Christian Schiller is the 1993 German video game champion and specialized in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science both professionally and privately at an early stage. The Deutsche Telekom employee also passes on his knowledge to young people on a voluntary basis - as a game, of course ...
When Christian Schiller traveled to Hamburg in May 1993 to compete in the nationwide video game championship, he had no idea that gaming and computers would stay with him later in his career.
The then 15-year-old already described himself as a "gamer". "Wonder Dog", "Sonic", "Tiny Toon Adventures" & Co: his passion for video games began at some point in the late 80s. Just like many of his peers. A problem in the family? Christian laughs: "Fortunately, it was OK. As long as I maintained friendships, played sport and got good grades at school."
"The champion Christian Schiller" was the headline of "Gamers" 30 years ago. The special interest magazine for fans of the Sega games console organized the championship together with the Nintendo magazine "Total". In the lead picture of the article, the winner and later Deutsche Telekom employee can be seen on the left. © Deutsche Telekom AG, Norbert Ittermann
In the home of Christian Schiller: the AI book from back then and the Commodore 64 he grew up with. Like various other "retro computers" and video game systems, it is always ready for use. © Christian Schiller
View into a workshop by Christian Schiller in Bonn-Tannenbusch in March 2022. Schoolgirls teach a vehicle simulated on a single-board computer "Calliope mini" to avoid oncoming traffic on its own. © Deutsche Telekom
Riding the wave of technology
The event in Hamburg earned him the title of "German Video Games Champion", for which he competed with 40 other finalists. And a 386 PC as a prize, which found its place next to his beloved Commodore 64. It was also on this C64 that Christian made his first attempts at AI. He had discovered the programming code for the famous AI program "ELIZA" in a specialized book - to type in. The program could be linked to the user's own knowledge databases, which Christian also tried out. The result: "From today's perspective, very simple question-and-answer games. But these were my first steps as a developer of AI and machine learning." The data expert from Telekom Technik, who previously worked on big data and artificial intelligence at T-Systems and Telekom IT, recently picked up the book again for an article on LinkedIn and pointed out parallels to today's AI.
"Riding the wave of technology has been important to me all these years. AI opens an infinite number of doors to innovation - provided there are large amounts of high-quality data," says Christian, who is currently preparing for his Master of Science in Business Informatics at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Understanding AI, not just applying it
There are 30 years between the championship back then and the data science expertise of today. He now brings everything together in his voluntary work for "DIGITAL@School". More than 730 Deutsche Telekom employees across Germany are involved in the volunteering initiative. They prepare children for the future and their role as self-determined co-creators of the digital world. Christian lets school classes experience AI. With gamification, of course. In workshops, the children learn how to drive an autonomous car on a single-board computer, the Calliope mini. In other words, they train their own AI. "It's important to me that the children not only use the technology, but also understand what's going on in the background," says Christian. His love of gaming is also lifelong: he still plays games regularly and also writes about computer and video games from the 80s and 90s for a retro games magazine.
