Institute of Cognitive Science

 Prof. Dr. Rainer Mühlhoff has been awarded the  Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s “The Political Book” prize for his work “Artificial Intelligence and the New Fascism.” The award ceremony will take place on May 21, 2026, in Berlin, and includes a cash prize of 10,000 euros. The jury praised Mühlhoff’s in-depth analysis of how “tech ideologies” spin quasi-religious narratives of salvation around AI while obscuring real harms such as data misuse, surveillance, economic exploitation, and the weakening of democracy. The book demonstrates how unchecked AI development undermines democratic institutions and erodes legal norms. The prize thus honors critical, clearly presented contributions to current socio-political issues.

How strongly does language shape our thoughts and actions?  Prof. Dr. Nicole Gotzner discusses this topic with other invited experts on the 3-sat talk show NANO Talk “New Ways of Speaking – How Our Language Betrays Us” (in german). This topic is more relevant than ever, because communication is omnipresent, and language, as a powerful tool, not only conveys information, but can also influence our emotions and behavior and even change the structure of our brains.

On March 5, the University of Osnabrück awarded prizes to students, doctoral candidates, and graduates for outstanding academic achievements and exceptional commitment, including five students of Cognitive Science:

Simone Anthes (Masterarbeit, CogSci Network e.V.)
Arne Klages (Masterarbeit, ROSEN Gruppe)
Kristina Kobrock (Promotion, Universitätsverlag Osnabrück/Brill Deutschland GmbH)
Kim Targan (Masterarbeit, CogSci Network e.V.)
Annemarie Witschas (Masterarbeit, CogSci Network e.V.)

A big thank you to the donors and congratulations to all the award winners!

On February 20,  Anke Pörksen, State Secretary for Digitalization of Lower Saxony, visited the IKW. She explored cutting‑edge neuroscience, technical innovations, and AI applications in work and medicine—being especially impressed by  Prof. Sebastian Musslick's and his team's autonomous AI system that runs entire research workflows. Hands‑on demos from the startup  reDreamAI and our new AI robot LouKI capped a friendly, mutually‑beneficial meeting.