ComAI Quarterly Meeting with Mercator Fellow Axel Bruns
On 28 May 2026, the ComAI research group gathered for its quarterly meeting at the Haus der Wissenschaft in Bremen. The highlight of the event was an open talk by Mercator Fellow Axel Bruns, who, together with Katherine M. FitzGerald and further co-authors, has published the article “Just Asking Questions”: Doing Our Own Research on Conspiratorial Ideation by Generative AI Chatbots in the journal Media and Communication. The study examines how seven AI-powered chatbots respond to queries about nine conspiracy theories, adapting the “Platform Policy Implementation Audit” approach with a “casually curious” user persona.
The presentation was followed by a lively discussion with the research group, covering methodological questions around the systematic testing of AI models, the role of safety guardrails, and the prospects for standardised evaluation procedures given the rapid pace of model development. There was broad agreement that it is currently more productive to first understand the general patterns of AI systems as non-human actors in the public sphere, rather than prematurely developing rigid frameworks.
Beyond the guest talk, the meeting’s agenda included the research design for the cross-country comparison, updates from the Research Areas, and the planning of upcoming events, among them the ComAI Week in October and a conference in November 2026.
2. June 2026
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp
ZeMKI, Center for Media, Communication and Information Research
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67620
Assistent Mrs. Schober: +49 421 218-67603
E-mail: andreas.hepp@uni-bremen.de
