NEW FORMS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION WITH INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS

Welcome to our website which informs about past and ongoing interdisciplinary project investigating our various social interactions with artificial systems, focusing on theoretical and ethical questions arising from the most recent technological advances. From 2021 - 2024 the first phase of this RUB-specific research profile area was funded generously by the State of Northrhine Westfalia. The first phase featured six PIs and six Postdoctoral Researchers from the Humanities, engaged in individual and cross-disciplinary research projects. The second phase is characterized by an expansion of the profile area into further disciplines and is aiming at generating new major collaborations.

Changes in our interaction with each other via social media and with AI systems pose a central challenge for modern society. Messenger services, chatbots, robot co-workers: Our everyday interactions are no longer limited to human beings. Which changes does this development bring about? How do we shape and manage them? And what are the risks and opportunities that come along with it? Our interdisciplinary research group combining humanities, social, and behavioral sciences at Ruhr University Bochum addresses these questions.
Language assistants, chatbots, and social media increasingly affect our social interaction. What are the core principles guiding personal human-human interaction, and how are they changed by increased communication via social media? On the one hand, it fosters one-sided information (filter bubbles), fake news, and conspiracy theories; on the other hand, it opens up new possibilities for shaping social relationships and for maintaining social groups (families and friends) over long distances.
Similar challenges are to be expected for our social interaction with intelligent AI systems. Which stance should we take towards them? Simply transferring the principles of human-human interaction to this case would create the risk of inadequately anthropomorphizing machines. Even though AI systems are becoming increasingly autonomous – no longer remaining rigidly programmed machines – which can even simulate emotions, they are still to be distinguished from sentient human beings. How could we best shape and steer the interaction and cooperation between human beings and AI systems in pedagogical and work contexts?