Martin Kutz

MK © Tomas Gärtner

research assistant

Name

Martin Kutz

ScaDS.AI

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Research interests

  • Societal relevance of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Robots in religious contexts
  • AI in education

Dissertation project

Conversational agents in religious contexts

Robots and generative Artificial Intelligence are increasingly confronting humans as conversational agents (CAs) in the form of chatbots and robots in social contexts. The area of religion is not left out: CAs greet tourists in Buddhist temples and say prayers, they bless people in churches, pray with them at home and engage in dialog with them about religious and spiritual topics. This form of human-machine interaction often takes place in very private and personal settings. This results in high demands on the conditions for successful interaction, which could be described with the term "responsible". When reviewing use cases of CAs in religious contexts, we will firstly clarify the term "Responsible AI" and secondly analyse the conditions for successful interaction. It will then be examined whether it is possible to generalize the conditions for "Responsible AI" in relation to general purpose AI.

Supervision of the dissertation project by Prof. Dr. Birte Platow.

Career

  • Research Associate at the Chair of Religious Education and at ScaDS.AI (since 2021, since 2026 as research assistant).
  • Freelancer at the Catholic-Social Institute, Conference Center of the Archdiocese of Cologne in Siegburg: Project Digital Ethics/Technical Ethics. Development of the podcast Digitaler Espresso on socio-ethical challenges of digital change (2020-2023).
  • Master's degree at the SVD St. Augustin School of Theology (Catholic Theology). Thesis topic: Confessional cooperation in theology studies - The concept of confessional-cooperative religious education as a model for Protestant-Catholic cooperation in the Master's program in Theology (2019)
  • SHK with Prof. Patrik C. Höring, Religious Education, Phil.-Theol. Hochschule SVD (2019).
  • Internship at the Bethanien Children's Village Bergisch Gladbach (2018).
  • Chairman of the AStA of the Phil.-Theol. Hochschule SVD (2015-2017).
  • Internship at the Catholic elementary school in Hangelar (2016).
  • Diploma at the RWTH Aachen (Electrical Engineering). Thesis topic: Sleep phase detection using Recurrence Quantification Analysis on cardiorespiratory signals (2013).
  • Internship at Philips (X-Ray Imaging Systems, 2012)
  • Basic military service (2003/4)
  • Abitur in Cologne (2003)

Publications, lectures, events

  • Brand, L., Kutz, M., Winter, D. (eds.): "Instrumente Gottes. Soziale Roboter und KI-Tools in religiösen Kontexten", Baden-Baden 2025.

  • Edelmann, K., Fabricius, S., Kutz, M.: "Ein Roboter als theologischer Gesprächspartner? Der soziale Roboter NAVEL im RU", in: katBl, to appear.

  • Geldhauser, C., Diebel-Fischer, Hermann, Kutz, M.: "Beschreibungshoheit und Deutungshoheit. Reflexion der Rolle der Theologie im Prozess der Quantifizierung von Lebenssachverhalten", in: , to appear.

  • Research project “AI in Religious Education” in cooperation with Universität Siegen to evaluate the active presence of a robot in religious education in school. Duration: 02-2025 to 12-2025. Read more...

  • "Mein persönlicher Seelsorger: der Bot": Workshop at “Tag der geschwisterlichen Seelsorge” in the diocese of Augsburg on July 7, 2025.

  • Design of a teaching unit on the topic of deepfakes at the Werner-von-Siemens-Gymnasium, Großenhain, on the occasion of Safer Internet Day on February 11, 2025.

