Summer Institute 2023: The public climate debate - climate skepticism and denial – Stefan Rahmstorf Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2023-07-18 | The public climate debate - climate skepticism and denialSpeaker: Stefan Rahmstorf, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, GermanyKeynote from Tuesday, June 20, 2023 during Summer Institute 2023 on Bounded Reality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.The public climate debate is very different from the kind of discourse we are used to in the scientific community, and even for many climate scientists, it is hard to understand what is going on. My talk will discuss issues, such as the public perception of climate science and climate change, the organization and funding of anti-science propaganda groups, common characteristics of science denialism, false media balance, as well as many real-life examples. It also discusses what we can do and namessome helpful resources.About Stefan RahmstorfStefan Rahmstorf is a Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University and head of the Earth System Analysis department of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Rahmstorf was a lead author of the 4th Assessment Report of the IPCC and advised the German government from 2004-2013 in the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). In 2007, he became an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, and in 2010, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. In 2017, he became the first scientist outside the US to be awarded the Climate Communication Prize of the American Geophysical Union,and in 2022, he received the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. He is Europe’s climate scientist with the most Twitter followers. He is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for the past five years in a row and has published over 140 scientific papers (36 of which in Nature, Science, and PNAS) and has co-authored four books. Availablein English are: Our Threatened Oceans and The Climate Crisis.ReadingRahmstorf, S. (2017). RealClimate: Fake news, hacked mail, alternative facts – that’s old hat for climate scientists. RealClimate | Climate Science From Climate Scientists. realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2017/02/fake-news-hackedmail-alternative-facts-thats-old-hat-for-climate-scientistsSupran, G., Rahmstorf, S., & Oreskes, N. (2023). Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections. Science, 379(6628). doi.org/10.1126/science.abk0063About Summer InstituteThe Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality brings together talented young researchers and renowned scientists from around the globe and aims to spark a dialogue about decision making under the real-world constraints of limited time, information, and computational power. The Summer Institute offers a forum for young scholars from various disciplines to share their approaches, discuss their research, and inspire each other. The program will cover the fundamentals, methodology, and recent findings on bounded rationality.More informationhttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/forschung/forschungsbereiche/adaptive-rationalitaet/summer-institute
Zwillingsregister Gertrud Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-07-28 | Gertrud (German Twin Registry) ist das erste deutsche Register, bei dem sich eineiige und zweieiige Zwillinge jeglichen Alters registrieren können, um an wissenschaftlichen Studien teilzunehmen. Das Register ist eine Initiative des Forschungsbereichs Umweltneurowissenschaften am Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung (MPIB) und dessen Kooperationspartnern (Universitätsklinik Tübingen, Universität Bremen, Universität Bielefeld, Medical School Hamburg, Max-Planck-Institut für empirische Ästhetik und Universität des Saarlandes) und wurde 2022 ins Leben gerufen.Weitere Informationen:gertrud.infohttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/forschung/forschungsbereiche/umweltneurowissenschaftenhttps://www.medizin.uni-tuebingen.dehttps://www.uni-bremen.dehttps://www.uni-bielefeld.dehttps://www.medicalschool-hamburg.dehttps://www.aesthetics.mpg.de
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Josef Drexl Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-07-25 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants with different perspectives the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Professor Dr Josef Drexl* shares his insights. He is the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, the Principal Investigator of the Humanet3 Group, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Munich. His main research areas include international competition law and European media and information law, particularly issues concerning data, consumer interests and public welfare. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Josef Drexl: https://www.ip.mpg.de/en/persons/prof-dr-josef-drexl.html - humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Francesca Bria Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-07-25 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Francesca Bria* , innovation economist and digital policy expert, shares her insights. She is currently a Senior Fellow at Stiftung Mercator in Berlin, where she leads the EuroStack Initiative on Europe’s Digital Sovereignty. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Francesca Bria: francescabria.com- humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Robert Gorwa Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-07-25 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Dr Robert Gorwa* shares his insights. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. His research lies at the intersection of technology and global regulation, spanning political science, law, and media studies. He is also the author of the book The Politics of Platform Regulation: How Governments Shape Online Content. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Robert: gorwa.ca- humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Clara Iglesias Keller Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-06-05 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, legal scholar *Dr. Clara Iglesias Keller* shares her insights. She is the leader of the research group “Technology, Power, and Domination” at the Weizenbaum Institute. Her recent work includes topics such as technology bans, platform governance and regulation, democratic legitimacy and constitutional narratives in digital policy, content moderation, disinformation countermeasures, and the consequences of the expansion of artificial intelligence for political participation. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Clara: claraigk.com- humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #humanet3 #Inequality #EqualAccess #PluralInformation
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Gérman Oscar Johannsen Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-06-05 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Gérman Oscar Johannsen* shares his insights. In his PhD, he examines the legal implications of the use of pricing algorithms in digital markets, with a focus on the interplay between EU competition and consumer laws. He has also developed lines of research on big data merger control, Internet regulation, and data governance to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Gérman: https://www.ip.mpg.de/en/persons/johannsen-german-oscar.html- humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #humanet3 #SpacesOfTrust #Pluralism #RegulatoryRules
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Catalina Goanta Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-06-05 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Dr. Catalina Goanta* shares her insights. She is an Associate Professor in Private Law and Technology and Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant HUMANads, focused on understanding the impact of content monetization on social media and on reinterpreting private law fairness in the context of platform governance. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Catalina: https://www.uu.nl/staff/ECGoanta - humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #humanet3 #LawPrinciples #Legalsystem #TrustInAuthorities
