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June 2nd, 2025 – Portorož, Slovenia | Part of ESWC 2025

The 1st Workshop on Semantic Generative Agents on the Web, held on June 2nd in Portorož, Slovenia, as part of the Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2025), marked a key milestone in disseminating the goals and findings of the TWON project to the academic community. The event brought together researchers from diverse disciplines to explore how Semantic Web technologies and Large Language Models (LLMs) can be combined to develop intelligent, interpretable, and communicative agents for the web.

Opening Keynote

The workshop opened with a keynote by Matthias Nickles (National University of Ireland, Galway), who presented a comprehensive overview of the history and recent advancements in generative agents within computer science, setting the stage for the diverse presentations to follow.

Paper Presentations

Jan Lorenz (Constructor University) kicked off the presentations with a talk on “Filter Bubbles in an Agent-Based Model Where Agents Update Their Worldviews with LLMs“. His work replaced abstract numerical opinion spaces with LLM-generated human-like statements to simulate opinion dynamics. The goal was to assess whether filter bubbles would still emerge in this more realistic setting and to examine the practical integration of LLMs into agent-based simulations.

Next, Martin Žust (Jožef Stefan Institute) presented a web-based negotiation agent designed to assist unskilled negotiators in real time. The agent transcribes dialogue, builds dynamic world models, and combines analytical reasoning with human-like intuition to offer context-aware negotiation support. This hybrid approach aims to enhance interpersonal outcomes through collaborative human-AI interaction.

Abdul Sittar (Jožef Stefan Institute) followed with an agent-based simulation of social media engagement during German elections. By incorporating past conversational history, motivational factors, and resource constraints, the model used fine-tuned AI to generate posts and replies, applying sentiment analysis, irony detection, and offensiveness classification. The findings highlighted how historical context shapes AI responses and how behavior shifts under different temporal constraints.

Afternoon Keynote and Talks

In the afternoon keynote, Denisa Reshef Kera (Bar-Ilan University) addressed philosophical perspectives on generative agents, focusing on bias, representation, and agency. She emphasized the role of generative agents in public policy and civic participation, highlighting their potential for enhancing digital society.

Ljubisa Bojic (University of Belgrade) presented an innovative AI-based recommender system designed to reduce echo chambers and polarization. His model incorporates emotional tone, content diversity, and political balance into the recommendation process, improving content exposure without sacrificing accuracy. The approach aligns with ethical AI principles, offering user autonomy through customizable preferences.

Denisa Reshef Kera returned with Avital Dotan to present “AI Beyond Rules, Heuristics, and Dreams“, introducing the concept of ergative-absolutive AI agents. Drawing on linguistic structures from languages like Basque, they proposed a new way of modeling agency in LLMs—treating them not just as predictors but as performative systems that enact grammar and interaction. Their two-step framework involves analyzing grammatical alignments and creating participatory simulations with diverse agent alignment patterns to encourage adaptive and accountable behavior.

Simon Münker (University of Trier) concluded the paper presentations with “twony“, a micro-simulation platform that models emotional contagion and discourse dynamics in online social networks. Using fine-tuned BERT models and LLMs to simulate politically engaged personas, twony visualizes emotional cascades in various feed algorithm scenarios—offering a powerful, open-source tool for explaining polarization and online behavior.

Closing Discussion

The workshop concluded with a fishbowl discussion featuring Achim Rettinger, Damian Trilling, Marko Grobelnik, Matthias Nickles, and Denisa Reshef Kera. The panel reflected on the interdisciplinary insights presented throughout the day and discussed future directions for generative agents in real-world applications.

Takeaways

SemGenAge 2025 fostered rich dialogue across fields including semantic web technologies, AI, computational social science, and digital media studies. Discussions emphasized the potential of generative agents in areas such as online discourse moderation, content recommendation, opinion shaping, and consumer behavior analysis.

The workshop’s insights will directly support TWON’s mission: combining empirical observations, simulation, and participatory methods to create evidence-based recommendations for improving social network regulation and enhancing digital citizenship.

For full program details, visit the official workshop page.

From May 30 – June 1st, all nine TWON partner institutions gathered in Portorož, Slovenia for the fifth TWON Consortium Meeting. This in-person event offered a key opportunity to assess our progress, align goals, and prepare for the final year of the project.

The meeting began with the general assembly led by consortium leader Damian Trilling, where we reviewed project milestones, discussed ongoing challenges, and set priorities for the months ahead. A central objective was to optimize integration across TWON’s thematic and methodological strands, reinforcing the coherence of our collective efforts. We then focused on planning our large-scale simulations — from sharpening research questions to technical implementation. The day concluded with a consortium dinner.

On Sunday, we had a workshop on design features of a democracy-preserving online social network, as a step towards developing policy recommendations. Later on, we had a session for plannung the upcoming Citien Labs, where we discuss our research with citizens. The day concluded with a plenary wrap-up, and an early-career researcher event, where we had the chance to discuss and feedback our PhD projects with each other.

The Portorož meeting not only advanced TWON’s agenda but also reinforced collaboration at a critical stage of the project. With renewed momentum, the consortium is well-prepared for the final project year.

Thank you, Jozef Stefan Institut for hosting us in beautiful Slovenia!

As part of the Days for Democracy Karlsruhe the participants of DialoguePerspectives’ European Leadership Workshop discussed on how online social networks influence democracy in the digital age.

In workshops by TWON’s Prof. Damian Trilling, Prof. Achim Rettinger and Dr. Eugen Pissarskoi the participants learned about research approaches to social media dynamics, the ethics behind creating Twins of Online Social Networks (TWON) and the role of online social networks and AI in digital democracy. Melanie Döring and Marisa Wengeler from Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) held thought-provoking inputs on the EU’s Digital Services Act and media literacy as well as the concept of pre- and de-bunking in the online realm. Nuriyatul Lailiyah gave interesting insights on the usage of social media in Southeast Asia. The participants of the European Leadership Workshop not only discussed on the topics within the group, but also with citizens during public outdoor events in the Triangel Event Space Karlsruhe during a Bar Camp and a World Café format.

At the end of the 4-day workshop (16.-19. September 2024) the participants worked on a policy brief on necessary regulatory action. This will be used as a basis for further discussion for the scientists of the TWON consortium.

The European Leadership Workshop moderated by DialoguePerspectives’ programme manager Neta-Paulina Wagner is an integral part of the TWON project:

– It works on the translation from research in to actionable solutions.

– It equips participants with the skills and insights needed to navigate and address the challenges posed by digital democracy.

– Participants actively contribute to the broader conversation on digital citizenship and how we can shape a more resilient, informed, and participatory society in the face of rapidly evolving digital challenges.

A big thank you to our partner DialoguePerspectives for organizing the workshop and thank you to all participants for the great discussions!

On June 4th the first project review meeting of our EU-funded project “TWON – Twin of Online Social Networks” took place in Brussels. This was a great opportunity to reflect the first year of work in the consortium. We received valuable and encouraging feedback by Prof. Kalina Bontcheva (University of Sheffield), José Manuel Gómez Pérez (Director Language Technology Research at expert.ai) and Ilona von Bethlenfalvy (European Commission), which we will use in the next steps of our project.

On the previous day we also had a consortium meeting in the representation of the state of Baden-Württemberg to the European Union in Brussels – thank you for hosting us!