transformativ – Sharing Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence

Maya Indira Ganesh

Maya Indira Ganesh is Associate Director (Research Culture & Partnerships), co-director of the Narratives and Justice Program, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI). From October 2021- July 2024 she was an assistant teaching professor at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) where she co-directed the MSt in AI Ethics and Society run jointly between ICE and CFI. Maya has masters degrees in Psychology, and in Media and Cultural Studies, and a Drphil in Cultural Studies. Her doctoral work took the case of the ‘ethics of autonomous driving’ to study the implications of ethical decision-making proposed by algorithmic/AI technologies for human social and spatial relations. Her monograph based on this work, Auto-Correct: The Fantasies and Failures of AI, Ethics, and the Driverless Car was published in March 2025

Şebnem Yardımcı-Geyikçi

Şebnem Yardımcı-Geyikçi is a political scientist and research group leader at the Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE), University of Bonn, where she founded and leads the interdisciplinary group AI, Politics, and Power. Formerly a tenured Associate Professor at Hacettepe University, she specializes in the political and institutional implications of digital technologies, particularly AI, with a broader focus on democratic backsliding, party politics, and state-society relations. A recipient of the BAGEP Young Scientist Award and former Fulbright and NIAS Fellow, her work appears in journals such as Government and Opposition, Party Politics, and Democratization. Her co-authored book The Comparative Politics of AI is forthcoming with Springer Nature.

Sven Hilbig

Sven Hilbig ist Digitalisierungsexperte bei Brot für die Welt. Gemeinsam mit Partnern aus dem Globalen Süden engagiert er sich gegen neue Formen des Kolonialismus. Zuvor arbeitete er bei der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung zu verschiedenen Themen an der Schnittstelle von Ökonomie und Ökologie (2007-2012). Von 2001 bis 2006 war er als Researcher und Rechtsberater für die brasilianische Menschenrechtsorganisation Global Justice, in Rio de Janeiro, tätig. Er publiziert regelmäßig in den Blättern für deutsche und internationale Politik. Er studierte Rechtswissenschaft in Freiburg und Berlin.

Mike S. Schäfer

Mike S. Schäfer is Professor of Science Communication and, since 2020, Director of the Institute for Communication Science and Media Research at the University of Zurich (IKMZ). He is also Director of the university’s Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies. His work focuses on AI and science communication, climate communication and digital media.

Science Communication Meets AI: What We Know, What We Don’t

Generative AI is increasingly shaping how science is communicated—by researchers, institutions, news and social media—and how it is perceived by the public. This talk presents a research-based overview from the field of communication science, synthesizing current evidence on how AI tools are being used, how they influence content and audience engagement, and what structural divides are emerging. It highlights where robust insights exist, where knowledge gaps remain, and what this means for the future of science communication in an AI-saturated environment.

Dan Verständig

Dan Verständig is Professor of Education in the Digital World / Media Education at the Technical University of Berlin. His research and teaching combine media education, educational theory and critical technology research. The focus is on how digital technologies – in particular algorithms, data and software – can be hacked, deconstructed and used to explore learning and educational processes. His work navigates the tension between social inequality, subjectification processes and creative ways of dealing with digital technologies. It is about an educational positioning that not only teaches technologies, but also makes their cultural, political and epistemic dimensions visible.

In/valuable code: Critical Computational Literacy at the Edge of Interface and Infrastructure

How can we think about digital technologies without becoming uncritically entangled in them and without merely using them? There is no doubt that digital technologies are far more than just tools. They are inscribed into social relations, shaping values, perception, and communication. Starting from perspectives in philosophy of education, this keynote develops an approach that connects technical understanding with social reflection and creative agency. Critical Computational Literacy is framed here as a reflexive practice operating at the intersection of interface and infrastructure. It seeks to interrogate and deconstruct digital technologies as socially embedded formations, expose the ideologically charged logics within them, and unsettle dominant technological imaginaries in order to make space for alternative ways of knowing, relating, and acting.

