News

The sociological research practice on communicative AI and artificial companionship at the Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, is entering its second semester. In this two-semester bachelor’s course, students investigate a wide range of questions related to AI companions. The course is led by ComAI members Michaela Pfadenhauer, Andrea Heisse, and Marvin Waibel. While the (…)

The Working Group on Digital Sociology of the International Sociological Association held its third “Work-in-Progress” workshop on March 18–19, 2026. The workshop offered the opportunity to present draft articles and engage in text-based discussions. ComAI member Marvin Waibel presented his manuscript, “AI Companions and the Communicative Construction of Agency.” The talk emphasized the need to (…)

The 71st Annual Conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) takes place from March 18 to 20, 2026 at TU Dortmund University under the theme #Science #Communication #Democracy. Members of the research group „ComAI – Communicative AI“ contribute numerous presentations, bringing perspectives from the Research Space as well as subprojects P1, P4, P5, and P6 (…)

Members of the ComAI subproject 3, Jonathan Nörz, Moritz Wiechert and Wolfgang Schulz, have published the blog post “Are we underestimating the communicative nature of the AI Act?”, which examines the EU’s AI legislation and argues that it introduces a distinct regulatory layer for communicative AI tools. The blog post discusses the regulation of AI-based (…)

Members of the ComAI subproject 3, Jonathan Nörz and Wolfgang Schulz, have published the blog post “Are we underestimating the communicative nature of the AI Act?”, which examines the EU’s AI legislation and argues that it introduces a distinct regulatory layer for communicative AI tools. The blog post discusses the regulation of AI-based communication systems (…)

On February 3, 2026, Andreas Breiter, Paula Goerke, Veronika Graceva, and Jule Jensen will present their hybrid-format lecture entitled “AI in Higher Education: Perspectives from Germany on Policies, Student Well-Being, and Datafication” at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) from 4 to 5 p.m. This presentation explores the current landscape of Al implementation (…)

The Leibniz Media Lecture by legal scholar Prof. Dr. Philipp Hacker, LL. M. (Yale), on January 28 was a double premiere: Not only was it the first Media Lecture organized by the ComAI research group, but it was also the first public event held in the new premises of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research (…)

A new article by ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp is being published as open access in a thematic issue of the International Journal of Communication (IJoC), edited by Christian Pentzold and Charlotte Knorr. The article, titled “Curating AI Into Being: Hacks/Hackers as Amplifiers of Journalism’s Digital Futures,” analyzes how the Hacks/Hackers network actively shapes the role of artificial (…)

As part of a workshop and an evening ComAI Lecture, media and communication scholar Mirca Madianou visited ZeMKI in Bremen. Across both formats, she presented and discussed key insights from her long-term research on digital technologies in humanitarian contexts, with a particular focus on power asymmetries, infrastructures, and the ethical implications of technological interventions. The (…)

Together, Rebecca Scharlach, CJ Reynolds, Vasilisa Kuznetsova, Blake Hallinan and Christian Katzenbach worked on a paper on value-driven AI governance. Here you can find the available preprint. About the paper: Values are omnipresent in AI regulation. State actors and AI companies alike emphasize commitments to values such as fairness and safety. Despite this seeming agreement, (…)

The current season of the podcast “Confirm Humanity – Epochenbruch”, produced by and released on Freies Radio Salzkammergut, is dedicated to key questions of digital transformation. Across five elaborately produced radio features, experts from different disciplines discuss the present-day epochal shift brought about by digitalization and explore how human interests, societal values, and democratic principles (…)

Our Fellowship Program invites international researchers to Bremen for four weeks to deepen and connect their research in the transformation of media, communication, and information. We are looking for established scholars who want to enjoy the thriving interdisciplinary research environment at ZeMKI. Disciplines include media and communication studies, computer science, film studies, educational science, studies (…)