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Thorsten Thiel Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-05-16 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants with different perspectives the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Dr. Thorsten Thiel* shares his insights. He is a Professor for Democracy and Digital Politics at the University of Erfurt. His research centers on the contemporary challenges confronting democracy and explores topics such as digital sovereignty, anonymity, social media, and artificial intelligence. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Thorsten: thorsten-thiel.net - Staab, P., & Thiel, T. (2022). Social Media and the Digital Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Theory, Culture & Society, 39(4), 129-143. doi.org/10.1177/02632764221103527 (Original work published 2022) - humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #PoliticalInformation #Journalism #MediaFunding #humanet3
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Raffaela Kunz Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-05-16 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants with different perspectives the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Dr. Raffaela Kunz* shares her insights. She is Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Zurich. In her postdoctoral research, she centers on academic freedom as a key case study for analyzing new systemic threats to fundamental rights in the digital era, while also exploring how technological advances, including the rise of artificial intelligence, may give rise to new categories of rights holders and reconfigure established legal protections. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Raffaela Kunz: https://www.ius.uzh.ch/en/staff/professorships/alphabetical/graber/team/raffaelakunz0.html - Kunz, R. (2023). Tackling Threats to Academic Freedom Beyond the State: The Potential of Societal Constitutionalism in Protecting the Autonomy of Science in the Digital Era. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 30(2), 265-291. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/916458. - humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #PlatformCapitalism #DigitalCommons #TechRegulation #humanet3
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Chaewon Yun Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-05-16 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants with different perspectives the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, computational social scientist *Chaewon Yun* shares her insights. Before joining the Center for Humans and Machines as a predoctoral researcher, she worked as a software engineer developing a voice assistant for mobile devices. She uses interdisciplinary approaches from the social sciences, computer science and applied ethics to contextualise technological problems. Her current research focuses on the societal implications of large language models. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Chaewon on the MPIB website: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/staff/chaewon-yun- humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #Diversity #SpecialInterest #OnlineCommunities #humanet3
CHM Seminar: Finding and Losing The Plot: Qatar to Southport – Sohan Dsouza Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-05-02 | Finding and Losing The Plot: Qatar to SouthportSpeaker: Sohan Dsouza, MITIn this seminar, Sohan Dsouza will present on both the long-haul investigation of the organized campaign “The Qatar Plot”, and on the investigation of the chaotic spread of misinformation during the Southport-spinoff riots, and will discuss lessons from these for those involved in investigation, research, platform design, policy, and regulation.Sohan Dsouza is working on ways to solve discovery, veracity, and mobilization problems using a combination of technology and social science. His research background includes crowdsourcing, strategic cooperation, incentive mechanisms, social mobilization, AI ethics, and computer-mediated negotiation. He is interested in the intersection between disinformation and political polarization, and in AI-powered deception, and their implications for platform design and policy. His research work has been published in the likes of Nature, PNAS, Transport, IEEE Computer, and IEEE intelligent Systems.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Krisstina Rao Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-04-30 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants with different perspectives the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Dr. Krisstina Rao* shares her insights. Krisstina Rao is a Research Fellow and Project Manager- DPI Map at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) with a research focus on the intersection between technology and society. She has practised in the public and third sectors in India and Germany to further the responsible use of technology and digital tools, especially in the sectors of health and education. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its _European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade_. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Krisstina: ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/people/academics-and-research-fellows/krisstina-rao- Publication: “Digital Public Infrastructure: a framework for conceptualization and measurement” by David Eaves and Krisstina Rao: bit.ly/dpimapframe - humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #Participation #Inclusion #DesignForAll #humanet3
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Erik Tuchtfeld Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-04-30 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants with different perspectives the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Erik Tuchtfeld*, leader of the humanet3 research group, shares his insights. He is a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law with expertise in platform regulation, the protection of freedom of expression and privacy. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its _European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade_. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Erik: https://www.mpil.de/en/pub/institute/personnel/academic-staff/etuchtfe.cfm - humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #Decentralization #DemocraticRules #Fediverse #humanet3
Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Philipp Lorenz-Spreen Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-04-28 | Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts? In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future. We asked selected participants with different perspectives the same question: _How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?_ In this video, *Dr. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen* shares his insights as a computational social scientist at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. He also leads the junior research group “Computational Social Science” at the Center Synergy of Systems at TU Dresden. His research explores self-organized online discourse and its impact on democracies worldwide. *About humanet3* humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its _European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade_. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. *More information:* - More about Philipp on the MPIB website: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/person/133463/2549- humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/ - Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/workshop-2025/ #InformationQuality #Transparency #Representation #humanet3
Max Planck Institute for Human Development Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-04-07 | ...
Das sind wir: Hannes Diemerling Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2025-01-06 | Unser Institut hat über 300 Mitarbeiter. Aber das ist nur eine Zahl. Wer sind die Menschen in unserem Institut? Was machen sie und was treibt sie an? In unserem Format "Das sind wir" beantworten Kolleginnen und Kollegen Fragen zu ihrer Arbeit und ihrer Motivation. In dieser Folge stellen wir Ihnen Hannes Diemerling vor. Er ist Doktorand an der International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (IMPRS LIFE) und arbeitet im Forschungsbereich Entwicklungspsychologie. Sein Schwerpunkt liegt auf der maschinellen Emotionserkennung. Er entwickelt eine Software, die in der Lage ist, Emotionen in Audio- und Videoaufnahmen zu analysieren. Diese Technologie könnte künftig als Unterstützung in der Psychotherapie eingesetzt werden, um die emotionale Entwicklung von Patient*innen gezielt nachzuverfolgen.Erfahren Sie mehr über Hannes und seine Forschung: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/meldungen/das-sind-wir-hannes-diemerlingErfahren Sie mehr über die IMPRS LIFE: https://www.imprs-life.mpg.de/Originalpublikation:Diemerling, H., Stresemann, L., Braun, T., & von Oertzen, T. (2024). Implementing machine learning techniques for continuous emotion prediction from uniformly segmented voice recordings. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, Article 1300996. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1300996
