New lecture series at ZeMKI: ComAI Lectures

The hype surrounding ChatGPT has brought it to the attention of the general public: Communicative AI – the spread of generative AI for the purpose of communication – is becoming increasingly widespread. But what exactly does it mean when machines become part of human communication relationships? How is social communication changing as a result? To what extent are the digital infrastructures of communicative AI a challenge for the environment and climate? What new types of human work will emerge with communicative AI – and which professions may disappear? What does all this mean for human practice and how is governance of communicative AI possible?

These are the questions we want to discuss together with international experts at the University of Bremen. The following speakers have been invited:

– November 21, 2023
Prof Dr Julia Velkova (Linköping University, Sweden):
“Greening the cloud: data and energy entanglements in friction”
18.00-20.00, Rotunde, Cartesium (also part of the FB9 sustainability lecture)

– November 28, 2023
Prof Dr Nick Couldry (LSE, Great Britain):
“AI as Knowledge Capture and Colonial Landgrab”
18.00-20.00, Rotunde, Cartesium

– December 05, 2023
Prof Dr David Gunkel (Northern Illinois University, USA)
“The Relational Turn: A Techno-Ethics for the 21st Century and Beyond”
18.00-20.00, SFG 1040

– 16 January 2024
Dr Arne Hintz (Cardiff University, United Kingdom):
“Deciding about Communicative AI: Governance, Participation and Social Justice”
18.00-20.00, Rotunde, Cartesium (also part of the FB9 Sustainability Lecture)

– January 30, 2024
Prof Dr Petter Bae Brandtzaeg (University of Oslo, Norway)
“The Future of Free Speech in an AI-Driven Society”
18.00-20.00, SFG 1040

We invite the interested public to attend the lecture series to discuss the socially highly relevant topic of Communicative Artificial Intelligence. The events will be held in English. All experts will be present in person in Bremen. If you are unable to attend in person for any reason, you have the option to participate online. To receive the access link, please write to: yoezer@uni-bremen.de.

For more information, please visit our website: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zemki/events/comai-lectures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job advertisement Research Assistant in the ZeMKI lab “Datafication and Mediatization”

We are looking for a new staff member (f/m/d) with enthusiasm for communication and media studies and with a special interest in research on media use and digital media practices. We invite you to join us in a highly engaged team that addresses the multiple forms of recent media change at all levels (including automation and datafication of communication, pioneer communities, communicative figurations in different social domains, communicative artificial intelligence). In our research we rely on innovative combinations of qualitative and quantitative as well as digital methods and also develop new research software ourselves. In this context, too, we look forward to your perspectives and willingness to contribute.

Application deadline is the 27.11.2023

You can find more information about the tasks here.

 

New handbook chapter: The interdisciplinarity of HMC: Rethinking communication, media, and agency

Network members Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp and Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen published the article “The interdisciplinarity of HMC: Rethinking communication, media, and agency” in the SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication. 

The article covers the following topics:

This chapter describes the study of human-machine-communication (HMC) as inherently interdisciplinary. This interdisciplinarity is significant in several ways: When considering interdisciplinarity’s scope, there exist narrow forms of correspondence with neighboring disciplines in media and communication studies as do broader connections with more diverse disciplines such as computer science. In regard to the types of interdisciplinarity, it must be taken into account that HMC already represents an interdisciplinary phenomenon for whose investigation the methodological and theoretical integration of approaches from different disciplines persists. When it comes to the goals of interdisciplinarity, HMC aims both at fundamental research (the so- called “epistemological orientation” of interdisciplinarity) and the application of this research, such as the development of “socio-compatible” communicative AI and communicative robots (the so-called “instrumental orientation” of interdisciplinarity). HMC’s requirement for cross-compatible approaches becomes most apparent when one keeps in mind that communicative AI and communicative robots challenge the three crucial foundational concepts of media and communication studies: communication, media, and agency. It is only through an interdisciplinary approach that the possibility of rethinking these concepts is solidified in the building of purposeful foundations for empirical research.

To the article

 

New article: The lab, the space and the meetup: locating technological experimentation in everyday lifeNew article:

The article by Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp was published on 20 June in the Journal of Science Communication and is entitled: “The lab, the space and the meetup: locating technological experimentation in everyday life”

The article analyzes the role digital pioneer communities play in the localization of everyday technological experimentation based on three sites of practice: the lab, the space, and the meetup. Taking a historical view, it begins with a reconstruction of Stewart Brand’s popularization of the lab discourse. On this basis, the space in the Maker movement as well as the meetup in the Quantified Self and Hacks/Hackers movements is investigated, finally arriving at a reflection on the dynamics that come and go between them. While the article is primarily a conceptual contribution, its arguments are grounded in an extensive media ethnography.

To the article

Network meeting in October 2023

The next network meeting of the research network “Communicative Figurations” will take place on 5 and 6 October. Interested researchers are cordially invited to participate. 

 

The network is based on joint theoretical work in which researchers from Germany and other locations in Europe exchange ideas against the background of their individual research in the network. The aim is to further develop the theoretical framework of communicative figurations. The network meeting will also focus on an examination of communicative artificial intelligence (AI).

If you are interested in participating and contributing to the network, please contact Andreas Hepp.