International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)

Maria Pawelec

Research Group Media Ethics, Philosophy of Technology & AI

Maria Pawelec studied Politics and Public Administration and Contemporary European Studies in Konstanz, Istanbul, Bath and Berlin. In 2016, she joined the IZEW as a Research Associate working on media and technology ethics. She is currently researching questions of privacy, ethics, and IT security in the metaverse in the project PriMeta. Her research interests include new technologies and democracy, AI ethics, deepfakes, disinformation, technology and platform governance.

Career

Maria Pawelec studied Politics and Public Administration and Contemporary European Studies in Konstanz, Istanbul, Bath and Berlin. She then worked in the department for “International Relations Europe and its Neighbors” of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart. From 2016-2019, she worked as a Research Associate at the IZEW on the project “Ethical implications of IT-export to sub-Saharan Africa (ELISA)”. Additionally, she supported the project Privacy-Arena in and coordinated the preparation of an expert report on behalf of the German Bundestag on the social and psychological impact of technological surveillance. In 2020, she worked on the project “Technological Innovation: Social Science and Ethical Analyses on Governance (TANGO)”. Since 2021, Maria Pawelec has been studying the “Ethical and societal implications of ‘deepfakes’ and opportunities for their regulation” within the project "Digitalization in dialogue (digilog@bw)". 2022-2025, she researched the prevention of digital desinformation campaign within the project PREVENT. From 2024-2025, she also advised and supported the Federal Agency for Civic Education in creating the dossier “When perceptions deceive - Deepfakes and political reality”  and respective educational materials. Since 2025, she is working on questions of privacy and ethics in the metaverse within the project PriMeta. She also delivers scientific and public talks and workshops on deepfakes, disinformation, and the influence of artificial intelligence on democracy.

Publications

Journal articles
Monographs
Book chapters and conference contributions

  • Stieglitz, Stefan; Fromm, Jennifer; Kocur, Alexander; Rostalski, Frauke; Duda, Michelle; Evans, Alison; Rieskamp, Jonas; Sievi, Luzia; Pawelec, Maria; Heesen, Jessica; Loh, Wulf; Fuchß, Christopher; Eyilmez, Kaan (2025): What Measures Can Government Institutions in Germany Take Against Digital Disinformation? A Systematic Literature Review and Ethical-Legal Discussion. In: Daniel Beverungen, Christiane Lehrer und Matthias Trier (Hrsg.): Transforming the Digitally Sustainable Enterprise. Cham: Springer Nature, pp. 319-337 (previously preprint as Conference Paper, WI23: 18th International Conference on Business Informatics, Paderborn, 2023)

  • Pawelec, Maria (2022): Deepfakes als Chance für die Demokratie? (Deepfakes as an opportunity for democracy?) In: Alexander Bogner, Michael Decker, Michael Nentwich, Constanze Scherz (eds.): Digitalisierung und die Zukunft der Demokratie - Beiträge aus der Technikfolgenabschätzung (Digitalisation and the future of democracy - Contributions from technology assessment), pp. 89-101.

  • Pawelec, Maria; Schopp, Kerstin; Heesen, Jessica (2021): Information justice in Africa: Insights on Information Ethics connected to Nelson Mandela's thinking. In: Coetzee Bester, Johannes Britz, Rafael Capurro und Rachel Fischer (Eds.): Nelson Mandela –  A Reader on Information Ethics in cooperation with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, pp. 87-132.

  • Baur-Ahrens, Andreas; Hagendorff, Thilo; Pawelec, Maria (2017): Kryptografie. In: Joel Baumann and Jörn Lamla (ed.): Privacy Arena. Kontroversen um Privatheit im digitalen Zeitalter. Kassel: Kassel University Press, pp. 40-55.

  • Baur-Ahrens, Andreas; Hagendorff, Thilo; Pawelec, Maria (2017): Big Data. In: Joel Baumann and Jörn Lamla (ed.): Privacy Arena. Kontroversen um Privatheit im digitalen Zeitalter. Kassel: Kassel University Press, pp. 96-113.

