Dominic Lammar is a doctoral student at the Munich School of Social Sciences and Technology since 2022. Working in the “Responsible Innovation Communication” focus group, he investigates public communication on Artificial Intelligence in Germany. Here, he conducted a media analysis as well as interviews with AI researchers to better understand German narratives around AI.
Previously, Dominic completed a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences in Freiburg and London and a Master’s degree in Science and Technology Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Responsible Innovation Communication Focus Group
Time Frame: 2022-2025
Funding Institution: TUM Institute for Advanced Studies
We aim to develop research and teaching in the area of public communication of emerging technology using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an exemplary case. In particular, we will focus on the representation of scientists in public discourse as well as the role scientists play in producing public narratives. As a strategic priority, AI is expected to have disruptive and transformative effects in many industries and in the public sphere as well. Simultaneously, some voices in the public sphere also consider AI a threat to social values and practices. We focus on the effects of such a highly charged public and policy communication environment on the conditions for responsible research and innovation within AI. Radical expectations about the potential of future technology are important for the generation of resources, but they can also have adverse effects, for instance on the political decision-making to allow, postpone or deny experimental use of big data or AI in public services. Communication and responsiveness is therefore not an add-on to AI development, but a constituent part of how technologies can be developed in responsible ways.
- Speculating about Digital Futures: Unravelling future worlds through stories & science fiction. Immersion Project. Winter semester 2025/26.
- “Legal, Ethical, and Social Challenges of Biomedicine.” Seminar. Summer semester 2023, 2024, 2025.
- “AI in the Media – Between Hope and Hype?” Guest lecture in the course “AI in and for Society: Science, Technology and Society in the Digital Age” by Prof. Dr. Jörg Niewöhner. January 2025.
- "STS1: Practices and Politics of Science and Technology”, Winter semester 2022/23; 2023/24.
- “On Jokes and Boundaries: How Machine Learning Practitioners Navigate Hyped Expectations Through Memes”, co-held with Oksana Dorofeeva, Association of Internet Researchers Conference. University of Fluminense, Brazil, October 2025.
- “Laughing at or with hype? An analysis of AI hype memes,” Co-held with Oksana Dorofeeva, Critical Hype Studies Conference. University of Barcelona, August 2025.
- “Navigating Hype and Responsibility: Expectations in Communicating Medical AI,” 6th European Technology Assessment Conference (ETAC6), Institute of Technology Assessment of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Vienna, July 2025.
- “From Hype to Responsibility: Navigating Expectations in Communicating Medical AI,” International Symposium on Responsible AI: Promises, Pitfalls, and Practices. Center for Responsible AI Technologies, Munich, April 2025.
- “AI in the German Media: Narratives of AI-in-Particular and AI-in-General in German Media Reporting about Artificial Intelligence,” Joint Conference of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 2024.
- “The German AI Communication Ecosystem: Tracing the Contested Meanings of an Emerging Technology in Public Debates,” Conference: Nowhere(to)land? What Science Studies Contribute to Science Communication. University of Bonn, Germany, June 2023.