This article aims to define the research field of “automated communication” more clearly and recommends that we should broaden our view in order to better understand the current changes in the media environment. Instead of focusing on human-machine interaction alone, social communication should be considered in its entirety. The HBI researchers Wiebke Loosen, Stephan Dreyer and Wolfgang Schulz contributed to the article. It has been published open access in the journal Human-Machine Communication.
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Abstract
The aim of this article is to more precisely define the field of research on the automation of communication, which is still only vaguely discernible. The central thesis argues that to be able to fully grasp the transformation of the media environment associated with the automation of communication, our view must be broadened from a preoccupation with direct interactions between humans and machines to societal communication. This more widely targeted question asks how the dynamics of societal communication change when communicative artificial intelligence—in short: communicative AI—is integrated into aspects of societal communication. To this end, we recommend an approach that follows the tradition of figurational sociology.
Hepp, A.; Loosen, W.; Dreyer, S.; Jarke, J.; Kannengießer, S.; Katzenbach, C.; Malaka, R.; Pfadenhauer, M.; Puschmann, C.; Schulz, W. (2023): ChatGPT, LaMDA, and the Hype Around Communicative AI: The Automation of Communication as a Field of Research in Media and Communication Studies. Human-Machine Communication, 6, 41-63. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.6.4