DistantNews
Support us
🇦🇹 Austria /Technology

IDea_Lab: Using Humor to Fight Hate and Conspiracy Theories

From Die Presse · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • The University of Graz's IDea_Lab uses an interdisciplinary approach to study digital transformation and address its effects on society.
  • The center's work includes examining artificial intelligence, developing a university chatbot and creating rules for handling research data.
  • Its leaders say the lab also tests digital tools within the university, including in administration and research.

At the University of Graz's IDea_Lab, a cup of coffee helps set the tone for a research center tackling some of the darker sides of digitalization. The atmosphere is relaxed, but the ambitions are not.

"We want to treat each other well and still be successful," said Jana Lasser, a professor of data analysis who leads the center's research area. The IDea_Lab officially opened in 2023 and was created to help shape digital transformation through work that crosses academic boundaries.

We want to treat each other well and still be successful.

— Jana LasserThe data-analysis professor described the working culture the IDea_Lab seeks to maintain.

Markus Fallenböck, the university's vice rector for personnel and digitalization and head of the lab, said the center emerged from a recognition that digital issues cannot be viewed only through technical, legal, economic or psychological lenses. The lab's creation also coincided with the rapid rise of ChatGPT. "It was a historical coincidence. We caught exactly the ChatGPT moment," he said.

It was a historical coincidence. We caught exactly the ChatGPT moment.

— Markus FallenböckHe explained why the center's development coincided with the rapid emergence of ChatGPT.

Fallenböck compared the change to the disruption caused by the internet in the 1990s. He warned against both excessive optimism about new technologies and the later tendency to dismiss their effects. "We often overestimate the short-term effects and underestimate the long-term effects of technologies," he said. The university wants not only to study how technology affects society, but also to use new knowledge for public benefit.

The lab is applying that approach inside the university. It has developed a university chatbot, which Fallenböck said was Austria's first in 2024, and created a policy for handling research data. Large datasets used by the lab serve as a testing ground for the needs of researchers. IDea_Lab also aims to embed artificial intelligence in university administration and research, arguing that the institution cannot study leading-edge applications while falling behind in its own operations.

We often overestimate the short-term effects and underestimate the long-term effects of technologies.

— Markus FallenböckHe warned against misjudging the broader effects of new technologies.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Presse in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog