governance researchers, field builders, and other enthusiasts with those arriving to Berlin early for the 2026 European Frontier AI Safety Day hosted by Safe AI Germany (SAIGE) on Saturday, September 5th.

​This edition of the coworking will be ending an hour early at 17:00 to allow those attending SAIGE's evening event (An AI Safety and Prosperity Institute for Germany? Security, Growth, and Europe's AI Strategy) to get over to the Hertie school before that starts.

​Note that if you plan on attending SAIGE's evening event, you must register and be approved to attend. Tickets will be checked at the door.

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​Schedule 🕙

​10:00–18:00 Free coworking within the Æthos space @ CIC
13:00 Introductions and pitches (all optional)
13:15 Lunch @ CIC - buy lunch from Coco Restaurant (~10€, self-paid) or bring your own lunch
14:00 Talk - From Bits to Atoms: How to Make Physical AI Safe? by Benjamin Alt

We recommend to arrive at 10:00 for coworking or at 13:00 for the intro round + lunch, but you can also join later, and stay as long as you want.

​Talk: From Bits to Atoms: How to Make Physical AI Safe? 🗣️

​Robots are where language models were in 2018: Their applications are still restricted to controlled contexts, they make cute mistakes, and their capabilities are increasing rapidly. Speculations about a "ChatGPT moment for robots" are rampant.

​While physical AI foundation models don't yet afford the robust generalization required for widespread deployment, it is high time to start answering some critical questions that will shape what the next decade will look like: What happens when advanced AI crosses the cyberphysical barrier? How does embodiment affect our ability to understand what intelligent agents are doing and why they are doing it, and how can we control intelligence that does not think in language anymore?

​This talk gives an overview of the distinct safety challenges posed by advanced physical AI, and proposes a path toward answering these open questions.

​Ben holds a PhD in Computer Science (AI and robotics) from the University of Bremen. He built and scaled an AI research lab at an industrial robotics company, served as Technical Director at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bremen, and co-founded a spin-off building a safe robot cognitive architecture. He was the lead organiser of the first IJCAI Workshop on Safe Physical AI and is now building Bits to Atoms, an independent research lab dedicated to safe physical AI.

​👋 Newbies welcome! 👋

People new to the AI risk / AI safety community are welcome. If you're new to the field, we recommend having a quick look at the introductory resources on aisafety.berlin/learn to get a rough overview (you don't need to read everything). Come say hi to one of the hosts (Alex, Trevor or Manuel). We'd be happy to get to know you, answer questions and introduce you to other community members.

Directions to the CIC 📍

​The AI Safety coworking happens on the 3rd floor of Cambridge Innovation Center in the Æthos space.

If you arrive at 10a for coworking or at 1p for lunch, wait in the lobby and we'll come down to pick you up. If you arrive at another time, message Trevor (@FastFedora) on Telegram or via SMS at +49 163 627 6801 or Manuel (@manuelallgaier) on Telegram or via SMS at +49 160 9234 3485.

​About coworking at the CIC / Æthos 🧑‍💻

We're renting desks within the Æthos space at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), directly adjacent to the Foresight Institute's Berlin Node for studying AI for Science & Safety. Researchers, policy makers, advocates, field builders and others interested in AI safety & governance are welcome to join us! Ask Trevor or Alex for details.

About AI Safety Berlin 👬

We're a network of Berliners working in research, policy and field building to ensure that future AI systems are safe and beneficial for all. If you're new to the AI Safety Community, have a look at aisafety.berlin/learn and aisafety.com beforehand. This can be helpful but it's not required.

Feedback & Contact ✉️

Feedback? Suggestions for future coworking, events, speakers or topics? --> Reach out! You can also submit anonymous feedback via this form.

We're looking forward to meeting you!

Manuel, Alex, Trevor, Julian & the rest of the AI Safety Berlin Team

(Note that we may take photos, some of which we may use for our website. If you don't want us to use your photo, we can AI remove you, just let us know at the event)

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Join the AI Safety Berlin Community Chat on Telegram for announcements and discussions, or for announcements only, subscribe on Telegram, Signal or Whatsapp.