Week 46/2026
Osaka Love Story
NSFW (Nikolaus' Song For the Week)
This week's song of the week is not a song but an electronic music track. It's from an artist called v1nz3nz (or VINZENZ) and it's inspired by one of my Japan favorite cities, Osaka.
v1nz3nz is a pseudonym for soemone doing completly different things as well: Prof. Dr. Andrej J. Zwitter from University of Klagenfurt whom I met last week (see below).
Zwitter is not only doing music, law, legal and philosophical research and teaching, but he's also a very talented (street) photographer. In his photo blog he shows some of his work and writes about photo-nerd stuff.
What a brilliant person and what a nice encounter! Here's his newest album "afterglow".
Retrospect
Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change
The moment I am writing this I am evaluating the Centre for Advanced Study
“Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”. The centre, funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, aims to explore "both the new forms of access to cultural goods and the new forms of access restriction and access control made possible by digitalisation." It's an interdisciplinary college, mainly driven by philosophers (lead by Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker) and art historians (lead by Prof. Dr. Ursula Frohne), but also with lawyers (most of them having a background in IP and/or legal philosophy).
I was pleased to see Professor Thomas Gutmann and Prof. Dr. Eric W. Steinhauer again and I was very impressed by the presentation of University of Münster's new rector, Prof. Dr. Susanne Menzel-Riedl. I learned from Wikipedia that she had been Germany's youngest rector when coming into office at her former university, Osnabrück.
The review panel's very first question (it wasn't me asking) was on the impact of AI on the centre's research program for the next four years. The technology's impact on every single aspect of research - no matter where I go and what I see - is really profound.
I learned that Billi Thanner's Himmelsleiter was moved from Vienna to Münster and is here now until 2028.
Klagenfurt
Visiting AIM – Center for [Human and Data] Sciences and its head Prof. Dr. Andrej J. Zwitter at University of Klagenfurt was a terrific experience, not only because of the music and photos I discovered and Andrej's warm hospitality. It was a real pleasure and honor to present there.
The audience was outstandingly interested and friendly, the venue is very nice and it's impressive to see what Andrej has been building there so quickly.
One of my starting points was San Altman's famous tweet from November 30th 2022.
Andrej also did a long interview with me on top of everything that can be seen on their YouTube channel.
Even my bicycle that I had with me for commuting made it into this video.
Since my talk, things have moved forward again. Advocate general Szpunar released his opinion in Case C-250/25 | Like Company on Tuesday this week.
Media
Rede!
Rede! is a talk-podcast (mainly) on YouTube, hosted by Christoph Bartos from red-ma-drueber with some remarkable conversations, with guests such as Michael Fleischhacker, Armin Wolf, Anna Thalhammer and Barbara Blaha.
I was invited there earlier in October and the video is online now.
Social Media Ban
I wrote an opinion piece on Austria's position on the EU-Kids Act for Der Standard that was published on Wednesday.
After publication I came across a funny reel on Instagram showing how creative the young are when confronted with social media blocking.
DEMGES
The Commission Democracy in Digital Societies (DEMGES) at Austria's Academy of Sciences held a two days symposion on Algorithms in Public Administration Implications for Democracy. I learned, inter alia, about the Dutch Adviescommissie Analytics Financiën - and advisory committee to the Dutch ministry of finances - working on data, algorithms and AI, somehow similar to Austria's AI advisory board. The reason for its establishment was the Dutch childcare benefits scandal that is a textbook example on what can go wrong with not properly monitored data processing by public authorities.
We spent Wednesday afternoon by playing (with) cards.
Real stands for REimagining ALgorithmic futures and is a card deck designed to foster discussions on algorithmic regulation.
Here's more about the research behind the cards.
European Commission
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schima gave an overview on the European Commission for the Vienna Legal Literacy Project.
Prospect
Research Institute Jahresforum
The Vienna based Research Institute hosts their Jahresforum on Tuesday, November 10th, at 17.00 CET.
There's a keynote from Dr. Madeleine Müller und Dr. Mirjam Tercero on:
„Eine KI-Zukunft ohne Mensch: Welche Rolle spielen wir noch?“
I am on the following panel, together with
• Mag.a Tünde Fülöp MAES (Arbeiterkammer Wien, Büro für digitale Agenden)
• Dr. Heidi Scheichenbauer (AI Factory)
• Mag. Philipp Poindl, LL.M. (Research Institute)
Free entry, registration required, no stream.
#arsboni
On Wednesday, November 11th, at 17.00 CET, I will interview Michael Grupp CEO at Bryter. Bryter with their product Beamon is one of the big law-specific AI developers in the DACH area. I will talk about his personal career, their product, the legal AI maket and what all this means for legal educaton.
Legal Tech
Wednesday, October 11th, is also the day of this year's, Legal Tech Conference in Vienna organised by Future-Law and Sophie Martinetz.
It's the 10th edition of this remarkable format that brings many stakeholders to Vienna. The department will be represented, inter alia, by Prof. Dr. Iris Eisenberger; I was involved in the jury to the Legal Tech Awards 2026.
Paid event, no stream.
Look and Feel
Böhmermann and Kurz
I am not really too much of a fan of Jan Böhmermann's ZDF Magazin Royale, but it's noteworthy how much interest Sebastian Kurz triggers there. The presumably last iteration of a feature on him was published just a few days ago and deals with his company Dream. Interesting.
Das Schwarz an den Händen meines Vaters
What a sad yet brilliantly told story about family life, alcohol abuse, error repetition and loneleyness this book is!
The topic and also Lena Schätte's writing style remind me somehow of a female and contemporary version of Ernest Hemingway, with a lot less of bohemian romanticization of alcohol and its impact. No oysters and Chablis, therefore, Fanta and Korn instead. Very, very well written.
Schätte won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize 2026 (which is probably the reason why I was still able to discover it in Buchhandlung Riedl) so that ORF has a lot of information about her online, including the text she read there, the jury debate and videos on her and with her. WDR has a recent interview with her about writing.
I loved every single page.
Have a wonderful week and take care of yourself!
Kind regards
Nikolaus