  • Upadhyay, Dinoj Kumar; Pawelec, Maria (2016): State-building and police reform in Afghanistan: EU and US engagement in comparative perspective. In: Ingo Peters (ed.): The European Union's Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective: Beyond the "Actorness" and "Power" Debate. London: Routledge, pp. 165-186.

Policy advice
Project publications

Further contributions
Editorial board
  • Heesen, Jessica; Schelenz, Laura; Schopp, Kerstin; Pawelec, Maria (2021): Digitalisation in the Global South. Special Issue, TATuP Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice.

 

Interviews and media appearances

  • “Immer mehr Fake-News und Desinformation: Ein Thema auch in Ihrem Alltag?” ['More and more fake news and disinformation: an issue in your everyday life too?'], discussion (live) in the show “Tagesgespräch” [talk of the day] moderated by Stefan Parrisius on BR (radio) and ARD alpha (television), 6 November 2025.

  • “Gekommen, um zu bleiben” [‘Here to stay’], article by Andreas Scholz in the Haller Tagblatt, 28 October 2025.

  • “Experten fordern KI-Regeln für Landtagswahlkampf” [Experts call for AI rules in state election campaign], interview in the Evangelische Zeitung, 19 Oktober 2025.

  • “Sorgenvoller Blick auf die Landtagswahl" [A worried look at the state election], interview in the Stuttgarter Zeitung, 18 Oktober 2025.

  • “Disinformation through deepfakes – media manipulation in the age of artificial intelligence”, interview in “Das Gymnasium in Bayern – Die Zeitschrift für Lehrerinnen und Lehrer an Gymnasien und Beruflichen Oberschulen” [The Gymnasium in Bavaria – The magazine for teachers at grammar schools and vocational secondary schools], special issue “Democracy and education in challenging times”, pp. 36–37, September 2025.

  • “KI-Stimmen – Täuschend echt?” [AI voices – deceptively real?], interview with Martin Schramm in the podcast “IQ – Science and Research”, BR – Bayerischer Rundfunk, 29 July 2025.
  • “KI-generierte Geflüchtete: Kann ein Avatar für echte Schicksale sensibilisieren?” [AI-generated refugees: Can an avatar raise awareness for real-life plights?], Interview with Marcus Richter in “Breitband”, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 19 July 2025.

  • “Deepfakes – Vier Learnings von den Stuttgarter Tagen der Medienpädagogik” [Deepfakes - Four Learnings from the Stuttgart Days of Media Education", article by Madeleine Hankele-Gauß, Federal State Media Center Baden-Wuerttemberg, 18 March 2025.

  • “Satire mit KI-Fakes: Zwischen Humor und Falschinformation” [Satire with AI Fakes: Between Humour and False Information], article by Sophie Rohrmeier, BR24 Faktenfuchs, 15 February 2025.

  • “Über Geschichte aufklären können: Deepfakes als Chance für die politische-historische Bildung” ["Being able to educate about history: Deepfakes as an opportunity for political-historical education"], radio programme by Sam Howe in “Campus und Karriere”, Deutschlandfunk, 27 January 2025.

  • “Ein Bild reicht: Warum Deepfakes vor allem Frauen schaden” [One image is enough: Why deepfakes harm women in particular]. Interview with Hannah Moormann, University of Tübingen, 10 January 2025.

  • „Unmöglich, sich zu schützen“: Erschreckend viele Frauen werden Opfer von Deepfake-Pornografie ["Impossible to protect oneself": A alarming number of women becomes victim of deepfake pornography]. Article by Anika Zuschke, Frankfurter Rundschau, 2 April 2024

  • «Superwahljahr 2024»: Open AI sagt, Chat-GPT könne nicht für politische Kampagnen eingesetzt werden. Diese Recherche zeigt das Gegenteil. ["Super election year 2024": Open AI says chat GPT cannot be used for political campaigns. This investigation shows the opposite]. Article by Gioia da Silva, Neue Züricher Zeitung, 14 February 2024.

