The prevalence of speech assistants taking orders, social bots influencing debates, and machines generating texts underscores the increasing sophistication of automated communication. Simultaneously, public discourse on these phenomena reflects the ongoing challenges associated with the automation of communication. It seems that the intricacies of today’s complex societies compel a reliance on automation to meet communication needs, while also generating additional issues for which automated communication appears to be the most plausible solution.
Research in nine projects plus coordination project
The “Communicative AI“ Research Unit, funded by the DFG and the FWF, is investigating in nine projects and one coordination project how societal communication changes when communicative AI becomes part of it. Top researchers from the fields of media and communication studies, informatics, sociology and law are involved. The research focuses on pioneer communities, the development of interfaces, the legal handling and governance of communicative AI, its role in journalism, in public (online) discourse, in everyday personal life through technological companions, in the health sector and in learning and teaching.
From July 21 to 23, 2025, the first AI Lab of the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD) will take place in Münster. The aim of this new format is to bring together and further develop strategic and practice-oriented perspectives on the use of artificial intelligence in higher education. Also taking part is the ComAI project “Communicative AI (…)
In a recent guest article for the “Nachgefragt” section of APA-Science (Austria Presse Agentur), Juliane Jarke and Sara Skardelly explore key questions from their ComAI subproject “Health: Care Work through Communicative AI” at the University of Graz. The article addresses a profound shift in how society perceives aging and health: aging is increasingly seen as (…)
Our research unit Communicative AI: Researching the Automation of Societal Communication (DFG/FWF Research Unit RU 5656) is presenting itself with a new visual identity. At the center is a newly developed logo that combines the name “ComAI” with graphic elements evoking digital infrastructures and communicative networks. As part of this relaunch, the ComAI website has (…)
The ComAI sub-project “Everyday Life and Communicative AI Companionship” (P7) will be represented at two international conferences in July 2025. Marvin Waibel, Andrea Heisse, and Michaela Pfadenhauer will present their methodological and empirical work on AI-based companions. The project explores how forms of digital companionship are being reshaped by artificial intelligence – particularly at the (…)
On September 30, 2025 at 10:00 a.m., the workshop “Protocols and Intellectual Landscapes of AI” will take place in the meeting room of ZeMKI (Linzer Str. 4, Bremen) as part of the ComAI Lectures series. Abstract: The workshop aims to explore the concepts of “protocological governance” and “intellectual landscape”, and their interconnectedness. “Protocological governance” seeks (…)
Paula Goerke, Veronika Graceva and Andreas Breiter will be presenting two papers at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Belgrade from September 9 to 12, 2025. The presentation on “Journeys of Policy Papers: Institutional Guidelines for ComAI in German Higher Education” deals critically with the methodological approach via data journeys to analyze the (…)
How is the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) envisioned – and who shapes these visions? A new article published in the Journal of Science Communication investigates this question, co-authored by Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach, principal investigator of ComAI’s “Governance” project. The study examines how key societal stakeholders – including actors from politics, industry, academia, media, (…)
In June 2025, a new interdisciplinary network was launched within the context of the ComAI sub-project Higher Education: “AI meets Qualitative Methods” (AIQM) brings together researchers interested in critically and practically exploring the role of artificial intelligence in qualitative research. The initiative emerged from the observation that while AI tools – from structuring interviews to (…)
The ComAI sub-project “Interfaces” is represented at the ACM Conversational User Interfaces Conference 2025 with two paper presentations and a workshop. The international conference, taking place from July 8–10 in Waterloo (Canada), is one of the leading venues for research on conversational AI, voice interfaces, and human–machine interaction. Users as Active Co-Designers of Voice Interfaces (…)
A new article by ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp has been published in taz – die tageszeitung. Titled “Expo in Osaka: Wooden Ring Instead of Crystal Ball”, the piece examines the range of future scenarios presented at Expo 2025 – from AI-driven life narratives to grassroots sustainability initiatives. The central question: What kinds of (…)
From June 25 to 27, 2025, Sara Skardelly and Leonie Winterpacht participated in the international Transforming Care Conference at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The conference brought together researchers and practitioners to discuss transformations in care and caregiving in the face of social and technological change. In their presentation titled “Who cares? Contesting anticipations about (…)
As part of this year’s SENOvation Styria event, Sara Skardelly and Leonie Winterpacht presented initial insights from the ComAI sub-project “health: Caring through ComAI”, led by Juliane Jarke. The event took place on June 23, 2025, at the Medical Science City Graz and the Medical University of Graz, bringing together professionals and researchers from the (…)
24. June 2025
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp
ZeMKI, Center for Media, Communication and Information Research
University of Bremen
Universität Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67620
Sekretariat (Ms. Schmidt): +49 421 218-67606
E-mail: andreas.hepp@uni-bremen.de