Talking about decisions with Robin Hogarth Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-12-18 | Robin Hogarth was one of the pioneers of judgment and decision making (JDM) and a key figure in promoting the dialogue between psychology, economics and the management sciences. He served as a president of the Society of Judgment and Decision Making and the European Association for Decision Making. Robin received his PhD from the University of Chicago, and subsequently worked as a professor at INSEAD, Chicago Booth, and University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He trained dozens of scholars, some of whom became themselves leading figures in their respective fields of research. Robin published numerous papers on information aggregation, group decision making, decision making under uncertainty, heuristics decision making, learning from experience (and the challenges thereof) and the effects of financial incentives, to name just a few. His work has had a lasting impact across the fields studying decision making.Kapitel0:00 Intro0:39 How did you get to study decision making?2:52 What makes for a good decision?4:41 What makes some decisions hard?7:32 What are different types of uncertainty that people encounter when making decisions?9:52 What is a good strategy when you have to deal with uncertainties that you cannot estimate?12:33 What is the role of emotions in decision-making?16:33 How can groups make good decisions?18:33 How do machine decisions compare to human decisions?21:23 Has the field of judgement and decision making advanced and how is it going to change in the future?22:53 What would be your decision making advice to current university students?23:30 Outro
Hello and Moin – Questions to Simone Kühn Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-10-18 | Psychologist Simone Kühn has been director of the Centre for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development since July 2024. Her research focuses on the effects of the environment on people and their brains. In this interview, she talks about the new field of research, what advice she would give to her younger self and which project she is most looking forward to.About Simone Kühn Simone Kühn studied psychology at the University of Potsdam. She has long been associated with the Max Planck Society. The neuroscientist was a doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. After postdoctoral positions at Ghent University in Belgium, University College London, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, she led the “Mechanisms and Sequential Progression of Plasticity” group at the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development from 2012 to 2016. She then took a Heisenberg professorship at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). In 2019, she returned to the Max Planck Institute for Human Development as head of the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience. Since July 2024 she is a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.Further information:- Interview with Simone Kühn about her research an her plans: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/highlights/interview-kuehn- Website of the Center for Environmental Neuroscience: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/research/research-centers/environmental-neuroscience
Teaser for Machine+Behavior Conference 2025 Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-10-14 | Welcome to the forefront of behavioral science in the digital ageMachine+Behavior Conference 2025When: 29-30 April 2025Where: at Harnack House, BerlinFor whom: Researchers of Behavioral Science, Complexity Science, and Cultural EvolutionMore information: https://machinebehavior.science/ As the rise of AGI and large language models like GPT-4 reshape our world, we're faced with pressing questions: How do we ensure behavioral AI safety? What does the future of work and human communication look like? And how can we guide cultural shifts in this new age? This event is not just a meeting of minds but a call to action. We aim to collaboratively chart research priorities, foster community ties among machine behavior enthusiasts, and lay the groundwork for future engagements.Video produced by Latest Thinking
This is us: Zoe Ngo Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-09-18 | Our institute has over 300 employees. But that's just a number. Who are the people at our institute? What do they do and what drives them? In our format "This is us", colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation. In this episode, we introduce you to Zoe Ngo. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Lifespan Psychology and focuses on studying memory development in childhood. In the interview, she explains what makes working with children so unique and how she uses a gamification approach to make her experiments particularly appealing to young children.Find out more about Zoe and her research: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/other-highlights/this-is-us-chi-zoe-ngo
Machine+Behavior Conference 24 – Session with Jean-François Bonnefon, Ophelia DeRoy and James Evans Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-09-17 | Jean-François Bonnefon: Science Fiction ScienceOphelia DeRoy: The Speculation-Reality GapPanel: A panel discussion with Ophelia DeRoy, Jean-François Bonnefon and James Evans.Session from Tuesday, April 30, 2024 during Machine+Behavior Conference 2024 hosted by the Center for Humans & Machines from Max Planck Institute for Human Development at Harnack House, Berlin.Machine+Behavior Conferencehttps://www.machinebehavior.scienceCenter for Humans & Machineshttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chmMax Planck Institute for Human Developmenthttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de
Machine+Behavior Conference 24 – Session with Joel Leibo, Marija Slavkovik and Ophelia DeRoy Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-09-17 | Joel Leibo: A Theory of Appropriateness with Applications to Generative Artificial IntelligenceMarija Slavkovik: Machine Ethics Examples - Moving ForwardPanel: A panel discussion with Joel Leibo and Marija Slavkovik and Ophelia DeRoy.Session from Tuesday, April 30, 2024 during Machine+Behavior Conference 2024 hosted by the Center for Humans & Machines from Max Planck Institute for Human Development at Harnack House, Berlin.Machine+Behavior Conferencehttps://www.machinebehavior.scienceCenter for Humans & Machineshttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chmMax Planck Institute for Human Developmenthttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de
Machine+Behavior Conference 24 – Session with Moritz Hardt, Krishna Gummadi and Mirco Musolesi Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-09-17 | Moritz Hardt: The Emerging Science of BenchmarksKrishna Gummadi: Foundations for Foundational ModelsPanel: A panel discussion with Moritz Hardt, Krishna Gummadi and Mirco Musolesi.Session from Tuesday, April 30, 2024 during Machine+Behavior Conference 2024 hosted by the Center for Humans & Machines from Max Planck Institute for Human Development at Harnack House, Berlin.Machine+Behavior Conferencehttps://www.machinebehavior.scienceCenter for Humans & Machineshttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chmMax Planck Institute for Human Developmenthttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de
Machine+Behavior Conference 24 – Keynote by David Sloan Wilson Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-09-17 | Multilevel Selection: A Foundational Theory for All Darwinian ProcessesSpeaker: David Sloan WilsonKeynote from Monday, April 29, 2024 during Machine+Behavior Conference 2024 hosted by the Center for Humans & Machines from Max Planck Institute for Human Development at Harnack House, Berlin.Machine+Behavior Conferencehttps://www.machinebehavior.scienceCenter for Humans & Machineshttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chmMax Planck Institute for Human Developmenthttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de
