Vice-rector Ćurković Nimac and Department Head Brstilo Lovrić at the University of Notre Dame in the USA

The vice-rector for international cooperation of CUC, prof. Jasna Ćurković Nimac, PhD, and Head of the University Department of Sociology, Assoc. prof. Ivana Brstilo Lovrić, PhD, stayed from January 19 to 27, 2025 at the University of Notre Dame in the United States of America as part of a collaboration on a research project on the development of artificial intelligence and collective memory as part of large language models.

In the organization of the Notre Dame IBM Technology Ethics Lab, a scientific Forum was held with the aim of presenting the projects approved in 2024. The six panels discussed different aspects of artificial intelligence and large language models (LLM), with a special focus on ethical challenges, critical thinking, privacy, intellectual property, discrimination and the problem of false and misleading information. You can see more about Form at the link. 

Vice-rector Ćurković Nimac held an invited lecture as part of the "Memory, History, and AI panel", in which she encouraged a discussion about the role of artificial intelligence in understanding the past, interpreting and preserving historical narratives, and the ethical implications of using AI in dealing with the past. In addition to the vice-chancellor, prominent scientists Emile de Keulenaar (University of Groningen), Luis Gabriel Moreno Sandoval (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) and Jamie Kelly (Vassar College) participated in the discussion part of the panel.

Department Head Brstilo Lovrić presented the research project "How LLMs Modulate our Collective Memory and its Ethical Implications", which is led by the Catholic University of Croatia in cooperation with the University of Notre Dame. A multidisciplinary team of scientists and doctoral students from both universities, coordinated by prof. Ćurković Nimac (CUC) and prof. Nuno Moniz (IBM Tech Ethics Lab).

During the stay, prof. Ćurković Nimac and assistant. prof. Brstilo Lovrić met with prof. Clemens Sedmak, director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, Fr. Jim Lies, prof. James McAdams, and the employees of the Nanovic Institute, with which our University actively cooperates.

Department Head Brstilo Lovrić met with colleagues from the Department of Sociology where she became better acquainted with the work of their Department. Vice-Rector Ćurković Nimac had a particularly interesting meeting with student Iva Mišetić, who started the first Croatian student club at Notre Dame, and with whom she discussed the possibilities of cooperation in order to further strengthen inter-institutional cooperation and support the young Croatian academic community in the USA.