AI is scaling up. Can safe, privacy-preserving use keep pace?

AI can process vast amounts of information in seconds. But speed alone does not answer the questions that matter when people depend on it: Is it safe? Who controls their data? And how much trust does it deserve?

These questions shaped the Trilateral AI Symposium 2026, held October 27–28 at the Delegation of the European Union to Japan in Tokyo. Under the theme “Operationalizing AI: Safe, Efficient, and Privacy-preserving AI Systems at Scale,” experts from Germany, France, Japan and beyond explored how AI can be used responsibly as its reach grows.

Among the speakers was Prof. Nicole Krämer, Scientific Director of the Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security (RC Trust) and Professor of Social Psychology: Media and Communication at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She joined the keynote session “Privacy-Preserving AI – Protection of Personal Data” alongside Prof. Lionel Brunie from INSA Lyon and Dr. Goichiro Hanaoka from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Prof. Philippe Gréciano chaired the session.

The discussion addressed a difficult balancing act: enabling AI to use data while protecting personal information and fundamental rights.

For RC Trust, this challenge extends beyond technology. Technical safeguards help secure data and improve reliability. But responsible AI also depends on people: whether they understand a system’s limitations, how they interpret its recommendations and when they decide to trust it.

Research across borders

The symposium was part of a wider visit to Japan by a German-French research delegation. After the conference, the delegation visited the National Institute of Informatics (NII), the Artificial Intelligence Research Center (AIST-AIRC) and the RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP) for further scientific exchange.

Nicole Krämer’s participation connected RC Trust’s interdisciplinary research to an international conversation about AI’s future. Combining psychological and technical perspectives helps address a shared challenge: developing systems that are not only powerful and efficient, but also safe, understandable and worthy of people’s trust.

About the Trilateral AI Symposium

First held in 2018, the Trilateral AI Symposium connects experts from research, industry and policymaking, particularly across Germany, France and Japan. The fifth edition was organized by the Embassy of France in Tokyo, the German Centre for Research and Innovation Tokyo (DWIH Tokyo) and the AI Japan R&D Network, with the Delegation of the European Union to Japan as co-organizer.