CHM Seminar: AI-Powered Promises... –Theo Offerman Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-08-21 | AI-Powered Promises: The Influence of ChatGPT on Trust and TrustworthinessSpeaker: Theo Offerman, University of AmsterdamAmidst the growing popularity of AI language models, we study the potential impacts of AI-facilitated communication on trust and trustworthiness. With a laboratory experiment, we compare traditional communication with communication assisted by ChatGPT in a between-subject design. We find that participants with access to ChatGPT more frequently make promises, while their promise-keeping rate diminishes. Overall we do not observe effects on trust and trustworthiness rates. However, we show that in the GPT treatment participants coordinate less often on the trust outcome and that promises no longer serve as a reliable indicator of honesty.Theo Offerman is the professor of Behavioral Game Theory at the University of Amsterdam (since 2005). His academic interests include the fields of Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics and Game Theory. His research has focused on topics like auctions, reciprocity, public goods, strategic communication, discrimination, the erosion of morals in markets and via the interaction with AI. Theo is a fellow of the Tinbergen Institute and a CESS research fellow.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
CHM Seminar: Augmenting Humans–Misha Sra Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-08-15 | Augmenting HumansSpeaker: Misha Sra, University of California, Santa BarbaraIn this talk, I will share my vision of augmenting humans with interactive AI and XR. In this vision, AI is no longer confined to screens but seamlessly embedded in our surroundings. It is no longer just an information source but a "physical" presence that can assist us with our tasks and daily lives. This new interactive AI paradigm presents a big leap forward in terms of how we think about and engage with AI. Instead of something that is separate from us, AI becomes a true extension of ourselves, enhancing our abilities in the real world.Misha Sra is the John and Eileen Gerngross Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she directs the Human-AI Integration Lab in the Computer Science department at UCSB. Misha received her PhD from the MIT Media Lab in 2018, advised by Prof. Pattie Maes in the Fluid Interfaces Group. She has published at the most selective HCI, VR, and machine learning venues such as CHI, UIST, VRST, AAAI, and CVPR where she received four best paper awards and honorable mentions. MIT selected her as an EECS Rising Star in 2018. In 2023 she was awarded an NSF CAREER Award for her work in Human-AI Interaction design. Her research has received extensive coverage from leading media outlets (e.g., from Engadget, UploadVR, MIT Tech Review) and has drawn the attention of industry research, such as Toyota Research, Samsung Research, and Unity 3D.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
This is us: Anna Thoma Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-07-22 | Our institute has over 300 employees. But that's just a number. Who are the people at our institute? What do they do and what drives them? In our format "This is us", colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.In this episode, we introduce you to Anna Thoma. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Adaptive Rationality and studies how children learn different decision-making strategies. For her work, she has been awarded the Otto Hahn Medal 2024. In the interview, she provides insight into her work and explains why children tend to find more unlikely solutions to problems than adults. Find out more about Anna and her research: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/other-highlights/this-is-us-anna-thoma
CHM Seminar: Cycles, Cohorts, and the Zeitgeist ...– Bret A. Beheim Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-07-03 | Cycles, Cohorts, and the Zeitgeist: Using Big Data to Reveal the Forces of Cultural EvolutionSpeaker: Bret A. Beheim | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyCycles, Cohorts, and the Zeitgeist: Using Big Data to Reveal the Forces of Cultural EvolutionCultural trends are traditionally modelled at the level of decisions, as a combination of social and individual learning processes, shaped by our evolved cognition responding to informational cues. But cultural change is also inherently demographic, as individuals enter and leave a population under study in systematic patterns of migration and cohort turnover. These processes reflect distinct evolutionary forces, and in a given empirical study, we can use some mathematical tools borrowed from evolutionary ecology to account for their relative importance. I will review two empirical applications of this approach, looking at topical trends in Anglophone literature since the mid-1800s, and the dynamics of opening strategies in the Game of Go, in the pre- and post-AlphaGo eras. These systems show distinct patterns of change which indicate the operation of very different evolutionary processes.Bret A. Beheim uses the tools of evolutionary ecology to help understand cumulative cultural dynamics in human societies. Specifically, he focuses on innovation and strategic retention of ideas and technology in noisy environments, as well as the demographic aspects of cultural change. He accomplishes this through formal theoretical models, the analysis of large-scale economic and behavioral datasets, and ethnographic fieldwork with Amazonian horticulturalists in collaboration with the Tsimane Health and Life History Project. He holds a doctorate in Evolutionary Ecology from UC Davis, where his advisor was Pete Richerson, and is currently a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, under the direction of Richard McElreath.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
CHM Seminar: A mathematical description of decision making processes...– Anxo Sánchez Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-07-03 | A mathematical description of decision making processes involving norms and its experimental validationSpeaker: Anxo Sánchez, Charles III University of MadridA mathematical description of decision making processes involving norms and its experimental validationIn social interactions, human decision-making, attitudes, and beliefs about others (and hence social norms, shared expectations about what people in the group do and what they think should be done) coevolve. Here we attempt to disentangle some of this complexity by using an integrative mathematical modeling and a 35-day behavioral experiment. Our model includes material payoffs in the utility function of each individual along with benefits from complying with the norm, from following one's own beliefs, and for conforming to some external prescription. To validate it, we utilize a Common Pool Resources paradigm with messaging promoting group-beneficial behavior. We show that personal norms and conformity with expected peers' actions have the largest impact on decision-making while material benefits and normative expectations have smaller effects. Messaging greatly decreases the weight of personal norms simultaneously increasing the weight of conformity. It also markedly influences personal norms and normative expectations. Both cognitive and social factors are important in the dynamics of beliefs. Between-individual variation is present in all measured characteristics and notably impacts observed group behavior. Those conclusions are further validated with a larger set of experiments with diferent design, different basic game (Collective Risk Dilemma) and different population (Beijing).Anxo Sánchez has a PhD in Theoretical Physics (with distinction) from Universidad Complutense de MadridO, Spain, 1991. Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, 1993 - 1994. Currently, full professor of Applied Mathematics at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and founder of the research group GISC in 1996. Associated researcher of the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), Universidad de Zaragoza. His research deals mostly with the applications of the physics of complex systems to social and biological sciences; he has contributed to the advancement of different fields, from economics to condensed matter physics through ecology, theoretical computer science, history and even law. He has been the PI of some 21 projects, receiving funding from the European Commission, the Spanish government, the Madrid Regional Government, NATO, ESF, and the BBVA Foundation. He is an elected member to the Council and to the Executive Committee of the Complex Systems Society. He is also a member of the expert network of Fundación COTEC “Los 100 de COTEC” and codirector of their Behavioral Economy Lab.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
