The Weizenbaum Conference: Digital Society 2025 is an annual academic conference addressing the societal impact of digitalisation, with a particular focus on governance, ethics, and the social dimensions of emerging technologies. Organised by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, one of Germany's leading interdisciplinary research centres for the study of digital transformation, the conference takes place on 15–16 October 2025 in Berlin.
Named after the computer scientist and technology critic Joseph Weizenbaum, the institute brings together researchers from the social sciences, humanities, law, economics, and computer science to examine how digitalisation reshapes society. The annual conference extends this mission to a broader audience of academics, policymakers, civic technologists, and the interested public. Key themes include algorithmic governance and the accountability of automated decision-making systems used in urban management, digital sovereignty and the political economy of platform technologies, artificial intelligence ethics and the societal implications of deploying AI in public services, the social consequences of smart city surveillance technologies including predictive policing and biometric identification, and the digital divide and strategies for ensuring equitable access to the benefits of urban digitalisation.
The programme features keynote lectures from internationally renowned scholars, research paper presentations, panel debates, and interactive workshops designed to bridge academic research with policy and practice.
This conference is particularly valuable for researchers, policymakers, urban governance professionals, and civic technologists seeking a rigorous, evidence-based understanding of the societal challenges posed by digitalisation. The Weizenbaum Institute's interdisciplinary approach and its strong connections to Berlin's political and research landscape make this conference an essential intellectual anchor in the European discourse on technology and society.