Kim Lisa Ermler published: “Everything Is Under Control … or Is It? Frames in German News Media Coverage on Trustworthy AI”

A new study by Kim Lisa Ermler and her co-authors examines how German news media portray “trustworthy AI” and assign responsibility for it. The findings reveal tensions between challenging existing power asymmetries and legitimizing certain actors as providers of trustworthy technologies.

We are happy to share that our lab member, Kim Lisa Ermler, along with Jule Scheper, Tim Robin Kosack, and Christoph Klimmt, has explored the phenomenon of artificial intelligence in public debate in a newly published paper, “Everything Is Under Control… or Is It? Frames in German News Media Coverage on Trustworthy AI”.

Following the release of ChatGPT in 2022, trustworthy AI emerged as a central topic across Europe, with news outlets shaping public opinion and policy agendas. Through a qualitative frame analysis, the findings reveal how media coverage articulates a specific European vision of AI and delineates who is portrayed as responsible for delivering it.

The study realizes that media coverage often problematizes existing power asymmetries while simultaneously legitimizing specific corporate and regional actors as the primary providers of “trustworthy technologies”. This raises important questions about future digital inequalities in access, voice, and control.

Read the full open-access paper here: https://eplus.uni-salzburg.at/JKM/download/pdf/14503541