CHM Seminar: Artificial Intelligence, Algorithmic Recommendations, and Competition – Emilio Calvano Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-07-03 | Artificial Intelligence, Algorithmic Recommendations, and CompetitionSpeaker: Emilio Calvano, Tor Vergata UniversityWe present a methodology for analyzing the impact of algorithmic recommendations on product market competition, addressing concerns that have been raised in both academic and policy circles regarding their potential anti-competitive effects. Our analysis demonstrates that recommender systems (RSs) lead to higher market concentration and prices compared to a scenario where algorithmic recommendations are unavailable and consumers rely solely on individual search. However, RSs also improve the match between products and consumers and reduce the need for expensive search processes. By accounting for both the positive and negative effects, we find that RSs are likely to increase consumer surplus for reasonable parameter values. However, increasing the amount of data available to the algorithms may lead to a reduction in consumer surplus. We also examine the potential for manipulation of recommendations and its impact on competition, finding that such manipulation is more likely to represent an exclusionary abuse than an exploitative one.Emilio Calvano is an economist with expertise in the field of industrial organization, specifically focusing on digital and media markets. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toulouse and currently serves as a Full Professor of Economics at LUISS university in Rome and as Associate Faculty member at the Toulouse School of Economics. His work has been published in top scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, Science, Management Science, American Economic Journal: Micro, the Economic Journal, and the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. Emilio Calvano's research interests revolve around the Industrial Organisation of digital and media markets. He explores the dynamics of competition within these sectors and investigates the implications of market structure and firm behavior. He was recently awarded an ERC (European Research Council) Advanced grant in 2023 focusing on studying the impact of Artificial Intelligence-powered algorithms on competition.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
This is us: Max Jack Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-07-03 | Our institute has over 300 employees. But that's just a number. Who are the people at our institute? What do they do and what drives them? In our format "This is us", colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation. In this episode, we introduce you to Max Jack. He is a researcher at the Center for the History of Emotions. He studies social movements and subcultural groups. In this episode, he talks, among other things, about his latest book, Insurgent Fandom, which focuses on ultras—passionate football fans who support their clubs by attending all home and away games. However, he also sees them as a transnational movement that opposes the commercialization of professional sports.Find out more about Max and his research: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/this-is-us/max-jack
„Tschüß, bis dann und auf Wiedersehen“ – Fragen an Ute Frevert anlässlich ihrer Emeritierung Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-06-27 | This year marks the end of Ute Frevert's Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB) after 16 years. Together with Ute Frevert, we look back on her research and her time at the Institute.Camera: Marco DöpkeEditing: Nico WöhrleInterview: MPIB- - - In diesem Jahr wird nach 16 Jahren Ute Freverts Forschungsbereich Geschichte der Gefühle am Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung beendet. Wir blicken gemeinsam mit Ute Frevert auf ihre Forschung und ihre Zeit am Institut zurück.Kamera: Marco DöpkeSchnitt: Nico WöhrleInterview: MPIB
This is us: Marwa Kavelaars Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-06-19 | Our institute has over 300 employees. But that's just a number. Who are the people at our institute? What do they do and what drives them? In our format "This is us", colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.In this episode, we introduce you to Marwa Kavelaars. She is a researcher at the Center for Adaptive Rationality and focuses on decision-making in social contexts. In this interview, she talks about her project with Finnish ice fishers. Find out more about Marwa and her research: tinyurl.com/5n6h5yhv
Paul B. Baltes Lecture 2023 by Alexandra M. Freund Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-05-22 | "Motivation and Aging: The Role of Goals in Adult Development and Aging" – Lecture by Alexandra M. Freund (Universität Zürich, Psychologisches Institut) Abstract: Goals are central for motivating behavior over time and across situations. They affect a person’s level of functioning and performance, their well-being, as well as their sense of purpose in life. The importance of goals has been acknowledged in lifespan psychology for a long time (Baltes & Baltes, 1990). More recently, the field of motivated cognition has pointed to the specific role of the cognitive representation of goals for self-regulation, emotional experience, and goal achievement. In this talk, I argue that the perceived availability of goal-relevant resources and assets changes across adulthood. As people grow older, they experience changes in opportunities and affordances, social expectations, as well as individual skills and abilities. These changes result in an overall decline of developmental gains, and an increase in developmental losses (Baltes, 1987; Baltes et al., 2006). These age-related changes lead to changes in how people represent their goals. In turn, the changes in goal representations affect goal-relevant behavior and well-being. In line with this, I will present a recent heuristic model of healthy aging placing goals and goal representations at its center stage.Die Paul-B.-Baltes Lecture geht auf eine gemeinsame Initiative der Psychologie-Institute in Berlin und Potsdam zurück (Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, Technische Universität, Universität Potsdam, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung). Sie ehrt Paul B. Baltes, den ehemaligen Direktor am Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin, für seine herausragenden Beiträge zur Psychologie der Lebensspanne sowie für seine Verdienste um die psychologische Forschung im Berlin-Potsdamer Raum. Die Veranstaltung fand am 11.10.2023 im Leibnizsaal der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften e.V. statt.
Paul B. Baltes Lecture 2022 by Stephan Lewandowsky Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-05-22 | "Demagoguery, Technology and Cognition: Addressing the Threats to Democracy" – Lecture by Stephan Lewandowsky (University of Bristol) Democracy is in retreat or under pressure worldwide. Even in countries with strong democracies, polarization is increasing, and the public sphere is awash in misinformation and conspiracy theories. Many commentators have blamed social media and the lack of platform governance for these unfortunate trends, whereas others have celebrated the Internet as a tool for liberation, with each opinion being buttressed by supporting evidence. One way to resolve this paradox is by identifying some of the pressure points that arise between the architecture of human cognition and the online information landscape, and by studying how these pressure points can be used by populist demagogues to undermine democracy. The lecture will survey some of those pressure points, focusing on the attention economy and the algorithms that curate our news feeds. Partly based on the current ERC advanced grant “Protecting the Democratic Information Space in Europe (PRODEMINFO)”, it will be shown how such pressure points allow politicians to replace evidence-based discourse with often emotive belief-speaking that is less sensitive to evidence and accountability. A spectrum of possible solutions will be discussed.Die Paul-B.-Baltes Lecture geht auf eine gemeinsame Initiative der Psychologie-Institute in Berlin und Potsdam zurück (Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, Technische Universität, Universität Potsdam, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung). Sie ehrt Paul B. Baltes, den ehemaligen Direktor am Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin, für seine herausragenden Beiträge zur Psychologie der Lebensspanne sowie für seine Verdienste um die psychologische Forschung im Berlin-Potsdamer Raum. Die Veranstaltung fand am 05.10.2022 im Leibnizsaal der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften e.V. statt.
