Two new col­leagues joined the RHET AI in Octo­ber: wel­come to the team Rafaela Pfeil and Fabi­an Erhardt. We met with them after they star­ted at RHET AI and got to know them a little bet­ter.
If you want to know what brings them to RHET AI, what they will be research­ing here and what kind of AI they would devel­op if they could, then stay tuned.
We are very much look­ing for­ward to work­ing with them!

So now Tübin­gen means more or less “back to the roots” for you. What is your role at RHET AI and in which unit are you based?

I will be con­duct­ing research in Unit 3 “Com­mu­nic­at­ive Com­pet­ence” as a doc­tor­al stu­dent on the top­ic of “Com­mu­nic­at­ive com­pet­ence train­ing in the field of AI”.

Ok, and what motiv­ates you for your research at RHET AI?

I dealt with sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion in both my Bachelor's and Master's theses, first with sci­ence PR at uni­ver­sit­ies and then with sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion in the con­text of a cul­tur­al-his­tor­ic­al museum. So, with RHET AI and its focus on sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion, I'm stay­ing true to my line 😊.
And arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence is excit­ing for sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion in sev­er­al respects, because on the one hand there is the ques­tion of how AI research is com­mu­nic­ated, but on the oth­er hand there is also the ques­tion of how AI can be used for sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion. Both ques­tions are import­ant to explore, in my opin­ion, giv­en the mix of uto­pi­an and dysto­pi­an vis­ions that are cir­cu­lat­ing about what AI is, what it can do and what AI will evolve into in the com­ing years.

What are you most look­ing for­ward to now dur­ing your time at RHET AI?

It may sound strange, but I'm actu­ally look­ing for­ward to aca­dem­ic work. On the one hand, because as a doc­tor­al stu­dent it cer­tainly involves dif­fer­ent things than dur­ing my stud­ies. Secondly, because I think I've gained a new per­spect­ive on some things after the change of scenery abroad.
I'm also look­ing for­ward to gain­ing insights into the vari­ous pro­jects at RHET AI and see­ing what the oth­er col­leagues are researching.

Assum­ing you weren't a rhet­or­ician, but were cur­rently work­ing on the devel­op­ment of an AI, what func­tions would it have? What could it do and where would its lim­its be?

I'd rather leave that to oth­ers who have good ideas and can imple­ment them technically. 😊

All right, then let's go back to your area of expert­ise: What does suc­cess­ful sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion look like for you? What ele­ments does it include?

I think suc­cess­ful sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion can look very dif­fer­ent and takes on very dif­fer­ent formats. For me, suc­cess­ful sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion primar­ily means meet­ing the tar­get group where they are. By “where they are”, I don't just mean the tar­get group's level of know­ledge, but also that the com­mu­nic­a­tion is adap­ted to the place or con­text in which the tar­get group encoun­ters the com­mu­nic­at­ive offer.
For me, good sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion not only includes suc­cess­ful res­ults, but also mak­ing the pro­cess behind them vis­ible, includ­ing chal­lenges and any unanswered ques­tions or uncer­tain­ties. In addi­tion, extern­al sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion should build bridges to the life­world of the address­ees or show why/for whom the research is relevant.

Thank you very much for your answers Rafaela and all the best for your start and your research here at RHET AI.

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That sounds very com­pat­ible with our research pro­gram. What exactly will be your task at RHET AI and in which unit are you located?

I am a part of Unit 3 and Unit 5. In Unit 3 I will sup­port the work­shop pro­gram, in Unit 5 I will try to link basic research in the human­it­ies with AI research topics.

What motiv­ates you for your research here at RHET AI?

That it is such a vibrant research insti­tu­tion, where “clas­sic­al” found­a­tions of human­it­ies research are just as rel­ev­ant as curi­os­ity about cut­ting-edge topics.

What are you par­tic­u­larly look­ing for­ward to dur­ing your time at RHET AI?

Get­ting to grips with new topics.

Anoth­er ques­tion for you: Assum­ing you were allowed to devel­op your own AI, what func­tions would it have?

I would devel­op an AI that would advise me on the best places and times to con­cen­trate today.

That sounds really use­ful. If we delve a little deep­er: What could this AI do and what might it expli­citly not be able to do?

Hmm. It couldn't do things for me that work optim­ally in the ana­log world.

Ok, back to rhet­or­ic: How does suc­cess­ful sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion look like to you?

Fas­cin­at­ing: con­vey­ing amazement.

And which ele­ments must it contain?

Curi­os­ity.

Thank you Fabi­an. All the best for your start here at RHET AI.