In the Age of Generative AI, What is Truth? Large, AI-driven language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT (OpenAI) or Bard (Google), are rapidly emerging as important sources of information. An LLM can recall things from memory (that what it has read before), trying to predict the next piece of text. Having ‘learned’ from an enormous amount of text, it can be trained to predict subsequent words (such as the answer) when given a fixed sequence of words (such as a question). The technical term is "next word prediction". Will probability soon replace the search for knowledge and truth?

At the JKU Square at POST CITY, visitors spoke with researchers, artists, and other experts to learn more about generative AI and the technologies behind them. In addition, visitors enjoyed a dystopian-themed puppet show, workshops organized together with the Center of Constructive Communication (CCC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and much more.

JKU Rector Meinhard Lukas remarked: "ChatGPT and similar systems are becoming increasingly important as sources of information and consequently, they are rapidly shaping public opinion. As a result, they will change democracy. In Europe, we can still influence the future direction of AI ourselves! The 2023 Ars Electronica Festival addressed this topic, and – together with MIT –we aimed to make this idea more tangible during this year’s festival."