Karim Ben Khelifa - Artist in Residence Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-05-13 | The Artist & AI Residency at the Center for Humans and Machines bridges contemporary art and scientific exploration, fostering interdisciplinary connections between the arts and research. Karim Ben Khelifa, an award-winning Belgian-Tunisian artist and director, will be joining the Artist & AI Residency from April to August 2024.Learn more about the Artist & AI Residency: www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/airLearn more about Karim Ben Khelifa: www.undisciplinedartist.com
This is us: Soňa Mikulová Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-05-03 | Our institute has over 300 employees. But that's just a number. Who are the people at our institute? What do they do and what drives them? In our format “This is us”, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation. In this episode, we introduce you to Soňa Mikulová. She is a researcher at the Center for the History of Emotions and researches the emotional integration of Sudeten German expellees after 1945.Find out more about Soňa and her research: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/this-is-us/sona-mikulova
CHM Seminar: LeveragingVoluntary Commitments for Advancing Cooperation + AI Safety ...– The Anh Han Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-04-19 | Leveraging Voluntary Commitments for Advancing Cooperation and AI Safety: A Game Theoretical ApproachSpeaker: The Anh Han, Teesside UniversityConventional wisdom suggests that arranging a prior commitment or agreement before an interaction enhances the chance of reaching collective behaviour. Yet it is not clear what mechanisms are efficient at ensuring participation in and compliance with such a commitment, especially when the former is costly and deviating from the latter is profitable. Here we develop a theory of participation and compliance with respect to an explicitly formed commitment under institutional incentives where individuals, at first, decide whether to join a cooperative agreement to play a cooperation dilemma. Using evolutionary game theory, we determine when participating in a costly commitment and complying with it, is an evolutionary stable strategy and results in high levels of overall cooperation in a population. We show that, given a budget for providing incentives, rewarding commitment-compliant behaviours better promotes cooperation than punishing non-compliant ones. Moreover, by sparing part of this budget for rewarding those who are willing to participate in a commitment, the overall frequency of cooperation can be significantly enhanced.In the second part of the talk, starting from a baseline model that captures the fundamental dynamics of a competition for domain supremacy using AI technology, we demonstrate how socially unwanted outcomes may be produced when sanctioning is applied unconditionally to risk-taking, i.e. potentially unsafe, behaviours. We show how voluntary commitments, with sanctions either by peers or an institution, lead to socially beneficial outcomes in all scenarios envisageable in a rapid AI development scenario. These results are relevant for the design of governance and regulatory policies that aim to ensure an ethical and responsible AI technology development process.The Anh Han is Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Digital Innovation at School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University. He received a PhD in AI from UNL Lisbon (2010-2012) and was a FWO Postdoc fellow from VUB Brussels (2012-1014). His current research spreads several topics in AI and interdisciplinary research, including evolutionary game theory, incentive and behavioral modelling, agent-based simulations, and AI development/safety behaviour modelling. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles in top-tier Computer Science conferences and high-ranking scientific journals. He regularly serves in the programme committees of most of top-tier AI conferences (e.g., IJCAI, AAAI, AAMAS) and is on the Editorial Boards of several international journals (e.g., Plos One, Humanities and Social Sciences Communication, Adaptive Behavior). He was awarded prestigious research fellowships and grants as Principal Investigator from the Future of Life Institute, EPSRC, Leverhulme Trust Foundation, and FWO Belgium.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
CHM Seminar: The social impacts of algorithmic decision-making – Andrés Abeliuk Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-04-04 | The social impacts of algorithmic decision-makingSpeaker: Andrés Abeliuk, University of ChileAlgorithmic systems play an increasingly pervasive role in shaping our daily experiences. Rather than existing in isolation, these technologies are intricately woven into the fabric of social systems, creating nuanced relationships between human behavior and algorithms. Studying the societal impact of algorithms raises critical questions and challenges, including measuring and mitigating potential negative effects and exploring innovative ways to improve collective decision-making processes. This seminar will explore two studies that examine the influence of algorithms on different social systems, ranging from cultural markets (e.g., Spotify) to algorithmic matching services (e.g., romantic dating websites).Andrés Abeliuk is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chile and a researcher at the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA). His research studies the interplay between algorithms and human dynamics in socio-technical systems. Using a multidisciplinary approach, he applies techniques such as machine learning models, optimization, game theory, and online experiments to guide collective behavior towards more efficient and equitable outcomes. In 2016, he received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Melbourne, Australia. His thesis was on the optimality and predictability of socially influenced online markets.All upcoming and past events: youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbUdJY0EzUEF6V0liVno2Y0V1Z2V6VmFiNWVaUXxBQ3Jtc0trWWx4aldRdTRQUVdWUTVKeHRjaWRBcDQ0M0p4Sk1ZS3RlRkV3bEs1Z0RnRHNXNUVveVdfdDJSRU1mekNOUDIyZ0NnY0xCUGpXN01ZQnJPVWQ2Wkd2bDJ4YzYwWUs2blJnb3ZwNTlpWjRrZDBCODE1Zw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mpib-berlin.mpg.de%2Fchm%2Fevents&v=cPKehrZS2Ec
CHM Seminar The evolutionary game theory of cooperation, social norms, and modesty – Christian Hilbe Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-04-03 | Note on sound quality: There were problems with the sound in the first three minutes. The rest of the video has no further sound issues.The evolutionary game theory of cooperation, social norms, and modestySpeaker: Christian Hilbe, MPI for Evolutionary BiologyEvolutionary game theory is a formal framework to describe how individuals adapt their behavior in strategic settings. This framework makes very few assumptions on an individuals' cognitive abilities; thus it is applicable to humans, but also to animals, and even bacteria. The first part of the talk will provide a gentle introduction to evolutionary game theory. In the second part, I will apply the framework to discuss questions related to cooperation, norms, and modesty. Christian Hilbe is group leader of the Max Planck Research Group on the Dynamics of Social Behavior, at the MPI for Evolutionary Biology. Before joining the MPI, he had research positions at the University of Vienna, IST Austria, and Harvard University. He and his group use mathematical models, simulations, and behavioral experiments to explore human social behavior, mostly connected to cooperation.All upcoming and past events: youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbUdJY0EzUEF6V0liVno2Y0V1Z2V6VmFiNWVaUXxBQ3Jtc0trWWx4aldRdTRQUVdWUTVKeHRjaWRBcDQ0M0p4Sk1ZS3RlRkV3bEs1Z0RnRHNXNUVveVdfdDJSRU1mekNOUDIyZ0NnY0xCUGpXN01ZQnJPVWQ2Wkd2bDJ4YzYwWUs2blJnb3ZwNTlpWjRrZDBCODE1Zw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mpib-berlin.mpg.de%2Fchm%2Fevents&v=cPKehrZS2Ec
This is us: Lisa Oswald Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-03-25 | Our institute has over 300 employees. But that's just a number. Who are the people at our institute? What do they do and what drives them? In our format "This is us", colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.In this episode, we introduce you to Lisa Oswald. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Adaptive Rationality and her research focuses on public discourse in online environments and the role of digital media for democracy.Find out more about Lisa and her research: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/1828089/das-sind-wir-fragen-an-lisa-oswald
