The sociologist Dr. Laura Wiesböck heads the Junior Research Group “Digitalization and Social Transformation” at the Institute for Advanced Studies. She has received numerous awards for her work. In 2025, she published the book “Digitale Diagnosen: Psychische Gesundheit als Social-Media-Trend”. The publication received widespread acclaim (including from FAZ, Spiegel, and SRF Sternstunde Philosophie), reached number (…)

Our research group ComAI – Communicative Artificial Intelligence is represented at the international conference GenAI & Creative Practices: Past, Present, and Future, which will take place on 17–18 December 2025 at the University of Amsterdam. The conference brings together international scholars from media, cultural, social, and technology studies to discuss the social, political, and cultural (…)

On 25 November 2025, Prof. Dr. Taina Bucher (University of Oslo) visited ZeMKI as part of the ComAI Lectures. In her talk “Presenting AI: Slowing Down the Future”, she asked what gets lost when AI is imagined primarily as the engine of an ever faster, more efficient, and more “seamless” future: What disappears when everything (…)

On October 16, Jonah Wermter from Project 5, “ComAI and Journalism – The Automation of News and Journalistic Autonomy,” was invited to give a lecture as part of the SPIEGEL Group’s annual “AI Week.” In his presentation, Jonah spoke about the current state of research on AI in journalism, focusing particularly on patterns of appropriation (…)

Date: November 26, 2025 Time: 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Address: Rooseveltplatz 2, 1090 Vienna Location: Seminar Room 3 (Institute of Sociology) Link: Communicative AI and Digital Companionship Speakers: Michaela Pfadenhauer, Andrea Heisse, and Marvin Waibel (P7) Abstract: Within the DFG and FWF-funded research group FOR 5656 “ComAI: The Automation of Social Communication,” the Vienna-based (…)

On 11 and 12 November 2025, SFB 1265 “Re-Figuration of Spaces” and FOR 5656 “Communicative AI” hosted the joint workshop “Digital Infrastructures, Space and Communication” at Technische Universität Berlin, featuring keynote impulses by Martina Löw, Silke Steets, Andreas Hepp, and Hubert Knoblauch. The workshop centred on discussing different concepts of infrastructure within both research consortia, (…)

Filmreihe “Caring Democracies – Caring Technologies” in Graz The CIRAC (Center for Interdisciplinary Ageing and Care Research) at the University of Graz is organizing a film series in the winter semester on the theme “Caring Democracies – Caring Technologies.” It features films that explore how technologies are transforming the practices and policies of care in democracies. Who (…)

The CIRAC (Center for Interdisciplinary Ageing and Care Research) at the University of Graz is organizing a film series in the winter semester on the theme “Caring Democracies – Caring Technologies.” It features films that explore how technologies are transforming the practices and policies of care in democracies. Who assumes responsibility for sustainable and inclusive (…)

On November 10, 2025, the research group Communicative AI (ComAI) held its quarterly meeting at the Haus der Wissenschaft in Bremen. The focus was on an exchange with Prof. Dr. Andrea L. Guzman (Northern Illinois University), currently a visiting scholar at ZeMKI, as well as on planning the group’s joint publications for the coming year. (…)

Date: 25.11.2025 Time: 18:30 Street: Schnoor 27 Location: Bremer Presse-Club Abstract AI promises speed, efficiency, and seamless automation, yet in pursuing these ideals, we risk marginalizing practices and temporalities that matter: slowness, reflection, imperfection, and the capacity to linger. This talk reframes the conversation about AI futures by focusing not only on what is to come, but on what (…)