Using GenAI in academia: Interaction and interfaces beyond the chatbot

The interface is everything: think about your digital devices, maps to navigate the city, the design of all the products you consume, the book and its cover, etc. In the context of genAI, the chatbot interface and model of interaction are useful for a lot of things: back-and-forth dialogue to brainstorm, information retrieval, text generation, and more. However, the chatbot is incredibly limiting, too: biased towards the data and the personality it is trained for, prone to giving wrong information very often, generating AI-slop rather than something useful, etc. Moreover, the usual-suspect chatbots we commonly interact with are not geared towards scientific use, at least in most of their commercial presentations. So, what are good models for genAI interaction/interfacing in academia? 

During this meetup, we will explore (part of) the history and possible future uses of the computer interface, in order to understand what it is that we want to get out of, e.g., language models, for scientific purposes. We will look at pragmatic as well as speculative questions from a variety of disciplines at EUR, and come up with ideas about what we would like to have access to in the future. Some of us at EUR are already working on this (see, e.g., the recent collaborative paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.11152 ) and we would love to answer to the local context! This workshop is therefore open to your contributions and possible collaboration in future projects. 

Programme

About the GenAI Monthly Meetups 

GenAI offers amazing opportunities, but also brings along some tough challenges. Instead of working on GenAI by yourself, join a group of curious, collaborative, and friendly fellow EUR GenAI enthusiasts—students, teachers, and staff—for knowledge sharing and hands-on practice.  

Collaboration: Connect with like-minded individuals to share successes, tackle challenges and brainstorm solutions in a supportive environment. 
Guest speakers: Occasionally we will invite guest speakers who will share the latest insights, practical applications, and future trends in Generative AI. 
Flexible Participation: No obligations! Attend at your convenience and engage with us when your schedule allows.