  • Erste Parteien machen in Sachsen Politik mit künstlicher Intelligenz - Experten warnen. [First parties in Saxony are using artificial intelligence in politics - experts warn]. Article by Jim Kerzig, Freie Presse Sachsen, 22 January 2024.

  • Wir generieren uns eine eigene Realität. [We are generating our own reality]. Article by Olaf Pollaske in the CHIP magazine 01/2024, 5 January 2024.

  • Pizza beim Parteitag der Grünen: So bewerten Experten den KI-Fake vom Grünen-Parteitag [Pizza at the Green Party conference: How experts assess the AI fake from the Green Party conference]. Article by Sascha Maier in the Stuttgarter Nachrichten, 30 November 2023.

  • Let's assume that artificial intelligence replaces us. What then? tagesschau future podcast "mal angenommen" by Kristin Becker and Gábor Halász, 5 October 5 2023.

  • Dangers of Deepfakes for Media Credibility. Interview on Radio Bremen Zwei, 22 September 22 2023.

  • Deepfakes – Mediale Glaubwürdigkeit in Gefahr (A threat to media credibility). Interview with Sebastian Wellendorf in the programme "mediasres", 21 September 2023.

  • Deepfake Music? Wie die Technologie Einfluss auf die Musik nehmen kann. [How the technology can influence music.] 4-part mini-series by Kathrin Schunn, Karlsruhe University of Music, published on the Junge Kulturkanal, 3 September 2023.

  • You as a clone! Fraud using your voice, report (in German) by Tasnim Rödder for the regional public broadcasting corporation SWR as part of the documentary series "VOLLBILD", 18 July 2023.

  • Deepfakes: What are the risks, but also the opportunities for our society? Report by Maximilian Brose for the programme "Systemfragen", 1 July 2023 (more information here).

  • Wie groß ist die Gefahr von Deepfakes? [How big is the danger posed by deepfakes really?], Podcast by the project digilog@bw with Uwe Gradwohl, 17 December 2021.

  • Deepfakes als Gefahr für die Demokratie: Wie digitale Bild- und Tonfälschungen unser Vertrauen untergraben [Deepfakes as a threat to democracy: How digital image and audio fakes undermine our trust], i

Talks and presentations

Invited talks
  • Gefahren durch Deepfakes: Auswirkungen auf Demokratie und Gesellschaft und Wege zu mehr Resilienz. [The dangers of deepfakes: Impact on democracy and society and ways to increase resilience.] Invited short talk (online) at the advisory board meeting of the Agenda 2035+ initiative of the Hanover Region, 5 March 2026.
  • Deepfakes: KI als Herausforderung für die Demokratie und die Institution Schule.[Deepfakes: AI as a challenge for democracy and the institution of school.[ Invited lecture as part of the educational day at Wildermuth-Gymnasium Tübingen, supported by the State Agency for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg, 23 February 2026.
  • KI & Kommunikation: Deepfakes als Stresstest für die Demokratie [AI & Communication: Deepfakes as a stress test for democracy[. Invited online lecture as part of the IAKpublic lecture series organised by the Integrata Foundation for the Humane Use of Information Technology, 9 February 2026.
  • Synthetic Lies: How Deepfakes Reshape Power, Participation, and Public Trust  in Democratic Systems. Invites talk (online) at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Taiwan, 30. January 2026.
  • Potential dangers of AI: deepfakes, disinformation and digital scams. Invited talk at training seminar organised by the Baden-Württemberg Association for Agricultural Education, 8 January 2026.
  • The impact of deepfakes on politics and journalism. Workshop given as an invited expert to the  3rd annual EU Media Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan, 4 December 2025.
  • Deepfakes – Stand der Technik, Chancen und Risiken für die Demokratie, Kinder und Jugendliche und den Kontext Schule [Deepfakes – State of the Art, Opportunities and Risks for Democracy, Children and Young Adults, and the School Context], invited lecture as part of the workshop discussions of the Brandenburg State Institute for Schools and Teacher Training (online), 1 October 2025.
  • Manipulierte Wirklichkeit: Wie Deepfakes uns herausfordern [Manipulated reality: How deepfakes challenge us], invited keynote speech for journalists in the SWR Democracy Network (online), 30 September 2025.

