ComAI research unit on communicative artificial intelligence kicks off

At ZeMKI, the DFG/FWF research unit “ComAI” on the automation of social communication, which was acquired jointly with the Leibniz Institute for Media Research in Hamburg, the University of Graz and the University of Vienna, started on January 1, 2025.

Nine research projects plus a coordination project will investigate the question of how social communication changes when communicative AI becomes a part of it. The research unit is coordinated by ZeMKI (Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp) and HBI (Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen). Top researchers from the fields of media and communication studies, human-computer interaction, sociology of knowledge, governance research, and media law are involved.

“There are great fantasies about how artificial intelligence will change our society. In the ComAI research unit, we want to explore how AI is changing communication – not only in the present, but also what potential it holds for a different kind of future,” says Andreas Hepp, co-spokesperson of the DFG/FWF ComAI research unit.

Together, they pursue the common goal of systematically analyzing the transformation of social communication under the influence of artificial intelligence by investigating the consequences of its use in various social areas and the public discourse surrounding it. The research focuses on social pioneers, the development of interfaces, the legal handling of communicative AI, as well as that of companies, its role in journalism, in public (online) discourse, in personal everyday life through technological devices, in the health sector, as well as in learning and teaching.

Additionally, an innovative “ComAI Research Space” is being set up for the research unit – a shared research environment used by the participating institutions to create increased visibility for the research unit’s findings for decision-makers in various areas of society across all locations. The central focus here is the accompanying identification of possible future scenarios for the dissemination and impact assessment of automation processes on different levels of social communication.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is supporting the research unit “Communicative AI: The Automation of Social Communication” (“Kommunikative KI: Die Automatisierung der gesellschaftlichen Kommunikation”) in an initial funding phase for the years 2025 to 2028. In addition to Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp (ZeMKI, University of Bremen) and Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), the participating researchers are Prof. Dr. Rainer Malaka (TZI, University of Bremen), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach (ZeMKI, University of Bremen), Prof. Dr. Cornelius Puschmann (ZeMKI, University of Bremen), Dr. Gregor Wiedemann (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), Prof. Dr. Michaela Pfadenhauer (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. Juliane Jarke (University of Graz), and Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter (ifib/ZeMKI, University of Bremen).

Further information on the ComAI research unit can be found on its website.