Artificial Intelligence Archives

January 9, 2026January 14, 2026

SETI Instead of METI

As part of the ToBIT event series at the FHNW School of Business, four students of Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel explored four topics related to his field of research during the Fall 2025/2026 semester: “The decoding of symbolic languages of animals”, “The decoding of animal body language”, “The decoding of animal facial expressions and behavior”, and “The decoding of extraterrestrial languages”. The students presented their papers on January 9, 2026. In some cases, the state of research was not only reviewed, but an independent position was also developed. The paper “The decoding of extraterrestrial languages” by Ilija Bralic argues that Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI), in contrast to passive SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), creates a dangerous imbalance between humanity’s rapidly expanding technical capacity to send interstellar messages and its limited ethical, scientific, and political ability to govern this power responsibly. The central thesis is that the moral justifications for METI are speculative and anthropocentric, relying largely on optimistic assumptions about extraterrestrial behavior, while the potential risks are severe, logically grounded, and potentially existential. These risks include fundamental misinterpretation caused by the “human lens,” strategic dangers described by the Dark Forest hypothesis, historical patterns of harm in technologically asymmetric encounters, and profound cultural, psychological, and political disruption. The paper concludes that unilateral METI decisions by individuals or private groups are ethically indefensible and that, under the Precautionary Principle, humanity should immediately halt active transmissions. As a solution, it proposes a binding international governance framework, including a temporary global moratorium, the creation of a dedicated international authority, a strict multi-stage decision-making protocol, and robust transparency and monitoring mechanisms. This approach frames responsible restraint – not transmission – as humanity’s first genuine test of cosmic maturity.

January 6, 2026January 6, 2026

AI and Human Creativity

As part of the AAAI Spring Symposia, the symposium “Will AI Light Up Human Creativity or Replace It?: Toward Well-Being AI for co-evolving human and machine intelligence” focuses on how advances in generative AI, large language models, and multi-agent systems are transforming human creativity and decision-making. It addresses the central question of whether AI will amplify human potential or increasingly take its place. The symposium advances the idea of Well-Being AI, emphasizing human-AI collaboration and co-evolution rather than AI as an isolated or autonomous system. While highlighting the potential of AI to support creativity, discovery, and personal development, it also examines risks such as overreliance, reduced diversity of thought, and loss of human autonomy. Chaired by Takashi Kido (see photo) of Teikyo University and Keiki Takadama of The University of Tokyo, the symposium brings together researchers and practitioners from technical, philosophical, and social disciplines to discuss principles and frameworks for AI that augments rather than replaces human creativity. Further information on this symposium and the broader AAAI Spring Symposia organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence can be found at https://aaai.org/conference/spring-symposia/sss26/ and webpark2506.sakura.ne.jp/aaai/sss26-will-ai-light-up-human-creativity-or-replace-it/.

December 25, 2025December 25, 2025

Talking to a Robot

The article “Small Talk with a Robot Reduces Stress and Improves Mood” by Katharina Kühne, Antonia L. Z. Klöffel, Oliver Bendel, and Martin H. Fischer was published on December 23, 2025. It is part of the volume “Social Robotics + AI: 17th International Conference, ICSR+AI 2025, Naples, Italy, September 10–12, 2025, Proceedings, Part III.” From the abstract: “Research has demonstrated that social support is crucial in mitigating stress and enhancing mood. Not only do long-term, meaningful relationships contribute to well-being, but everyday social interactions, such as small talk, also offer psychological benefits. As social robots increasingly become more integrated into daily life, they present a potential avenue for stress interventions. In our online study, 98 participants underwent a stress induction using the Stroop task and were then assigned to one of three conditions: engaging in scripted small talk with a simulated NAO robot online, listening to a neutral story told by the same NAO robot, or no intervention (control condition). Results indicate that both interventions effectively reduced stress, with a tendency towards a stronger effect in the Small talk condition. Small talk not only helped maintain positive affect but also reduced negative affect. Notably, the benefits were more pronounced among individuals experiencing higher acute stress following the stress induction, but were less evident in those with chronically elevated stress levels. Furthermore, the effect of the intervention on stress reduction was mediated by changes in positive affect. These findings suggest that small talk with a social robot may serve as a promising tool for stress reduction and affect regulation.” The first author, a researcher from the University of Potsdam, presented the paper on September 12, 2025, in Naples. It can be downloaded from link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-95-2398-6_1.

December 9, 2025December 10, 2025

Sexuality and Generative AI

The upcoming “SAGA: Sexuality and Generative AI” symposium, taking place on April 30, 2026 at the Université du Québec à Montréal, explores how generative AI is reshaping intimacy, desire, relationships, and sexual expression. As AI systems increasingly create images, stories, and even interactive romantic companions, they raise new ethical, legal, and social questions that researchers, practitioners, and industry voices will tackle together. The hybrid, bilingual event is free and open to all, offering live translation and captioning. In its first block on social impacts, the symposium features talks such as Brian Willoughby’s exploration of how romantic AI affects young adults’ relationships, Arnaud Anciaux’s analysis of ownership and consent around AI-generated sexual content, Beáta Bőthe’s work on AI-generated pornography and problematic use, and Oliver Bendel’s look at erotic chatbot interactions. With discussions ranging from the regulation of AI-generated pornography to digital intimacy and AI-supported therapeutic interventions, the event promises a rich and essential conversation. Full details and submissions are available at https://event.fourwaves.com/sexualiteia/pages.

November 20, 2025November 25, 2025

AI Systems Harm the German Language

Users who translate texts from English or another language into German and are not native speakers of the target language should be cautious when using services such as DeepL and ChatGPT. 1. For both, the default setting is not the standard language, as one might assume, but a special language that is rejected by the majority of the language community and does not follow the official rules. These are determined for all German-speaking countries by the Rechtschreibrat. DeepL and ChatGPT follow their own rules or the inconsistent ideas of activists. The German language generated by DeepL and ChatGPT is often dysfunctional, incorrect, and imprecise. Formal inaccuracies can lead to inaccuracies in content. 2. If AI systems do not know words, they may simply replace them with completely different ones. In one test, DeepL translated “Animal-Computer Interaction” as “Mensch-Computer-Interaktion” (“Human-Computer Interaction”). This made the text factually incorrect. 3. Overall, especially with ChatGPT, English language structures are transferred to German. This results in unnatural-sounding lists, unlinked compounds (“Deep Learning Modelle” or “Deep Learning-Modelle” instead of “Deep-Learning-Modelle”), and unnecessary or incorrect hyphens (“nicht-amtliche Regeln” instead of “nichtamtliche Regeln”).