Dresden 2026 — Workshop Report and Outcomes

Dresden 2026 — From Prompt to Propaganda

22 September 2026 · INFORMATIK FESTIVAL 2026 · Dresden, Germany

The international workshop From Prompt to Propaganda: Generative AI and the New Disinformation Lifecycle brought together researchers, journalists, fact-checkers, cybersecurity specialists, governance experts, public institutions and international professional communities. Initiated and moderated by Marc-Oliver Pahl, it was deliberately designed as a guided exploration of the full information-manipulation lifecycle rather than a sequence of unrelated talks.

Read the published workshop report

Why we convened

Generative AI is changing the cost, speed and scalability of information manipulation. Yet the central challenge is not simply more synthetic content: it is how content, audience targeting, distribution, trusted intermediaries, societal vulnerabilities and institutional responses interact. The workshop sought to map complementary research and operational capabilities, identify shared challenges and build connections for continued collaboration.

How the day unfolded

The workshop began with the media and fact-checking perspective from Caroline Lindekamp (CORRECTIV), followed by the German research-project landscape, the French operational perspective presented by Matthieu Blondeau (Pôle d’Excellence Cyber) and the Ukrainian resilience perspective presented by Anatolii Marushchak. Anthony Wong (IFIP) contributed an international AI-governance perspective.

Governance and social consequences were explored through Peter Schoo and Léandre Lebon. In the afternoon, participants tested their ability to recognise manipulated information and experimented with constructing plausible misleading narratives. Scientific contributions then connected controlled generation (RogueGPT), propagation observability (OPSCI/SPINE), human vulnerability, argumentative flaws and evaluative language. Renée DiResta brought the distinction between production, distribution and persuasion into focus.

Watch the Dresden Workshop Talks

Explore the complete recording series: scientific talks, national ecosystem perspectives, journalism, governance and interactive discussions. The recordings complement the published workshop report.

Browse all recordings on YouTube ↗

What emerged

Eight cross-cutting findings, including the shift from isolated content to influence operations and the increasing importance of trust, distribution and observability.
Three conceptual refinements: operations rather than artefacts; interacting information and audience-data flows; and social context as a source of vulnerabilities and feedback.
Thirteen emerging research challenges organised around observability, human vulnerability, trustworthy information infrastructure and institutional resilience.
A first interdisciplinary capability cartography connecting research, journalism, governance and operational perspectives from Germany, France, Ukraine and beyond.

From workshop to resource centre

The workshop was a starting point, not an endpoint. Disinformation Space is developing an evolving research-project and capability map, shared research agenda and opportunities for collaboration. The report documents the 2026 evidence base; the website will make the ecosystem easier to discover and extend.

Explore the workshop

Organisation and contributors

The workshop was led and moderated by Marc-Oliver Pahl, with organisation and contributions from Maja Denisova (GI), Michael Jülich and Anna Altmann (aihorizon R&D). The workshop connected the professional communities of GI, German Chapter of the ACM and IFIP with the participating researchers and institutions. The full report individually acknowledges speakers, project representatives and scientific authors.