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Roberto Simanowski
Keynote: “The Social Costs of Technological Progress: The Case of the Language Machine” (in German)
Every technology has the power to impose its own logic on its unsuspecting users. Are ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini weaning us off reading, writing, and thinking? Are they persuading us to adopt views we don’t even hold? Are they disempowering us precisely by being so eager to serve us? And are they perhaps so dangerous precisely because they seem to grant us everything we want? But what happens when we let a language machine explain the world to us, impart values, and take over our thinking?
In his new book Sprachmaschinen (Munich 2025), Roberto Simanowski examines the consequences of the ongoing transfer of sovereignty. In his keynote, he will discuss the geopolitical, epistemic, cognitive, and subjective aspects of digital sovereignty and its impending loss.
Masterclass following the keynote by Prof. Roberto Simanowski (in German)
Complementing the keynote address, the masterclass—limited to 25 participants—offers an intensive workshop and discussion format on the topic. It is explicitly open to all faculties and disciplines and provides an opportunity to reflect on one’s own research projects as well as to engage in direct dialogue with the invited speakers.
Recommended reading for the masterclass:
„Sprachmaschinen“ (München 2025)
About the speaker:
Prof. Dr. Roberto Simanowski earned his doctorate with a dissertation on mass literature around 1800 and completed his habilitation on art in digital media. He has served as a professor of cultural and media studies at Brown University in Providence, the University of Basel, and the City University of Hong Kong, as well as a visiting scholar at Harvard University and Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He lives as a writer in Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.
His book Todesalgorithmus received the 2020 Tractatus Prize for Philosophical Essays; his new book, Sprachmaschinen. Eine Philosophie der Künstlichen Intelligenz, was published by C.H.Beck in late 2025.
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