Despite many uncertainties, it must be ensured that complex overall systems work reliably. Particularly with safety-critical functions, strict requirements must be met, for example with regard to the real-time capability, availability and safety of the networked functions. With its reorientation, the former Fraunhofer ESK is shifting its research focus away from classical communication technology towards the systemic approaches of complex, intelligent technical systems and their reliability.

Professor Mario Trapp, ExecutiveDirector of the new Fraunhofer IKS, states: "Our work is not about the individual A.I. itself, but about comprehensive cognitive systems. Here we are moving far away from classical feedback control technology and thus also from the classical idea of 'thinking' machines with simple input and output. This change in the orientation of the Fraunhofer ESK is very fundamental, therefore the further development to the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS is the logical consequence".

Within the framework of the Bavarian competence network for artificial machine intelligence, the newly oriented Munich-based Fraunhofer Institute is to be expanded into a flagship institute with comprehensive and broad expertise in the further development and integration of artificial intelligence. In the immediate vicinity of the Technical University of Munich and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, a new institute building is to be erected by 2024 in which up to 200 employees will work.