Am 1. Dezember 2023 findet der 2. imwk research|talk dieses Semesters statt, in dem Simone Natale, Associate Professor an der Universität Turin, über seine Forschung zu kommunikativer AI sprechen wird. Simone Natale ist einer der ausgewiesenen kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Experten in diesem Feld und hat nicht nur sein herausragendes Buch  Deceitful Media dazu verfasst, sondern auch verschiedene Publikationen, von Journal of Communication, bis zu Media, Culture & Society oder Communication Theory und anderen hochrangigen Outlets. Der Vortrag „Projecting Life onto Machines" findet von 11:45 bis 13:15 Uhr im Rahmen des Seminars „Hi Siri, was ist KI?" von Dr. habil. Christian Schwarzenegger in Raum D-2102 statt und alle Mitglieder der Fakultät sind herzlich eingeladen!

Abstract: 

Public discussions and imaginaries about AI often center around the idea that technologies such as neural networks might one day lead to the emergence of machines that think or even feel like humans. Drawing on histories of how people project lives onto talking things, from spiritualist seances in the Victorian era to contemporary advances in robotics, this talk argues that the “lives” of AI have more to do with how humans perceive and relate to machines exhibiting communicative behavior, than with the functioning of computing technologies in itself. Taking up this point of view helps acknowledge and further interrogate how perceptions and representations across different cultures inform the very outcome of technologies that are programmed to interact and communicate with human users.

About:

Simone Natale is Associate Professor at the University of Turin, Italy, and a Visiting Fellow at Loughborough University, UK, where he taught and researched from 2015 to 2020. He is the author of two monographs, most recently Deceitful Media: Artificial Intelligence and Social Life after the Turing Test (Oxford University Press, 2021), as well as articles published in journals including New Media and Society, Communication Theory, the Journal of Communication, Media, Culture & Society and Convergence. Since 2019, he is Assistant Editor of Media, Culture & Society