As part of the SENTIMENT project, a workshop was held with art students from the University of Kassel in collaboration with psychologist Lisa Mühl and legal scholar Maxi Nebel. The session introduced students to the project’s research focus on intimacy, communication, and privacy in human–AI interaction, situating it within broader scientific and societal debates. Researchers also shared methodological insights, discussing how data is collected and analyzed across disciplines. The workshop emphasized the value of interdisciplinary perspectives and provided students with a practical view of research in action.

In October 2025, the SENTIMENT project will present its research at two major conferences in Germany. At the Privacy Platform conference in Berlin (October 1–2), a panel will discuss “Conversational AI Agents: Current and Future Challenges.” On October 8, at the 20th anniversary conference of the Research Center for Information Systems Design (ITeG) in Kassel, SENTIMENT will host a workshop on “Experiencing Intimate Communication with AI.” The event combines interactive hands-on sessions with chat and voicebots and an accompanying art exhibition from Kunsthochschule Kassel.

Our research on human–AI romantic relationships has been featured across Germany’s national media landscape, including the SWR documentary series Vollbild (with accompanying Tagesschau article), the SWR Wissen radio program, and a live interview on WDR’s Hier und Heute. These appearances provided a platform to present our findings on the psychological, ethical, and societal implications of intimacy with AI chatbots to a broad public audience. By highlighting both the potential and risks of AI-mediated companionship, and by engaging in public dialogue on trust, imagination, and the value of human connection, we extend our research beyond academia and contribute to shaping critical discourse on how intimacy evolves in the digital age.

Participation in the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2025 in Yokohama provided the SENTIMENT project with a platform to present research on intimacy, communication, and privacy in human–chatbot interactions. Through talks, demonstrations, and international networking, the conference highlighted future challenges of digital intimacy and safe spaces in interactive technologies. A pre-conference visit to the Embodied Media Lab at Keio University, Tokyo, enriched the exchange by offering insights into embodied interaction and immersive media environments, fostering new perspectives and collaborations for SENTIMENT.

Understanding Intimate Self-Disclosure in Natural Language Dialogue Systems

In the project SENTIMENT, visual design elements such as the typing indicator and phonetic systems are used to translate presence, speech, and dialogue into a minimalist design language that reflects the project’s core themes.