Conference Report: “Rethinking Knowledge, Agency, and Bias in the Age of AI” Successfully Held in Rijeka
The conference “Rethinking Knowledge, Agency, and Bias in the Age of AI” was successfully held on Friday, 14 November 2025, at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka. Organized in a hybrid format, the event gathered researchers both on-site (Room F-412) and online.
A highlight of the conference was the keynote lecture by Professor Antonio Ballarin, Ph.D. (International Neural Network Society, University Canada West, Vancouver), titled “What the Heck is Artificial Intelligence?”. In his engaging talk, Professor Ballarin unpacked the conceptual foundations of artificial intelligence, examined widespread misconceptions, and reflected on the societal and epistemic challenges posed by rapidly advancing AI systems.
Following the keynote, the program featured a series of presentations addressing the intersections of AI, digitalization, knowledge production, and democratic processes. Speakers included:
Benedikt Perak (University of Rijeka) – From AI Tutor to AI Epistemologist: Feedback Loops of Knowledge in the Age of Orchestrated Intelligence
Elvio Baccarini (University of Rijeka) – Digitalization and Radical Polarization
Tom Furlanis (University of Ljubljana), Dražen Brščić (University of Kyoto), and Takayuki Kanda (University of Kyoto) – Robotic Bias and Its Dimensions
Kristina Lekić Barunčić (University of Rijeka) – Digital Technologies and Epistemic Democracy in the Age of Disinformation
The event concluded with closing remarks summarizing the day’s discussions and highlighting future research avenues.
The conference was organized as part of the research project “Epistemic Democracy in a Digital Era” (IP2024-05-4113), funded by the Croatian Science Foundation.
