Development and relaying of technology
The research project “Jung. Digital. Engagiert.” deals with voluntary engagement in times of the digitalisation. The shaping of the digital society depends on technological knowledge, amongst other things. In the…
Privacy International: a triumph or loss for privacy?
Privacy International shows that a general and indiscriminate law may not demand the transfer of communications data to public agencies. This is a win for the right to privacy. However,…
Progress through (surveillance-) technology?
Mileage status, tire pressure, driving behavior – nowadays, modern cars already collect these and many other data via built-in sensors and computers. With the help of this information, a complete profile of the driver can be created, but there is still little transparency and awareness of the issue. What happens if hackers access this data, and how far could they go?
The Ethics of Digitalisation
According to which criteria must chat bots be programmed to communicate without discrimination? What rules must apply in the development of artificial intelligence so that AI applications serve the common good? How do we design the algorithms that shape our society? In our interdisciplinary project “The Ethics of Digitalisation”, we work together with international partner institutions to develop concrete problem solutions...
Surveillance
The state monitors its citizens, Internet companies monitor their users – and finally we monitor ourselves and each other. Who is monitoring whom and why? What positive effects can surveillance have and when does it become a danger for a democratic society? Questions like these were posed by students of the Humboldt University of Berlin in the seminar “Tracing Surveillance – On the Trace of Surveillance” led by...
How COVID-19 impacts digital technologies
The current lockdown is boosting online activity – everything is increasingly shifting to the digital sphere. In this dossier we ask if, how and why the Corona pandemic will affect key subjects of digital technologies. What does this mean for the regulation of content on digital platforms? How is Covid-19 activating the digital society? How does it transform our online culture? How safe are tracing apps? What lessons can be learned...
Algorithmic decisions and human rights
Who is responsible if an autonomous vehicle is involved in an accident? What are the consequences of automated profiling of the unemployed? How intelligent is our use of artificial intelligence, and what visions and strategies do we need for the future? Innovations in the field of artificial intelligence are impacting nearly every area of our everyday life. However, algorithmic decision-making leads to complex human rights implications....
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Digitalisation as a subject for volunteering
The research project “Jung. Digital. Engagiert.” deals with voluntary service within the framework of digitalisation. While many of the organisations portrayed in the project make use of digital tools for…
Digital Discourse Culture and the Formation of Political Opinion
While providing previously unknown spaces for debate and exchange, the digitalisation also enables trolls, bullies and right-wing propagandists. In our project „Jung. Digital. Engagiert.“, we explored how young people engage…
More important than ever! Social Platform Governance during and after the 2020 US Presidential Election
The 2020 US Presidential Election has shown that practices of social platform governance and content moderation decisions are more crucial than ever. While the transparency of these algorithmic systems remains low, they might crucially affect public opinion formation of the electorate and need to be therefore more accessible and better understood by researchers and policymakers.
Digitale Schnittstellen zwischen Politik, Wissenschaft und Zivilgesellschaft
Die einen programmieren für die eigene Stadt, die anderen begleiten Jugendliche beim Online-Recherchieren und Texten. Gemeinsam ist ihnen, dass sie ihr digitales Know-how zum Wohl der Allgemeinheit einsetzen wollen. Im Rahmen unseres Projekts Jung. Digital. Engagiert” haben wir Menschen portraitiert, die sich an der Schnittstelle zwischen Politik und Zivilgesellschaft ehrenamtlich für andere einsetzen.
Artificial and intelligent but also sustainable?
Despite the growing global interest in mitigating climate change and in the digital transformation, there is often still a lack of implementation expertise on how these “instruments” can best be used to combat climate change.
Hijacking Hashtags in Times of COVID-19: How the Far-Right Polarises Twitter
We find evidence that German far-right partisans systematically made use of COVID-19 related hashtags to polarise the debate on the corona virus and social distancing.
Collaborative problem solving and knowledge production
Saving lives with an app, supporting non-profit organisations through data analysis – these are two of the many ways of digital civic engagement. Within the framework of our project “Jung. Digital. Engaged.” we have portrayed young people who volunteer for good in the fields of civil knowledge production and collaborative problem solving.
Security in Cyberspace: Workshop Insights
Analysing security in cyberspace can encompass a variety of topics. The workshop under scrutiny touched upon some of them, providing valuable insights for society and, ultimately, relevant ideas for building up better relationships among “cyber-actors”.
Same same but (not so) different
Anonymization is advertised as a solution for privacy concerns, while machine learning is portrayed as dangerous and evil – but those operations have more in common than widely assumed. We want to find out what, and more importantly, why that is.
Don’t break up Facebook, make it more transparent
The fever pitch over Big Tech’s market dominance culminated with a contentious US Congressional hearing a few months ago. While Google, Apple and Amazon may require new onerous regulation, Facebook’s just desserts are something it fears more than divesting itself from its strategic purchases or having to jump through insane regulatory hoops: mandated transparency.
The use of AI in HR management – Curse or blessing?
During the first Pop-Up Lab of HIIG’s AI & Society Lab an interdisciplinary team of researchers tackled pressing issues at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and HR management over…
How Conspiracy Theorists Get the Scientific Method Wrong
Philipp Hübl on the characteristics of conspiracy theories the motivation behind their spread, and rational thought as a shield against it.
Making Technology Great Again: How to Use Ethics to Save Digitalisation
Can your refrigerator order milk for you but refuse to give you a second ice cream? Should your self-driven car drive with you into a tree instead of over a…
European AI and IoT – First roundtable in cooperation with the EU Commission
The first Roundtable of HIIG’s AI & Society Lab hosted in cooperation with the EU Commission was our kick-off for an exchange on European AI and the Internet of Things…
Beyond Silicon Valley
The Internet, it is often said, provides equal access to knowledge and to markets. It opens up new opportunities for economic success and prosperity in disadvantaged regions or even continents,…
Discrimination preprogrammed?
Technology is never neutral. And even if the Internet as a medium initially invited us to deconstruct established, fixed role models and identities in supposedly new publics, to break up…
Despite digital work: hierarchies remain
Providers, such as Slack, Trello or Yam, advertise to increase the participation of employees in organisations. Their software (“enterprise social software”) creates company-internal communication channels that function similar to social…
The Coronavirus warning app should and can explain its opportunities and risks better
The warning app for contact tracing of newly corona infected persons was downloaded a good 15 million times within the first three weeks after its launch. Most of these downloads…
Live, love, learn – in 2040
How will we live, love, learn and work in 20 years? Researchers* from ten countries took a look into the future as part of the “twentyforty” project. The results can…
The Great Update of Research
The COVID 19 pandemic challenges society and its institutions. Science is particularly affected by the crisis, as it is expected to contribute with expertise to the solution of the problem….
Can European platform capitalism be sustainable?
Which business models of European platforms are viable and sustainable? That was the question asked and addressed in a virtual event last week. Senior Researcher Nicolas Friederici shares his takeaways….
