Annual topic «fact/fake/fiction»
The HackThePromise Festival sheds light on the promised digital utopias from artistic, social, political and technical perspectives. This year, we will join forces with the Digitale Gesellschaft, co-hosting their yearly Data Privacy Festival. The joint focus topic is: “fact/fake/fiction”

So we want to delve into the relationship between fact and fiction, real and generated, factual and illusory. What is true, what is false – and what do algorithms and artificial intelligence have to do with this mess? Can we still trust digital reality? We will talk about generative AI, training data and hidden biases. And the authenticity of digital identities. If you are working on these topics artistically, in education, as a journalist, researching with data or reflecting on regulatory approaches, we would love to hear from you!

Even before the revolution with models generating text and images, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish the factual from the fake. We will have to find ways to avoid losing ourselves in the fog of illusion, delusion and disinformation. In the digital future, media literacy also means fact/fiction literacy. How and where do we learn about this? In school, with peers, through critical artworks? Art is competent in fiction, able to handle shades of gray instead of black and white, or blurred distinctions and ambiguity. The desire for reliable facts might be growing, but let’s not blank out the importance – and the beauty – of fiction.