  • Design of the breakout session "Responsible AI" of the GradSchool (ScaDS.AI), 27.11.2024.
  • Poster presentation at the All Hands Meeting of the German AI Competence Centers, 7-8.10.2024.
  • "Robots for Pastoral Care?": Online lecture at the Digital Research Forum: Religion and AI (Vienna/Mainz/Twente/Erlangen-Nuremberg), June 19, 2024.
  • "Künstliche Intelligenz und ihre gesellschaftliche Relevanz": Lecture at the Politisches Nachtgebet in the parish of Dresden Bad Weißer Hirsch, 14.06.2024, https://www.kirche-weisser-hirsch.de/Politisches_Nachtgebet.
  • "Religious robots": Science slam as part of the symposium "Inclusion and AI" of the Evangelische Schulstiftung in der EKD, 14.3.2024.
  • "Robots for pastoral care! Theological implications of AI and robots in religious contexts": Lecture as part of a training course for priests of the Diocese of Münster organized with A. Szameitat (Siegen), 20.2.2024.
  • "Can machines learn morality? The Delphi experiment": Workshop for pupils at Wilsdruff Grammar School on the occasion of Safer Internet Day, 6.2.2024.
  • Kutz, M.: Der Tragödie erster Teil? Mit einem neuen Band begleiten Puzio, Kunkel und Klinge das Schauspiel von Mensch und KI kritisch. Rezension zu Puzio, A. et al.: Alexa, wie hast du's mit der Religion? Darmstadt 2023, in: ethikundgesellschaft - ökumenische zeitschrift für sozialethik (2024), No. 1. Online: https://doi.org/10.18156/eug-1-2024-rez-14.
  • Organization of a workshop on AI for students of the Weißeritzgymnasium, Dresden, 06.12.2023.
  • International and interreligious conference of the network neth:KI "Corpo:reality - Body and Embodiment in AI and Robotics", 01.-02.12.2023, Würzburg. Organization together with A. Puzio (Twente) and K. Burghardt (Hamburg).
  • "Theomorph? Hagiomorph? Anthropomorph? Embodiment of AI for Pastoral Care". Presentation at the conference "Corpo:reality - Body and Embodiment in AI and Robotics". Würzburg, 01.12.2023.
  • Kutz, M.: Die gute Botschaft des Roboters – Beten mit Künstlicher Intelligenz? In: feinschwarz - Theologisches Feuilleton (28.11.2023), online: https://www.feinschwarz.net/die-gute-botschaft-des-roboters.
  • Impulse as part of the training for conference leaders on the topic of AI, Dresden, 16.10.2023.
  • Kutz, M.: Mit Robotern beten? (Zukunfts-)Fragen zum Verhältnis von Mensch und Künstlicher Intelligenz, in: Diebel-Fischer, H., Zeyher-Quattlender, J., Kunkel, N.: Mensch und Maschine im Zeitalter Künstlicher Intelligenz. Theological Challenges, Berlin 2023.
  • Event series and podcast "Digitaler Espresso" of the Catholic Social Institute, 2020-2023.
  • Discussion event with students of the 35th secondary school on the topic of AI, Dresden, 22.3.2023.
  • Even so I send you! - Reflections on design requirements for the use of robots in Christian contexts. Presentation at the workshop "Robot, pray for me!" Robots as Instruments of God? Explorations in Robotics and Technology. Bochum, 17.3.2023.
  • International and interreligious workshop of the network neth:KI "Robot, pray for me!" Robots as Instruments of God? Explorations in Robotics and Technology, Bochum, 16-17.3.2023. Organization together with L. Brand and D. Winter (both Bochum).
  • Kutz, M.: Ökologische Nachhaltigkeit und Digitalisierung: ein Gegensatzpaar? In: LAG KEFB in NRW e.V., Köln 2022.
  • Mit Robotern beten? (Zukunfts-)Fragen zum Verhältnis von Mensch und Künstlicher Intelligenz. Lecture at the Cathedral Forum Dresden, 15.11.2021.
  • Rolink, J., Kutz, M., Fonseca, P., Long, X., Misgeld, B. & Leonhardt, S.: Recurrence quantification analysis across sleep stages, in: Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, 20 (2015), 107-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2015.04.006

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Redaktion der Professur für Religionspädagogik
Last modified: Jan 12, 2026