19.02.2026 IfI Colloquium: From Monologue to Dialogue: Remaking Public Service Communication with Celebrity-as-a-Service
Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Alan Dennis, Distinguished Professor and John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems, Indiana University, USA
Date: Thursday, 19 February 2026, 17:15
Location: room BIN 2.A.01 at the Department of Informatics (IfI), Binzmühlestrasse 14, 8050 Zürich
Details about the format of the talk shall be checked always just ahead of a certain presentation date: (information here)
Abstract
Public service communication aims to raise awareness and change behaviors on critical public issues, such as health, safety, and the environment. Public service communication typically takes one of two forms: a public service announcement (PSA), such as a video or radio advertisement that broadcasts information (a monologue), or a public service interaction (PSI), such as a meeting with officials that both provides and collects information (a dialogue). Celebrity involvement has traditionally been limited to PSAs due to cost and scalability challenges, but advancements in AI now enable the use of digital humans as scalable, interactive "celebrity-as-a-service" solutions. These AI-controlled digital celebrities are digital twins of real people and enable one-on-one interactions with celebrities at scale. In an online experiment, we compared a digital version of Hugh Jackman to a non-celebrity digital human delivering a skin cancer awareness message in both a PSA video and a one-on-one PSI. Results showed that both perceived celebrity (celebrity vs. non-celebrity) and interactivity (PSI vs. PSA) increased trustworthiness and enjoyment. Trustworthiness, in turn, increased the intention to comply with the message, while both trustworthiness and enjoyment increased the likelihood of sharing the message. We conclude that celebrity-as-a-service by AI-controlled digital celebrities opens the door to incorporating celebrities into one-on-one PSIs to drive more effective, scalable, and cost-effective public service communication.
Bio
Alan Dennis is a Distinguished Professor of Information Systems and holds the John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He is ranked as the second most published Information Systems researcher over the last 30 years. His research has been reported in the popular press almost 1000 times. and a recent Standford study placed him among the top 2% most influential researchers across all scientific disciplines. He received the LEO Award, the IS field’s highest honor, in 2021.