On 8 October, Prof. Dr Michael Decker was something of an odd man out at the AI@Strategy conference in Munich. Amidst the technology and business professionals, the director of the Deutsches Museum spoke about artificial intelligence and humanoid robots. His presence brought a perspective that can easily fade into the background at a conference on AI strategy and productivity: Technology derives its significance from the society in which it is used. It was precisely because of his unique background that Decker was able to demonstrate how technology and the cultural sector go hand in hand.
Decker is a physicist, but his career has also taken him into the fields of philosophy and research into the societal implications of technology. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, he was Professor of Technology Assessment at the Institute of Philosophy and headed the Computer Science, Economics and Society division. He has been Director of the Deutsches Museum since June 2025. He is also a professor of science communication and technology assessment at the Technical University of Munich. This combination gives him a broad perspective on innovation: he understands the technical possibilities, investigates the societal consequences and bears responsibility for an institution where a wide audience is introduced to these topics.
His presentation was about physical AI, artificial intelligence that acts in the physical world via a ‘body’. Whereas a language model produces text, a robot equipped with sensors, a control system and moving parts can actually move something or carry out an action. Decker expects this development to bring about far-reaching changes in the coming decades. He is particularly interested in humanoid robots, as they can function in an environment built for humans and may be able to take over tasks in the service sector.
The way in which he approached that future was at least as relevant as the machines themselves. From the perspective of his field of expertise, technology assessment, he examined how technical possibilities relate to economic, legal and ethical issues. Innovation creates winners and losers, he reminded his audience, referring to the economist Joseph Schumpeter. A beneficial effect for one group may prove detrimental to another. Anyone speaking of progress must therefore make it clear who benefits from it, who bears the costs and how those affected can influence the change.
For the cultural sector, this approach offers a fruitful starting point. AI can speed up work, make collections more accessible and enable new forms of engagement with the public. Assessing this also requires consideration of staff expertise, the position of creators and the experiences of visitors. After all, when an institution delegates tasks to a system, it also changes who selects, interprets and explains. Decker did not elaborate on such cultural applications individually during his presentation, but his argument makes it clear why these questions should form part of every decision regarding technology.
That connection became clear when he explained why robots are given a human form. Our kitchens, drawers and staircases are designed to suit human dimensions and movements. A robot with arms and legs of a similar size can move more easily within that environment. Teaching a robot to perform a task by demonstrating it is also easier when the machine can make roughly the same movements. The human form is therefore a practical choice, although it has consequences that extend beyond the design itself.
People tend to readily attribute human characteristics to such machines. According to Decker, a robot can appear more intelligent than it actually is because it speaks fluently and moves in a recognisable way. A face that appears to express emotions reinforces that impression. In this way, robotics touches on an area in which the cultural sector has a great deal of experience: the way in which an appearance evokes meaning. In theatre, film and the visual arts, we constantly recognise intentions and emotions in voices, bodies and gestures. We bring that same sensitivity with us when we encounter a humanoid machine.
A robot that interacts with visitors in a museum would therefore do more than simply provide information. Its voice, appearance and behaviour all play a part in determining the level of trust people place in it. A convincing answer can give the impression that there is genuine understanding behind it, whilst a visitor may find it difficult to assess what the system is actually capable of. For a cultural institution, the design of such an interaction is therefore part of its responsibility for knowledge transfer. It must understand what expectations it raises and how those expectations influence its audience’s experience.
Meanwhile, Decker played down the enthusiasm surrounding spectacular demonstrations. A robot that dances or runs fast does not, by that alone, master the versatility of human action. Manual dexterity remains a challenge, as does coping with an environment that changes from day to day. The physical world requires an understanding of materials, forces and unexpected circumstances. According to him, the vast amount of data used to train language models does not yet have a comparable counterpart for all that physical behaviour.
For cultural institutions, this is a familiar distinction. A conservator senses how a material reacts, a musician coordinates movement and timing, and a stage technician adapts their work when a situation changes. Their professional expertise is partly embodied and develops through experience. Decker’s focus on bodily intelligence highlights just how much lies beyond language and description. Furthermore, he pointed out a risk associated with collaborating with increasingly powerful machines:
Human skills may decline, whilst responsibility remains with the individual.
It is precisely a museum that can place such developments in a broader context. Upon taking up his post, Decker described the Deutsches Museum as a place where new science and technology are showcased and where their societal implications can be discussed. This gives the cultural sector an active role in the debate on AI. It preserves the lessons learnt from previous technological changes and can investigate how new machines influence our imagination, our work and the way we interact with one another. Amongst the AI strategists, Decker demonstrated why this cultural knowledge is necessary to shape the future of technology.
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