DESCRIPTION
As AI becomes deeply embedded in communication systems, it increasingly acts not just as a tool, but as an active communicator that reshapes how information is produced, circulated, and trusted. This panel addresses how communication theory must respond to these emerging challenges from a human-centered perspective. Grounded in interconnected themes, speakers will question when AI disrupts traditional sender–message–receiver models and lowers the cost of producing mis- and disinformation. The discussion will analyze the responsibilities distributed across platforms, developers, and regulators, ultimately addressing how humans should communicate ethically to preserve integrity in automated environments.
As artificial intelligence becomes deeply embedded in communication systems, it increasingly acts not just as a tool, but as a communicator, reshaping how information is produced, circulated, interpreted, and trusted. This panel will discuss how communication theory and practice must respond to emerging challenges to information integrity from a human-centered perspective. The panel discussion is structured around five interconnected themes: (1) AI-mediated communication, questioning when AI disrupts traditional sender–message–receiver models and blurs boundaries of agency, intentionality, and responsibility, how humans consume AI-generated messages. (2) When generative AI has dramatically lowered the cost and increased the scale and speed of producing mis-and disinformation, how it complicates individuals’ ability to navigate the environment where the boundaries between truth, error, and fabrication are increasingly ambiguous. (3) These challenges are further complicated by platform algorithms and governance structures, which shape what information becomes visible, amplified, or suppressed. What responsibilities should be distributed across platforms, developers, and regulators and users? (4) In AI-mediated environments, trust is no longer confined to media institutions but extends to complex networks of human and non-human actors. Understanding how trust is constructed, eroded, and recalibrated across these relationships is essential for sustaining functioning information ecosystems. (5) Through discussing these four related questions, this panel will turn to a normative and important question: how should humans communicate ethically in the age of AI? It will reflect on what forms of ethical communication practices and integrated literacies are required to preserve integrity in increasingly automated and opaque systems.
Panelists specializing in these thematic areas are warmly welcomed to share their insights into the intersections between technological transformation and human responsibility, highlighting the critical role of human agency in sustaining information integrity in AI-medicated communication ecosystem.
