How do you want to mould the profile of the professorship and which topics are close to your heart?

Computational Social Science is a young interdisciplinary field that combines the tools of computer science with perspectives from psychology, sociology, political science and economics. The Faculty of Media and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar offer an enormously exciting environment for this: from intelligent information systems and human-computer interaction to media studies and media management, there are numerous opportunities for collaboration. Computational Social Science can be understood in this case as an intersectional professorship that helps with shaping and advancing questions with relevance for the future across disciplinary boundaries.

In this interdisciplinary orientation of the professorship I will introduce two thematic focuses close to my heart: firstly, the concept of technology assessment. As algorithms and AI systems increasingly become an integral part of our everyday lives, we need to understand their impact and the implications for our society. Secondly, I will examine the question of how AI systems can support collective action. In order to preserve our livelihoods, people across the globe will need to cooperate better. I plan to investigate the ways in which AI systems can contribute to this.

What are your research priorities for the coming years?

There has been dramatic progress in the field of generative artificial intelligence in recent years. OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini are powered by technical developments we still barely understand. But the products of these developments will increasingly become part of our lives in the coming years and will change the way we communicate and act. Even as I write this text, I could use AI-based tools to suggest topics or optimise my writing style – to save time or sound more convincing, for example. And if you have come across this article via search engines or a feed, it is algorithms that have led you here. 

AI systems, thus, are playing an increasingly active role in our daily communication, and it is here that we come to the focus of my research for the next few years: What happens – and what can go wrong – when AI systems change the way we communicate and act? I have shown, for example, that texts formulated by humans with the help of an AI writing assistant tend to adopt the “opinions” and ideas of the AI to a great extent. In our experiments, use of an AI writing assistant not only changed what study participants wrote; when we asked participants for their personal opinions after completion, these were also influenced by the AI. 

There are myriad exciting and urgent questions I would like to explore at such intersections between humans, machines and culture. That my research establishes a connection to the social debates of our time and accompanies them scientifically is important to me. The above-mentioned study, for example, was cited in the U.S. Senate and reported on in the Wall Street Journal. I would like to find ways through my research to contribute to society in Weimar and Europe.

What can students look forward to in your courses?

Students can look forward to addressing current, salient topics of social relevance, upon which we will elaborate using the tools of computer science and perspectives from adjacent disciplines. In my teaching, I emphasise experiential learning, transdisciplinary discussions and a clear link to the research activities of the professorship. In the current semester, for example, I am offering a project in which students design experiments to understand the risks presented by generative AI. The practical work on the project becomes the starting point for analysing psychological, political and economic issues. Students will simultaneously deepen their skills in the areas of programming, machine learning and scientific work. 

I am certain that computer scientists and media scientists with a background in social sciences and an understanding of technology can make a very special contribution to developments of our time. The more deeply we integrate digital technology into our lives, the more urgently we require interdisciplinary specialists who not only drive forward technical developments but also reflect on and shape them from a social perspective. This is where I would like to begin with my courses. 

What does »Bauhaus« mean to you?

Joy in experimentation, interdisciplinarity in practice and a creative will that attempts to provide solutions to the questions of our time.

About Dr. Jakesch:

Maurice Jakesch has studied Electrical Engineering at ETH Zurich, Information Technology at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Philosophy of Technology at TU Munich and Information Science at Cornell University. He completed his doctorate at Cornell University with his dissertation »Assessing the Effects and Risks of Large Language Models«. There he laid the foundation for his current research, which has been published in distinguished journals and presented in international media and politics.  Jakesch was awarded a scholarship by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, became a fellow of the Cornell Digital Life Initiative and has held various scientific positions at MIT, Harvard and the Leibniz Institute. He has implemented innovative digital projects at several start-ups as well as Microsoft, GE, Facebook and the Boston Consulting Group.

Further information can be found on the Professorship website: https://www.uni-weimar.de/de/medien/professuren/medieninformatik/computational-social-science/  

The Professorship of Computational Social Science is one of three W1 professorships with tenure track at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar funded under the »PROF-IT 25« programme to support digitalisation in higher education by the Thüringer Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Digitale Gesellschaft (Thuringian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Science and Digital Society).