Making sense of our connected world
Social Media Councils: An effective means of holding digital platforms accountable?
Social Media Councils may align public values with platform governance if platform economic incentives are taken into account.
Caring about privacy but accepting cookies? Questioning the privacy paradox.
Why do we agree to privacy agreements like Cookies way faster and consider them less online than offline? Let’s explore the Privacy Paradox!
Content Moderation – What can stay, what must go?
How can rules for algorithmic content moderation in Social Networks look like? This guest article by Alexandra Borchardt examines researcher’s suggestions.
Digital Ethics
Whether civil society, politics or science – everyone seems to agree that the New Twenties will be characterised by digitalisation. But what about the tension of digital ethics? How do we create a digital transformation involving society as a whole, including people who either do not have the financial means or the necessary know-how to benefit from digitalisation? And what do these comprehensive changes in our actions mean for democracy? In this dossier we want to address these questions and offer food for thought on how we can use digitalisation for the common good.
A lion for sustainable AI: How to support a new standard for sustainability reporting?
The Sustainability of AI is missing proper standards. The EU’s CSRD is a reporting tool that might be a new directive. But is it a toothless paper tiger or a sharp lion?
Sustainable AI – How environmentally friendly is AI really?
Sustainable AI is becoming increasingly important. But how sustainable are AI models really? And what recommendations can be made? Read about our investigations of small-scale AI projects.
AI as a flying blue brain? How metaphors influence our visions about AI
Why is Artificial Intelligence so commonly depicted as a machine with a human brain? This article by Johanna Teresa Wallenborn shows how one misleading metaphor became so prevalent.
Exploiting potentials: Teaching AI Systems to See Accessibility Barriers
Barriers in our physical environment are still widespread. While AI systems could eventually support detecting them, it first needs open training data. Here we provide a dataset for detecting steps and stairs.
Sharing knowledge: Impact of Covid-19 on digital teaching
How can we address the many inequalities in access to digital resources and lack of digital skills that were revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Explaining AI – How to explain the unexplainable?
Complex automated decision making systems have become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Should we even care to understand how AI-based decisions are made?
Towards an African Narrative on Digital Sovereignty
How can an African perspective help us reframe our view of digital sovereignty? We shed light on economic independence in the digital economy and how states need to become aware of it.
Civil Society and AI: Striving for ethical governance
Civil society participation is key to ensure an ethical and equitable AI. But what are the challenges facing societal actors who want to actively engage in governance processes?
Using AI for social good in entrepreneurship: promises & perils
We show how entrepreneurs are using AI for social good and shed light on some of their challenges. What are promises and perils of social entrepreneurship?
Why explainable AI needs such a thing as Society
Explainable AI (XAI) frameworks focus strongly on individual interests, while a societal perspective falls short. The solution? An incorporation of collective interests in target group specific communication.
Reclaim Digital Autonomy
We depend on large companies to mean well with us and our data. Jan Götte and Björn Scheuermann developed Inertial Hardware Security Modules, enabeling small-time users and sysadmins to regain digital autonomy.
Tech and aging: How to enable independent living with digital innovations
The health and care sector faces a myriad of irresolvable challenges. The Digital Urban Center for Aging and Health (DUCAH) is developing digital solutions.
Deep fakes: the uncanniest variation of manipulated media content so far
Deep fakes are certainly not the first occurrence of manipulated media content. So what fuels this extraordinary feeling of uncanniness we associate with them?
Towards the Technological Pluriverse
How does the design practice of digital technology need to be fundamentally changed to create a more inclusive digital future? Adriaan Odendaal & Karla Zavala Barreda on creating the idea of technological pluriverse through board games.
4 core properties of sustainable support formats for digitalisation in SMEs
How can we communicate digitalisation in SMEs in a appropriate way for the target group? 4 core characteristics of sustainable support formats for long-term success.
How to identify bias in Natural Language Processing
Why do translation programmes or chatbots often contain discriminatory tendencies towards gender or race? Here is an easy guide to understand how bias natural language processing works.
When self-regulation in platform entrepreneurship is an asset
Tina Krell interviewed Magdalena Piech from Allegro, Poland’s leading digital marketplace. What are its community-driven efforts and views on regulation and self-regulation in platform entrepreneurship?
Drilling down on diversity in the European platform economy
The Platform Alternatives research team looks back on two years of research into the European platform economy and tells which insights have surprised them the most so far.
