Andreas Hepp Visiting Scholar at Stanford University

What characterizes the “intellectual landscape” surrounding the development of artificial intelligence in California? ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp is currently researching pioneering communities in Silicon Valley as a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

Andreas Hepp will be working with the Silicon Valley Archives, among others, until October 20, 2025 as part of his research stay and continuing his media ethnographic research into the intellectual landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A central project of the residency is the completion of a book on “Pioneer Communities”, which is due to be published by Polity Press next year. The research is specifically linked to the goals of the DFG/FWF Research Unit 5656 “Communicative AI” (ComAI), especially with regard to the analysis of communicative infrastructures and actor networks around AI technologies. The stay was planned in close collaboration with Prof. Fred Turner (Stanford University). Andreas Hepp will also be supported on site by Dr. Henry Lowood, curator of the Silicon Valley Archives.

Andreas Hepp is spokesperson for the DFG Research Research “Communicative AI” (ComAI) and head of the “Datafication and Mediatization” lab at ZeMKI. Further information on his research can be found here: https://zemki.maltem.de/en/person/andreas-hepp/