Artificial intelligence (AI) poses enormous social, cultural, and ethical challenges. This raises a number of pressing questions with regards to how (self-)learning systems work and can be used, the risks and opportunities of AI, what interaction between intelligent systems really means, and how automated decision-making systems can alter public discourses.
While research in the field is advancing rapidly, the prospect of widespread AI-based technologies has not only been met with enthusiasm. In fact, the current social debate has also revealed widespread skepticism, doubt, and fear. At the same time, German and European policymakers are only beginning to discuss approaches to regulating AI research and applications.
To examine these and related issues, the University of Tübingen has established the Center for Rhetorical Science Communication Research on Artificial Intelligence (RHET AI). The RHET AI Center is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation within its funding portfolio Science Communication Cubed.
Under the direction of Prof. Olaf Kramer of the University of Tübingen’s Rhetoric Department, experts from different departments, fields of research, and institutions will collaborate in joint research units. Involved are the Rhetoric Department and the Institute of Media Studies at the University of Tübingen, the Chair of Science Communication with a focus on Linguistics (Department of Science Communication) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, researchers from the Excellence Cluster Machine Learning and Cyber Valley, Europe’s largest AI research consortium, as well as our practice partner Wissenschaft im Dialog in Berlin