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Generative AI is revolutionising areas of life such as education, work and science, but also brings with it challenges such as guaranteeing quality and truthfulness. With the new research focus, the institute is addressing the question of when and how much trust is appropriate in relation to generative AI, be it in the creation, interaction or evaluation of AI-generated products. From 2025, the bidt will specifically fund projects that examine this topic from different angles.
Professor Hannah Schmid-Petri, holder of the Chair of Science Communication at the University of Passau and member of the bidt Board of Directors, will head the new research focus "Humans and Generative AI: Trust in Co-Creation". "Trust is the linchpin for the successful use of generative AI. With our new bidt focus, we want to find out how we can shape the interaction between humans and AI in such a way that it benefits people and society in the long term," she summarises. Schmid-Petri is also researching her own project on trust and AI. Business information scientist Professor Ulrich Gnewuch is leading another project as part of the new research focus.
An overview of the research projects involving the University of Passau:
The project is investigating the extent to which AI in journalistic reports can help to increase the willingness to accept messages and promote the objective discussion of counterarguments. More about the project:
How do users make decisions when interacting with an AI co-pilot? The project investigates the design of trustworthy generative AI co-pilots and their influence on the business decisions of users without a technical background. More about the project:
The funded projects are two of a total of ten projects that the bidt is funding as part of the new research focus. The projects were selected as part of the bidt's annual call for proposals on the topic of trust and AI and won through in a competitive process due to their excellent quality, topicality and relevance.
In addition to the projects in the research focus area, two further consortium projects from Bavaria were selected as part of the annual call for proposals. One of these is also based at the University of Passau:
The project raises two questions: How and with what consequences are LLMs developed under strict supervision and censorship in today's Russia? And what are the implications of authoritarian data when fed into democratic LLM-based systems? Read more:
The funded projects strengthen the focus on digitalisation at the University of Passau, where researchers are also working on the technical, social, ethical and legal consequences of generative artificial intelligence in an interdisciplinary manner.
This text was machine-translated from German.
