Tuesday, April 1
OpenAI Akademie: Berlin library assumes controversial new name
Berlin’s Culture Minister, Joe Chialo, has announced an unexpected and controversial initiative to raise funds for the city’s cultural institutions. In a move that has raised eyebrows across the capital, the naming rights to Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek – the city’s main library, commonly known as the Stabi – have been sold to OpenAI. As part of the agreement, the library will be renamed the OpenAI Akademie.
But the changes do not stop at the name. In a move that has already sparked debate among academics, library visitors will be given the option to replace any book they wish to borrow with an AI-generated summary. According to the ministry, this service will extract key points from texts, helping readers “save time” and “focus on what matters.”
Chialo, a member of the CDU and a vocal advocate for efficiency-driven cultural policy, defended the move enthusiastically:
“This scheme is a bold new opportunity for Berlin’s culture. Not only will it raise money, but it will save Berliners their most precious resource: time. When I was a student, I calculated—based on my own experience—that 95% of my reading was useless to me professionally. Some of that reading was done in this very building. And for what? Together with OpenAI, we can make the future of study in Berlin completely useful to students and employers. No more wasted information. No more wasted money. No more wasted time.”
Sources within Chialo’s office suggest that this was just one of several sponsorship deals under consideration. Internal discussions reportedly included a full “deck” of proposals to sell naming rights for other Berlin cultural institutions. However, OpenAI was the only entity willing to move forward with a deal.
Among the more striking ideas floated was a proposal to rename the Volksbühne as the Erfolgsbühne (or “Success Stage”), where corporate sponsors would be encouraged to back specific productions. But officials and civil servants seem to have envisioned a whole range of potential partnerships between businesses and the city’s theatres, schools, landmarks – and even some historic memorials – with the ministry encouraging a “no bad ideas” approach that is believed to have ruffled feathers within the department. “Many of their concepts were simply in bad taste,” one critic told the Tagesspiegel.
– Update: April fools
