Paula Ebner

Hi! I'm Paula, and I recently joined the Human Understanding of Machines and Algorithms group, while finishing my PhD at INTITEC at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

I hold a bachelor's degree in psychology and a research master's degree in legal psychology from Maastricht University.

My dissertation focuses on the polarizing topic of romantic and sexual relationships between humans and AI chatbots. My main goal for my research is that instead of only theorizing, I reach out to people who are in such synthetic relationships, interview and survey them, and try to do justice to their reasoning, backgrounds and experiences in my research. I'm especially interested in the role of romantic and sexual fantasy, a dimension of human-AI interaction that has so far been largely overlooked.

Beyond that, my research interests lie at the intersection of AI research and legal psychology, include non-consensual forms of pornography, such as deepfakes, and AI-generated CSAM. New technologies raise new questions about intimacy, consent, harm and responsibility, and I love working right at that crossroads.