About the Project

• Duration: 07/2022 - 11/2023
• Funding provided by: The Ludwig Boltzmann Society (LBG)
   

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming increasingly important as part of our everyday lives and in the way we socially interact; and not everyone has the same degree of understanding and awareness. Members of the general public do not possess a level of expertise about AI (AI Literacy) in order expertly and realistically assess both the opportunities and risks of AI. To benefit from new technological developments, it is important to spread a basic understanding of AI Literacy.

"How to Explain AI" was a participatory process project supported by the LIT Robopsychology Lab to explore just how we can raise more understanding and awareness about AI among the general population: What do laymen know about the subject in terms of a base-knowledge understanding and ideas? What kind of questions do citizens have about AI in relation to their everyday lives? And just how should we present answers to these questions so that they generate interest and the greatest possible number of people can relate to them?

In order to develop an informative, innovative AI explanation format, "How to Explain AI" involved three groups of co-researchers: Citizen Scientists, Artists, and AI Experts. Bringing these groups together made it possible to identify corresponding questions about AI, and to answer them in a more substantiated way by applying new and artistically accompanied forms of knowledge transfer. The objective was to implement concrete intervention(s) to support a better understanding of AI among the general population and evaluate them as part of an impact study. The educational intervention structure could range from a co-creatively designed stage performance, and audio-visual installations in public spaces, to a poster campaign.

The intervention impact study findings and the entire participatory research process findings were then disseminated to the scientific community as well as to the broader population.