This is us: Sarah Power Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-03-07 | Our institute has over 300 employees. But that's just a number. Who are the people at our institute? What do they do and what drives them? In our "This is us" format, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.In this episode, we introduce you to Sarah Power. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Lifespan Psychology and interested in memory development in toddlers and the phenomenon of infantile amnesia. Find out more about Sarah and her research: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/other-highlights/this-is-us-questions-for-sarah-power
This is us: Anne-Marie Nussberger Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2024-03-03 | Our institute has over 300 employees. But that is just a number. Who are the people at our institute? What do they do and what drives them? In our "This is us" format, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.In this episode we introduce you to Anne-Marie Nussberger. She is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Humans and Machines and explores how intelligent machines shape human beliefs, values, and behaviour. Learn more about Anne-Marie and her research: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/other-highlights/this-is-us-questions-for-anne-marie-nussberger
CHM Seminar: Three Experiments in Dyadic Collaboration among Humans and Machines – Taha Yasseri Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2023-12-08 | Three Experiments in Dyadic Collaboration among Humans and Machines Speaker: Taha Yasseri, University College DublinIn this presentation, we present findings from three behavioral experiments that focus on dyadic interactions in both human-human and human-machine groups. Dyadic interactions, which form the foundation of our collective intelligence, have been a relatively underexplored area of study. Moreover, when it comes to collaboration with intelligent machines, the impact of hybrid team members' characteristics on their collaborative efforts remains largely unexamined. Our three experiments cover a range of collaboration types, from tasks in near-field experimental settings to highly stylized collaborative games. We investigate various attributes of team members, including their levels of experience, gender, and political tendencies, as well as how the communication of this information within the dyad influences the efficiency and accuracy of the team's performance.Taha Yasseri is a Professor at the School of Sociology and a Geary Fellow at the Geary Institute for Public Policy at University College Dublin, Ireland. Formerly, he was a Senior Research Fellow in Computational Social Science at the University of Oxford, a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and a Research Fellow in Humanities and Social Sciences at Wolfson College. Taha Yasseri has a PhD in Complex Systems Physics from the University of Göttingen, Germany. He has interests in analysis of large-scale transactional data and conducting behavioural experiments to understand human dynamics, machines’ social behaviour, government-society interactions, online political behaviour, mass collaboration and collective intelligence, information and opinion dynamics, hate speech and content moderation, collective behaviour, and online dating.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
CHM Seminar: Ethical Accident Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicles – Sven Nyholm Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2023-10-30 | Ethical Accident Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicles and the Trolley Problem: Three Philosophical DisputesSpeaker: Sven Nyholm, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichSeminar from Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.This presentation will explore three philosophical disputes concerning the comparison between the ethics of crashing autonomous vehicles and the Trolley Problem. The first dispute concerns whether there is something ethically problematic – or perhaps even flippant – about comparing the real-world issue of what autonomous vehicles should do in accident scenarios with the philosophy of the Trolley Problem. The second dispute concerns whether or not there is a close enough analogy between real-world accidents involving autonomous vehicles and the so-called trolley cases discussed in relation to the Trolley Problem.The third dispute concerns whether or not the large literature on the Trolley Problem discusses topics directly relevant to the real-world ethics of crashes with autonomous vehicles. The presentation will consider key arguments on each side of the dispute. It will also offer a diagnosis regarding whether the Trolley Problem is relevant for the ethics of autonomous vehicles. The conclusion will be that it is either directly or indirectly relevant: It may be directly relevant because the Trolley Problem can teach us important lessons or indirectly relevant because identifying key differences between the ethics of autonomous vehicles and the Trolley Problem allows us to get clear on what matters most in the real-world ethics of autonomous vehicles.Sven Nyholm is Professor of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He is also a Principal Investigator in the Munich Center for Machine Learning, a member of the Ethics Advisory Board of the Human Brain Project, and an Associate Editor of the journal Science and Engineering Ethics. Nyholm’s research covers both general ethical theory and practical ethics, in particular the ethics of AI and technology more generally. His most recent book is This is Technology Ethics: An Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023).All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
CHM Seminar Series: Accelerating science with human-aware artificial intelligence – James Evans Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2023-10-11 | Accelerating science with human-aware artificial intelligenceSpeaker: James Evans, University of ChicagoSeminar from Tuesday, July 11, 2023 at the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.Please find the presentation herehttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/1743431/20230611_chm_seminar_-_james_evans_presentation Artificial intelligence (AI) models trained on published scientific findings have been used to invent valuable materials and targeted therapies, but they typically ignore the human scientists who continually alter the landscape of discovery. Here we show that incorporating the distribution of human expertise by training unsupervised models on simulated inferences cognitively available to experts dramatically improves (up to 400%) AI prediction of future discoveries beyond those focused on research content alone, especially when relevant literature is sparse. These models succeed by predicting human predictions and the scientists who will make them. By tuning human-aware AI to avoid the crowd, we can generate scientifically promising “alien” hypotheses unlikely to be imagined or pursued without intervention until the distant future, which hold promise to punctuate scientific advance beyond questions currently pursued. I also explore the creation of other kinds of data-driven, machine learned "digital doubles" that facilitate cycles of semi-automated virtual and staged experiments tuned to reveal social and scientific insights and generate social and material technologies. Accelerating human discovery or probing its blind spots, I show how human-aware and complementary AI enables us to move toward and beyond the contemporary scientific frontier.James Evans is Max Palevsky Professor of Sociology and Data Science, and Director of Knowledge Lab and Computational Social Science programs at the University of Chicago. His research uses large-scale data, machine learning and generative models to understand how collectives learn and what they know, with a special focus on the emergence of ideas and innovation, and how to augment and engineer creative capacity in science, technology, civic discourse, and cultural production.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
