Ralf Herbrich joins Tübingen AI Center as Honorary Professor for AI and Energy

The appointment follows four and a half years at Hasso Plattner Institute as Herbrich also co-founds an AI efficiency company and a nonprofit focused on responsible adoption

Ralf Herbrich shared the photograph when announcing his appointment as Honorary Professor for AI and Energy at Tübingen AI Center.

Ralf Herbrich has been appointed Honorary Professor for AI and Energy at Germany’s Tübingen AI Center, continuing his research into machine learning after leaving the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI).

The role began in October 2026 at the center, a joint partnership between the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Alongside the appointment, Herbrich announced that he has co-founded Brenniq, where he serves as Chief Technology Officer, and the nonprofit AI & Society.

His work at HPI focused on two connected challenges: reducing the energy needed to develop and run AI, and applying AI to the generation, storage and management of energy. Research topics included extending battery life and managing household energy consumption.

“Throughout my career, I have always remained hands-on and deeply curious about fundamental research, particularly in machine learning,” Herbrich wrote on LinkedIn.

“I am very much looking forward to continuing this work together with the incredible research community at the Tübingen AI Center.”

The center’s research addresses limitations in current learning systems, including their ability to cope with unfamiliar situations, learn continuously from limited examples and identify causal relationships. It operates within the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) network and works closely with the ELLIS institute in Tübingen.

Research alongside two new organizations

Brenniq will focus on developing learning algorithms designed to use data and energy efficiently at the scale of frontier AI models. Herbrich described this as planned work, with further details to follow.

The second organization, AI & Society, formally KI und Gesellschaft gGmbH, is dedicated to responsible AI adoption and its effects on people and institutions.

Herbrich brings experience applying machine learning to commercial systems. His inventions include contributions to the Drivatars system in Forza Motorsport, the TrueSkill ranking and matchmaking system for Xbox Live, and the adPredictor technology used in Bing advertising.

Before joining HPI, he held senior AI and platform roles at Zalando, where his remit included research and applications spanning forecasting, computer vision, language processing and fashion size and fit.

At HPI, he held the Chair for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability from April 2022 to September 2026. He also served as Managing Director between November 2022 and April 2025, working on partnerships and supporting its entrepreneurship and design-thinking activities.

Reflecting on his departure, Herbrich thanked colleagues, students and particularly his doctoral researchers: “Working with and learning from you has been one of the most rewarding parts of my time at HPI.”

He also remains a Member of SAP’s Supervisory Board, a position he has held since May 2024, with a focus on product and technology, finance and investments.