AI, Computing and Society

Research on Artificial Intelligence, Computing and Society at MPI-SWS tackles the pressing scientific, engineering and societal challenges posed by an increasingly AI-driven world.  Recent research includes AI-based tutoring systems, computational models of language processing in the brain that also inform improvements to large language models, methods for enhancing the transparency and reliability of modern AI systems, frameworks that support compliance of AI systems with EU regulations such as the AI Act and the Digital Services Act, and automated decision-support systems in high-stakes domains.

News

When AI and Humans Stumble Over Program Code

November 2025
New study shows that humans and large language models respond surprisingly similarly to confusing program code.

Abhilasha Ravichander joins MPI-SWS as tenure-track faculty

September 2025
Abhilasha Ravichander joins the tenure-track faculty at our institute starting starting October 1.

Mariya Toneva awarded ERC Starting Grant

September 2025
Mariya Toneva has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros for her project "brain-aligned language models for long-range language understanding and neuroscientific insight."

Manuel Gomez-Rodriguez awarded ERC Consolidator Grant

December 2024
Manuel Gomez-Rodriguez has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant of circa 2 million euros for his project "Counterfact: Counterfactuals in Minds and Machines."

Eleni Straitouri awarded a 2024 Google Fellowship

November 2024
MPI-SWS student Eleni Straitouri, advised by Manuel Gomez Rodriguez, was awarded a 2024 Google PhD Fellowship to fund her doctoral research on on using machine learning to build automated decision support systems that can reliably improve the decisions of human experts.

Papers