Summer Institute 2023: Communicating evidence to help others make decisions – Alexandra Freeman Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2023-07-18 | Communicating evidence to help others make decisionsSpeaker: Alexandra Freeman, University of Cambridge, United KingdomKeynote from Thursday, June 15, 2023 during Summer Institute 2023 on Bounded Reality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.Many - perhaps most - communicators have a “message” that they want to get across to their audiences, and know what they want their audiences to think, even do, as a result of their communication. But what if you want to help the audience make their own decisions? If you don’t want to - or mustn’t - persuade them one way or the other? This “evidence communication” has a very different rule-book from message-based communication, but if you can communicate complex evidence well, to an audience with no prior expertise or training in the subject, then you can truly empower people to make their own, evidence-informed decisions: decisions that suit their own values, personal situation and world-view, not your own. But can it be done? And do audiences want it?About Alexandra FreemanAfter a degree and doctorate in zoology, Alex became a science and natural history documentary-maker, mostly for the BBC. For 17 years she produced and directed shows whilst traveling around the world and exploring the power of using narrative and interactive media to engage people with scientific concepts and findings. Then she was lured back to academia to become Executive Director at the newly-established Winton Centre forRisk & Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge. There she learned about “evidence communication” and its very different communication aims. Working with psychologists, software engineers, andprofessional communicators, the Winton Centre researched how to communicate risk and uncertainty in ways that would inform but not persuade. Alongside this work, Alex set up the new publishing platform Octopus.ac in response to seeing the problems in scholarly communication, and she and Winton Centre Chair David Spiegelhalter are currently developing a game show format based on uncertainty.ReadingBlastland, M., Freeman, A. L., van der Linden, S., Marteau, T. M., & Spiegelhalter, D. (2020). Five rules for evidence communication.Nature, 587(7834), 362–364. doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03189-1About Summer InstituteThe Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality brings together talented young researchers and renowned scientists from around the globe and aims to spark a dialogue about decision making under the real-world constraints of limited time, information, and computational power. The Summer Institute offers a forum for young scholars from various disciplines to share their approaches, discuss their research, and inspire each other. The program will cover the fundamentals, methodology, and recent findings on bounded rationality.More informationhttps://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/forschung/forschungsbereiche/adaptive-rationalitaet/summer-institute
CHM Seminar Series: The Psychology of Cultural Dynamics – Yoshihisa Kashima Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2023-06-30 | The Psychology of Cultural DynamicsSpeaker: Yoshihisa Kashima, University of MelbourneSeminar from Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.Globalized humanity is changing and needs to change. Consider climate change and extreme weather events, geopolitical tensions and conflict, and rising inequalities within and between nations. To meet these contemporary adaptational challenges, human cognition and action are changing – both individually as a person and collectively as a species. These changes occur at times blindly, but all the while accompanied by human strivings to gain foresight and perspectives beyond the current horizon. Given the importance of culture as a mechanism for human adaptation, anthropology’s answer has been cultural evolution – an attempt to understand and explain cumulative cultural changes over the millennia. Whereas this has provided us with the knowledge and insights into long-term macro-level cultural dynamics, micro-level psychological knowledge complements our understanding of how and why macro-level cultural changes occur. Moreover, psychological insights are imperative in contemplating how to cultivate and craft human cultures – behaviour change, if you will – to navigate the uncharted waters into our collective futures. The psychology of cultural dynamics has accumulated knowledge and insights into micro-level cognitive and communicative processes that constitute and are constituted by macro-level cultural processes. In this presentation, I will outline a framework for considering the micro-macro dynamics of cultural maintenance and change mediated by dynamically changing social networks at the meso-level, and describe emerging research on the contemporary work on the psychology of cultural dynamics, including political polarization and utopian thinking.Yoshihisa Kashima is Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne, and a WASP-HS Guest Professor at Umeå University. His research focuses on the psychology of cultural dynamics – how psychological processes contribute to the formation, maintenance, and transformation of culture, and how culture shapes human psychology in turn, with particular emphasis on cultures of sustainability. His work has appeared in Science, Nature Climate Change, Psychological Review, Psychological Bulletin, American Psychologist, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He was Associate Editor of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and the President of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. He is currently working on cultural dynamics in complex social-ecological systems.All upcoming and past events: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/events
CHM Seminar Series: AI Governance and the Question of Foresight – Nick Diakopoulos Max Planck Institute for Human Development 2023-06-01 | Anticipating Impacts: AI Governance and the Question of ForesightSpeaker: Nick Diakopoulos, Northwestern UniversitySeminar from Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.Anticipating the impacts of new AI technology in society is central to recent initiatives meant to help effectively govern it. But it’s also just fundamentally hard. The way in which a technology evolves and intersects with human intentions and social forces as it is deployed is subject to a range of uncertainties, including complex technical, social, and policy dynamics which may modulate the direction of sociotechnical development. Yet recent policy proposals, such as the EU AI Act, explicitly call for developers to identify “foreseeable risks” for high-risk uses of AI. How then should we go about developing the foresight needed? In this talk, I’ll describe several studies that examine and develop different foresight approaches, considering factors such as who does the foresight and at what phase of the project foresight is developed. I’ll then discuss the need to develop methodological standards and normative expectations in order to exercise a form of forward-looking accountability which holds actors responsible for their ability to effectively develop foresight.Nicholas Diakopoulos is an Associate Professor in Communication Studies and Computer Science (by courtesy) at Northwestern University where he is Director of the Computational Journalism Lab (CJL) and Director of Graduate Studies for the Technology and Social Behavior (TSB) PhD program. He is also an Associate Professor II at the University of Bergen Department of Information Science and Media Studies and is on sabbatical as a visiting researcher at the University of Amsterdam IVIR during the 2022-23 academic year. Diakopoulos' research is broadly oriented around topics related to Computational Journalism with active research projects on AI, automation, and algorithms in news production and distribution. He also pursues research in the area of AI, Ethics, & Society with projects related to algorithmic accountability, transparency, and impact. He is the author of the award-winning book Automating the News: How Algorithms are Rewriting the Media from Harvard University Press.