  • Deepfakes – Wie gut ist die Technik und wie wirkt sie auf Politik und Gesellschaft? [Deepfakes – How good is the technology and how does it affect politics and society?], invited talk as part of the lecture series ‘My opinion, my choice – How opinion formation works online’ organised by the Media Authority for Baden-Württemberg LFK and ‘Silver Tips – Enjoying the internet’, 5 June 2025.

  • Deception – and Empowerment? Ethical and Political Dimensions of Deepfakes, invited keynote at the workshop “Combating Misinformation in the Digital Age: Cognitive Biases, Societal Challenges and Ethical Considerations” of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, 3 April 2025.

  • Chancen, Risiken und Gefahren für die Demokratie und das Gemeinwesen [Opportunities, risks and threats for democracy and the community], invited lecture at the symposium ‘Deepfakes and the Law’ of the Institute for Copyright and Media Law, Munich, 14 March 2025.

  • Gefahren und Potenziale audio-visueller generativer KI für Politik und Gesellschaft [Dangers and potentials of audio-visual generative AI for politics and society], invited keynote at the 47th Stuttgarter Tage der Medienpädagogik, Stuttgart, 12 March 2025.

  • Vertrauen in Zeiten der Desinformation? Demokratische Narrative angesichts von KI und technischem Fortschritt [Trust in times of disinformation? Democratic narratives against the background of AI and technological progress], invited talk at the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 29 November 2024 (link to recording).

  • „Olympics has fallen"? Chancen und Gefahren von Deepfakes für Politik, Gesellschaft und Sport [‘Olympics has fallen’? Opportunities and dangers of deepfakes for politics, society and sport], invited talk at the Württembergischer Landessportbund e.V. (WLSB) science forum, Stuttgart, 8 October 2024.

  • KI im Gespräch (Talking about AI): Deepfakes – Risks and Opportunities, panel discussion with Tim Rebig, moderated by Nadia Vohwinkel, as part of the StudiNight discussion series at the KI-Makerspace (AI Makerspace) in Tübingen, 6 June 2023

  • Ethical implications of immersive technologies and deepfakes in art and culture. Keynote together with Céline Gressel at the workshop "Immersive technologies in arts and culture" of the Goethe Instituts, 14-18 November 2022 in Taschkent/Usbekistan. Invited keynote, online. 17 November 2022. Slides.

Conference presentations
  • ‘Soft’ fakes? – Deepfakes for election campaigns and their impact on the public sphere, lecture at the conference ‘Creating Spaces for Digital Futures’ organised by the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS), Bochum, 9 October 2025.

  • Should security authorities counter false information on social media in ermergencies, disasters, and catastrophes? (with Luzia Sievi), presentation (online) at the International Congress on Disaster Ethics, Oviedo, Spain, 20 June 2024.

  • (Wie) Sollten Behörden und Organisationen mit Sicherheitsaufgaben (BOS) gegen Falschinformationen in den sozialen Medien umgehen? Ethische und demokratietheoretische Perspektiven [(How) Should security authorities and organisations deal with false information on social media? Ethical and democracy theoretical perspectives] (with Luzia Sievi), workshop at the Fachtagung Katastrophenvorsorge 2024, 23 April 2024 (link to recording).

  • Maßnahmen von BOS gegen sicherheitsrelevante Falschinformationen und ihre ethische Bewertung [Measures taken by security organisations and authorities against false information and their ethical assessment] (with Luzia Sievi), presentation at the Graduate Network for Civil Security, 28 June 2023.

