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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.

Forschungsgruppe ComAI

Job Opening: Research Associate (f/m/d) in the Research Unit “Communicative AI”

At the University of Bremen, the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) is seeking to fill, starting at the earliest on 01st January 2026, a position as Research Associate (f/m/d). Pay group 13 TV-L, full-time (39.2 hours per week), limited to 36 months (in accordance with § 2 WissZeitVG) for the development of (…)

KI-Lab zu Anwendungsfällen und (strategischen) Perspektiven für KI an Hochschulen

AI in Higher Education: Insights into Current Challenges and Perspectives

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 (…)

P8 | Gesundheit: Care durch kommunikative KI

Guest Article on ComAI Project Featured in APA’s “Nachgefragt” Series

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 (…)

ComAI-Grafik

A New Look for ComAI: Logo, Website Design and Visual Identity

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 (…)

P7 | Persönlicher Alltag: Begleitung und kommunikative KI

ComAI Sub-Project on AI Companions Featured at Two International Conferences

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 (…)

ComAI Lectures Workshop mit Nathan Schneider und Johannes Bennke

Workshop on protocols and intellectual landscapes of AI, with Prof. Dr. Nathan Schneider and Dr. Johannes Bennke 

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 (…)

ECER 2025 in Belgrad

Two contributions at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) on ComAI in Education

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 (…)

Paper Negotiating AI(s) futures

New Publication Explores Global AI Imaginaries

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, (…)

Teilprojekt "Education"

New Network Launched: “AI meets Qualitative Methods”

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 (…)

CUI Konferenz 2025

ComAI at the ACM Conversational User Interfaces Conference 2025

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 (…)

Osaka Expo 2025

Andreas Hepp on Visions of the Future at Expo 2025 in Osaka

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 (…)

Funded by DFG (German Research Foundation)FWF Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds

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

Uni BremenZeMKI Uni BremenLeibniz Instituts für Medienforschung | Hans Bredow InstitutUni GrazUni GrazUni Wien