Dr. Diana Knodel

Dr. Diana Knodel ist eine führende Pionierin im Bereich EdTech und hat die Plattform fobizz gegründet, die Lehrkräfte und Schulen mit digitalen Tools und KI-Lösungen für den Unterricht unterstützt. Als promovierte Informatikerin mit einem Fokus auf Pädagogische Psychologie verbindet sie fundiertes technisches Wissen mit pädagogischen Ansätzen, um die digitale Transformation im Bildungswesen voranzutreiben. Sie ist Autorin zahlreicher Kinderbücher zu den Themen Coding und Künstliche Intelligenz und zählt zu den gefragten Speakerinnen auf nationalen und internationalen Kongressen. Ihre Arbeit wurde mehrfach ausgezeichnet, unter anderem vom Hamburger Senat für besonderes Engagement und als Zukunftsmacherin durch den Business Insider. fobizz erhielt den nationalen KfW Gründer Award und war Finalist beim Deutschen Gründerpreis.

Drei Jahre Künstliche Intelligenz im Klassenzimmer – Wo stehen wir heute?

Aktuelle Zahlen und Fakten zu Künstlicher Intelligenz in Schulen

Im Jahr 2025 blicken wir auf drei Jahre zurück, in denen KI-Systeme wie ChatGPT das Bildungssystem verändert haben. Während viele Schulen bereits KI-gestützte Lehr- und Lernmethoden nutzen, stehen andere noch am Anfang. In diesem Impuls erfahren Sie, welche Erfolge erzielt wurden und wie Schulen und Schulleitungen von maßgeschneiderten KI-Lösungen profitieren können. Wir präsentieren aktuelle Daten und praktische Beispiele, die zeigen, wie KI in Schule und Unterricht genutzt wird. Außerdem werfen wir einen Blick in die Zukunft: Welche Entwicklungen sind zu erwarten? Wie können sich Schulen auf kommende Herausforderungen vorbereiten und die Potenziale von KI optimal nutzen?
Bild: ©Constanze FlammeKatrin_Schoening

Katta Spiel

Katta Spiel is Assistant Professor for “Critical Access in Embodied Computing” at the Human Computer Interaction Group of TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology). Katta’s research focus is access to technology from marginalized perspectives in order to inform design and engineering in critical ways. Collaborations with neurodivergent, deaf, and/or nonbinary peers have led to explorations of novel potentials for designs, methodological developments in human-machine interaction and innovative technological artefacts. Katta is currently involved in the project ACCESSTECH together with the Crip Collective as part of an ERC Starting Grant. Since January 2025, Katta has been serving as a member of the national monitoring committee in Austria for the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Improbable in a World Dominated by Probabilities: Queer Perspectives of AI

Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning are all buzzwords of an increasingly digitized world. However, the underlying algorithms function on the basis of prior assumptions, based on data which in turn is designed to predict probabilities. But what does this mean for people who are considered improbable simply from a statistical perspective? How do we negotiate nonbinary genders or disabilities when designing and developing technologies? What are the consequences for our society if the only thing that applies is what we are able to map in databases? And how does this change the meaning of the term “human”?

Dr. Theresa Züger

Theresa Züger is an interdisciplinary researcher in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). She heads the AI & Society Lab at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, an interdisciplinary interface for new research approaches and knowledge transfer in the field of AI. In the Public Interest AI project, Züger researched the principles and criteria that characterise AI projects oriented towards the public interest. Together with her research team, she developed AI prototypes such as an application to simplify online texts for greater accessibility on the internet and a fact-checking tool to combat disinformation. Theresa Züger also worked in the international project Women* in the Tech Sector on intersectional issues relating to equal rights for women* in the technology sector. Previously, she headed the office of the Third Engagement Report of the Federal Government on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). In 2017, Theresa received her doctorate from the Humboldt University of Berlin in the Department of Media Studies with a thesis on ‘Digital Civil Disobedience’.

How can AI serve the common good?

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly credited with the function of being able to contribute to solving social problems and even serving the common good. This presentation will shed light on whether and how AI lives up to this claim. On the one hand, a basic definition for this is introduced, and on the other hand, existing practical examples are examined. Theresa Züger will provide insight into her recent research on AI for the common good and address how using AI for the common good is both conceivable and feasible.

