Voice assistants that take orders from us, social bots that influence debates, and machines that generate texts – all of these examples represent forms of communication automation. The public debate on such phenomena also illustrates the extent to which the automation of communication is progressing and is simultaneously perceived as a challenge. Today's society seems to be able to manage its communication only with the help of automation, which in turn creates needs for which automated communication appears to be the solution.
Six Out of Nine Research Groups Active in Bremen
Nine research projects plus a coordination project – six of them in Bremen – will investigate the question of how social communication changes when communicative AI becomes a part of it. The research group is coordinated by ZeMKI (Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp) and HBI (Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen). Top researchers from the fields of media and communication studies, human-computer interaction, sociology of knowledge, governance research, and media law are involved.
Together, they pursue the common goal of systematically analyzing the transformation of social communication under the influence of artificial intelligence by investigating the consequences of its use in various social areas and the public discourse surrounding it. The research focuses on social pioneers, the development of interfaces, the legal handling of communicative AI, as well as that of companies, its role in journalism, in public (online) discourse, in personal everyday life through technological devices, in the health sector, as well as in learning and teaching.
Research Unit to Establish Joint "ComAI Research Space"
An innovative "ComAI Research Space" is being set up for the research group – a shared research environment used by the participating institutions to create increased visibility for the research unit's findings for decision-makers in various areas of society across all locations. The central focus here is the accompanying identification of possible future scenarios for the dissemination and impact assessment of automation processes on different levels of social communication.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp, ZeMKI spokesperson at the University of Bremen and designated co-spokesperson of the ComAI research group, emphasizes the far-reaching importance of fundamental research for the current spread of communicative AI at all levels of society: "The accelerated spread of communicative AI and the associated social risks and (re-)productions of inequality necessitate a critical examination of it. This is the only way we can help to understand whether automated communication can do justice to current social challenges. As an internationally established interdisciplinary research group, we have the collective research experience, the necessary field access, and the methodological competence to do so."
The German Research Foundation (DFG) is supporting the research unit "Communicative AI: The Automation of Social Communication" ("Kommunikative KI: Die Automatisierung der gesellschaftlichen Kommunikation") in an initial funding phase for the years 2025 to 2028. In addition to Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp (ZeMKI, University of Bremen) and Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), the participating researchers are Prof. Dr. Rainer Malaka (TZI, University of Bremen), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach (ZeMKI, University of Bremen), Prof. Dr. Cornelius Puschmann (ZeMKI, University of Bremen), Dr. Gregor Wiedemann (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), Prof. Dr. Michaela Pfadenhauer (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. Juliane Jarke (University of Graz), and Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter (ifib/ZeMKI, University of Bremen).
Further information:
www.comai.space (in German only)
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp
Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67620
Office (Ms. Schmidt): +49 421 218-67606
Email: andreas.heppprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
