Review: Maren Courage Digital Talk with philosopher, economist and theologian Professor of Business Ethics Dr Eberhard Schnebel

On Wednesday, 26 March 2025, we met in the boardroom of the Berlin Capital Club for my first ‘AI Talk’ in a high-calibre setting. The speaker was Dr Eberhard Schnebel: philosopher, economist, theologian, professor of business ethics at Goethe University Frankfurt, board member of EBEN GR (European Business Ethics Network – Greek Chapter) and expert for data governance in Group Risk Management at Commerzbank AG.

After a brief introduction, we worked together to try and categorise the complex challenges surrounding AI and ethics in a business context. The central questions were:
What is economic? What is ethical? And how do we deal with the fact that the USA and China are pushing ahead with their AI developments at an enormous pace, often without taking our European values and rules into account?

The tenor of the discussion was clear: we must think and act economically if we want to survive in global competition. In addition to the strong regulatory framework that we have in Europe, ethics must not be an obstacle, but should be anchored as a hashtag#mindset in companies – ideally it is deeply integrated into the corporate culture.

Speakers and guests agreed that we need to step on the gas to avoid losing touch completely. And we won’t be able to accelerate if we discuss ethics in too much detail in Europe. At the same time, however, values such as fairness, participation, dignity and responsibility should be part of our inner attitude. This is the only way that ethical awareness can be organically integrated into corporate processes.

The topic is complex – and at the same time simple: we must not confuse pure regulations such as the AI Act (AIA) with an ethical mindset. While the latter is a question of attitude, the AI Act primarily provides a legal framework.

By the way: This is precisely where one of the challenges lies: The AI Act (comprising 113 articles, 180 recitals and 13 annexes, spread over a total of 144 pages) should also be easier for SMEs to understand and implement in many respects.

We would like to thank Eberhard Schnebel for the many profound insights and all the guests for the exciting exchange and are already looking forward to the next AI Talk on 27 May with David Bennett!