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“Talking AI into Being”: Keynote by Christian Katzenbach at the KWG Annual Conference “Kritik und Kultur”

On 18 September 2026, ComAI PI Christian Katzenbach delivers a keynote at the 11th Annual Conference of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (KWG), titled “Kritik und Kultur” (Criticism and Culture; 16–19 September 2026, Berlin). His talk is part of the panel “Argumentieren und Erzählen mit KI: Narrative, Rhetoriken und epistemische Praktiken in kommunikativen Aushandlungen” (Arguing and narrating with AI: narratives, rhetorics and epistemic practices in communicative negotiations).

Under the title “Talking AI into Being: Die kommunikative Aushandlung von KI als soziotechnische Institution” (The communicative negotiation of AI as a socio-technical institution), Katzenbach asks how AI could become such a taken-for-granted and at the same time powerful reference in public debate. AI has arrived at the centre of society, invisible and silent in many everyday applications. From identification systems to TikTok feeds, and surprising, sometimes absurd, in chat systems such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

The keynote reconstructs this process of institutionalisation as “talking into being”: the discursive treatment of AI does not merely describe existing developments but performatively contributes to constituting them. What AI is, on this account, is not simply a consequence of technological progress but is substantially shaped by discursive negotiation: an argument that speaks directly to ComAI’s research programme on the communicative constitution of AI.

Details

• Keynote: “Talking AI into Being: Die kommunikative Aushandlung von KI als soziotechnische Institution”
• Panel: “Argumentieren und Erzählen mit KI: Narrative, Rhetoriken und epistemische Praktiken in kommunikativen Aushandlungen”
• Conference: “Kritik und Kultur”, 11th Annual Conference of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (KWG), 16–19 September 2026, Berlin
• More information: kwg-ev.org/jahrestagungen/kritik-und-kultur-2026