  • Ethical deepfakes? The values held by deepfake developers and service providers, and their governance potential, CEPE 2023 (International Conference on Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry), virtual conference, 24 May 2023 (link to recording)

  • Deepfakes, Demokratie und öffentliche Kommunikation: Gefahren und Chancen [Deepfakes, Democracy and Public Communication: Challenges and Opportunities], NTA9-TA21 Conference "Digital, direkt, demokratisch? Technikfolgenabschätzung und die Zukunft der Demokratie" [Digital, direct, democratic? Technology assessment and the future of democracy] of the German network for Technology Assessment (NTA) and the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna/virtual event, 11 May 2021.

  • Deepfakes as a blessing and a curse – and how to govern their use in public communication, DACH 21 - Three-Country Conference on Communication Science "#Communication #(R)Evolution: Changing Communication in a Digital Society", Zurich/virtual event, 9 April 2021.

  • Encouraging the Development of Ethically and Societally ‘Desirable’ Technologies Through Innovation Governance, ECPR Virtual General Conference 2020 (European Consortium for Political Research

Policy advice and science communication

Policy advice
Science communication
  • Live discussion on TikTok about deepfakes with influencer Niko Kappe on behalf of the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) as part of the #deepdips awareness project, 3 June 2025.
  • Short interview on Instagram with the State Media Centre of Baden-Württemberg: "KI in der Bildung: Chance oder Risiko?" [‘AI in Education: Opportunity or Risk?’], March 2025.
  • Participation in the science communication project "I'm a Scientist" enabling students to ask scientists questions, organised by "Wissenschaft im Dialog" (science in dialogue), round on "AI and politics", February 2025.
  • Short interview on Instagram with digilog@bw: ‘What is the most important security problem in your field? What to do?", April 2024.
  • Interviews for interactive platform on deepfakes (in German), created by MA students of media studies at the University of Tübingen, 2024.
  • Participation in the science communication project "I'm a Scientist" enabling students to ask scientists questions, organised by "Wissenschaft im Dialog" (science in dialogue), round on "AI and films", January 2023.
Workshops
  • Deepfakes: Stand der Tecnik, Folgen und unser Umgang mit der Technologie [Deepfakes: State of the art, consequences and how we deal with the technology], workshop with 11th grade students, Carlo Schmid Gymnasium Tübingen, 26 February 2026.
  • Deepfakes: Was ist das? (Wie) Kann ich sie erkennen? Was macht das mit uns? Wie können wir mit ihnen umgehen? [Deepfakes: What are they? (How) Can I recognise them? How do they affect us? How can we deal with them?] Workshop with Year 8–11 pupils, Kolping School Fellbach, 24 July 2025.
  • Workshop “Deepfakes: Chancen und Gefahren synthetischer audio-visueller Medien und wie wir als Gesellschaft mit ihnen umgehen sollten” [‘Deepfakes: Opportunities and dangers of synthetic audio-visual media and how we as a society should deal with them’] with participants of the Christian Academic Association (CAV), International Forum Burg Liebenzell, 4 January 2025.

Awards

2021: Student Best Paper Award of the conference CEPE/IACAP 2021 for the paper "Deepfakes and Democracy (Theory): How Synthetic Audio-Visual Media for Disinformation and Hate Speech Threatens Core Democratic Functions".

Peer Review

  • Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (January 2026)
  • Information, Communication and Society (December 2025)
  • AI & Ethics (November 2025)
  • Advice on the structure and content of the handbook Ginsborg, Lisa and Paula Gori (2026): “Disinformation: A Multi-Disciplinary Analysis” (April 2023)

Completed projects

  • PREVENT (2022-2025, BMBF): Training approach to communicate individualized, coordinated, and automated measures to prevent digital disinformation campaigns
  • digilog@bw (2021-2022, Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts): 'Digitalization in Dialogue'
  • TANGO (2020, BMBF): ‘Technological Innovation: Social Science and Ethical Analyses on Governance (TANGO)’
  • ELISA (2016-2019): ‘Ethical Implications of IT-Exports to Sub-Sahara Africa‘
  • Expert report on behalf of the German Bundestag on the social and psychological impact of technological surveillance (2017)
  • Privacy-Arena (2016, BMBF): ‘Research Project for a Cartography and Analysis of the Privacy-Arena’