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Credibility of communicative AI

Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz (Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien IWM & Eberhard Karls University Tübingen)

• Date: 14. January 2025
• Time: 18:30
• Street: Schnoor 27
• Location: Bremer Presse-Club

Abstract

Language-based agents such as chatbots, voice assistants, and more recently, large language models, have become common tools for information retrieval. Assessing the quality of the information provided by these agents is crucial. This talk presents insights from several studies examining how the conversational nature of interacting with communicative AI affects credibility judgments and which psychological processes, such as perceived social presence, are involved.

Bio

Since March 2022, Sonja Utz has been head of the Everyday Media lab. From April 2013 to March 2022, she led the Junior Research Group Social Media at the IWM.
Since April 2014, she has also been Professor for communication via social media at the University of Tübingen. Together with her team, she studies the use of social and mobile media for knowledge acquisition and exchange, both in informal (e.g., “How to…” videos on YouTube) and professional settings (e.g., LinkedIn, ResearchGate). In addition, she works on algorithm acceptance and human-machine-communication. Sonja Utz has secured several prestigious grants. She brought a ERC grant to Tübingen and was successful in the Excellence Initiative.
Sonja Utz studied psychology at the Catholic University of Eichstätt from 1991 to 1996, where she also earned her PhD in 1999. Her PhD thesis focused on social identification with virtual communities. Financed by a DFG-grant, she worked as PostDoc at the VU University Amsterdam, Department of Social Psychology. After 2.5 years at the Chemnitz University of Technology, she returned to VU University Amsterdam, this time to the Department of Communication Science. From 2011 to 2013, she also worked part-time as Associate professor for social media and reputation management at NHL Leeuwarden.