We are delighted to welcome a new Journalist-in-Residence (JIR) to Tübingen on October 1: Award-winning journalist and author Christoph Koch will begin his three-month research stay in October as part of the Journalist-in-Residence Programm run by Cyber Valley and RHET AI. As a columnist and tech reporter, he writes for the business magazine brand eins and as a freelance author for SZ-Magazin, Die ZEIT, and GEO, among others. In his books, including "Ich bin dann mal offline" (I'm going offline), he explores the impact of technology on life and society.
Buddy, Therapist, Romance – Opportunities and Risks of Emotional Interaction with AI
Christoph Koch examines the extent to which AI systems can act as emotional partners—between alleviating loneliness, creating new dependencies, and raising ethical questions. He is interested in the risks and opportunities inherent in emotional interactions with AI.
"The first instinct is often to see it as inauthentic and somewhat regrettable when people pour out their hearts to an AI chatbot. But didn’t we think similarly 10 or 20 years ago about couples who met online? Could emotional exchange with AI become just as normalized as online dating?"
Kick-off presentation:
📅 On October 8, Christoph Koch will present his planned research project.
🕰️ Start at 5:30 p.m.
📍MPI-IS Lecture Hall, Tübingen
We are warmly inviting everyone interested! Register here.
What is the Journalist-in-Residence-Programm?
The Journalist-in-Residence Programm (JIR) run by Cyber Valley and the RHET AI Center is aimed at experienced journalists who want to research intelligent systems and the relationship between journalism and AI. During their stay, they gain insights into current developments in machine learning, computer vision, and robotics, as well as access to research at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the University of Tübingen, and the University of Stuttgart.
The program is a collaboration between Cyber Valley and the Center for Rhetorical Science Communication on Artificial Intelligence (RHET AI) and is funded by the VolkswagenStiftung. Since its launch in 2021, it has established itself as an integral part of the public engagement activities of Cyber Valley and the RHET AI Center.
"I recommend the application for everyone who is willing to dive deep into the research on intelligent systems – and at the same time work in a city, that pays close attention to these developments", says data journalist Christina Elmer, who was Journalist-in-Residence in 2021 and is now Germanys first professor for data journalism at the Technischen Universität Dortmund. Since the pilot project of 2021, the JIR-program has been established as a fixed part of the strategic direction of Cyber Valley public engagement. Other former Journalists-in-Residence include Julia Merlot of Spiegel, Bettina Friedrich of MDR, the free journalist Tobias Asmuth, data journalist Elena Riedlinger of WDR, Anna Henschel of wissenschaftskommunikation.de and Willem de Haan of MDR.
The RHET AI Center and Cyber Valley warmly welcome Christoph Koch to the current round of the Journalist-in-Residence program and wish him a successful research endeavor!