Jasmin Grimm

Jasmin Grimm is a German-Algerian artistic director and consultant for international cultural projects. Since 2021 she is Artistic Director of NEW NOW Festival and Stiftung Zollverein with a focus on digital arts. She co-founded Rosy DX – studio for digitality where she conceives exhibitions, festivals, conferences and workshops at the intersection of art, society and technology.
She has directed programmes at NRW-Forum, Goethe Institut, Bitkom, Kompetenzzentrum Kultur- & Kreativwirtschaft des Bundes, Retune Festival, Public Art Lab, TINCON teenage internetwork convention. She has been a programme consultant for Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Futurium, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen and re:publica “Arts & Culture” 2017-2019.
She teaches at various institutions, like Humboldt University Berlin, University of the Arts Berlin and FH Potsdam. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of the Arts (Communication in Social and Economic contexts).
Bild: ©Constanze Flamme

Prof. Dr. Simone Natale

Simone Natale is Associate Professor in Media Theory and History at the University of Turin, Italy, and an Editor of the journal Media, Culture & Society. He is the author of numerous publications including his monograph Deceitful Media: Artificial Intelligence and Social Life after the Turing Test (Oxford University Press, 2021), which has been translated into Chinese, Italian, and Portuguese, and over 50 peer-reviewed research articles. He has worked as expert on AI for leading international institutions and projects such as the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and the Brookings Institution’s Global Task Force on AI in Education.

Projecting life onto machines

Public discussions about AI often stress the idea that technologies such as generative AI might lead to the emergence of machines that think and 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 AI, this talk argues that the alleged intelligence of machines has also to do with how humans perceive and relate to machines exhibiting communicative behavior. Taking up this point of view helps reframe AI as technologies that build a convincing illusion of intelligence. The emergence of generative AI should be seen not much as the creation of intelligent machines, but rather of technologies that can be perceived by humans as such.

Annette Leßmöllmann

Annette Leßmöllmann ist Linguistin, Kognitionswissenschaftlerin und Wissenschaftsjournalistin. Seit 2013 hat sie die Professur für Wissenschaftskommunikation mit dem Schwerpunkt Linguistik am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) inne. Sie forscht und lehrt über Wissenschaftskommunikation als medienvermittelte kommunikative Handlung – auch zwischen Mensch und generativer KI. Sie ist Unit Head der „discourse and narrative unit“ im RHET AI Center und untersucht die Narrative der KI-Darstellung – und wie diese dazu führen können, zentrale Fragen rund um KI zu vernachlässigen. Ihre weiteren Schwerpunkte sind u.a. die sprachliche (De-)Polarisierung, die Wirkung fiktionaler Klimaerzählungen, nicht-erreichte Zielgruppen in der Wissenschaftskommunikation und die strategische Hochschulkommunikation. Sie ist 2. stellvertretende Vorsitzende des Hörfunkrats von Deutschlandradio sowie Co-Herausgeberin der Plattform wissenschaftskommunikation.de.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Udo Di Fabio

Prof. Dr. Dr. Udo Di Fabio, geb. 1954 in Walsum, verheiratet, 4 Kinder, wohnhaft in Bonn.

1970 – 1980 Kommunalverwaltungsbeamter bei der Stadt Dinslaken; 1982 Erstes Juristisches Staatsexamen; 1985 Zweites Juristisches Staatsexamen; 1985 – 1986 Richter beim Sozialgericht Duisburg; 1987 Promotion Rechtswissenschaften; 1990 Promotion Sozialwissenschaften; 1993 Habilitation Rechtswissenschaften an der Universität Bonn; 1993–2003 Professuren an den Universitäten Münster, Trier, München; 1999 – 2011 Richter des Bundesverfassungsgerichts; seit 2003 an der Universität Bonn; seit 2006 Mitglied der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste; seit 2017 Direktor des Forschungskollegs normative Gesellschaftsgrundlagen (FnG) in Bonn.

Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl): Coronabilanz: Lehrstunde der Demokratie (2021); Die Weimarer Verfassung. Aufbruch und Scheitern (2018); Herrschaft und Gesellschaft (2018); Urheberrecht und Kunstfreiheit unter digitalen Verwertungsbedingungen (2018); Weltwirkung der Reformation (2017); Grundrechtsgeltung in digitalen Systemen (2016); Schwankender Westen (2015); Wachsende Wirtschaft und steuernder Staat (2010); Gewissen, Glaube, Religion (2. Aufl. 2009); Die Kultur der Freiheit (2005); Die Staatsrechtslehre und der Staat (2003); Das Recht offener Staaten. Grundlinien einer Staats- und Rechtstheorie (1998); Risikoentscheidungen im Rechtsstaat (Habilitation Rechtswissenschaften 1994); Offener Diskurs und geschlossene Systeme (Promotion Sozialwissenschaften 1990); Rechtsschutz im parlamentarischen Untersuchungsverfahren (Promotion Rechtswissenschaften 1987).