Currently, a group of students from Cognitive Science are travelling around the country alongside Karsten Olsen, researcher at the Interacting Minds Centre at Aarhus University, to shed light on various themes within artificial intelligence. It is part of a collaboration with VidenSkaber which is based on an initiative of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

"There is a great need to disseminate more in-depth knowledge about the underlying mechanisms of artificial intelligence, which is playing an increasingly important role in our society. The purpose of the workshop is to reach out to citizens who otherwise do not have close contact with research and give them the opportunity to talk directly to the researchers," says Karsten Olsen.

So far, the tour around Denmark has brought them to Randers Art Museum, where they welcomed evening school teachers, evening school students and museum visitors. Here, the focus was on creativity in AI, art and creative practices, among other things. Then, they went to Aabenraa State School, where the theme was good and bad practices in teaching, learning and exams. They have also visited Copenhagen, in the Pioneer Centre for AI, where the workshop was conducted with Mino Denmark, an organization that works to strengthen minority ethnic Danes' opportunities, voices and participation in society. Here, the focus was on bias, discrimination and fairness in the encounter with generative models.

The next stop is in collaboration with the Danish Disability Association and Egmont Højskolen and then in Hjallese Forsamlingshus in collaboration with Ældre Sagen.

"We have been toured with a workshop format, which is based on the participants' own interaction with artificial intelligence. VidenSkaber not only provides the opportunity to hear lectures on current research, but also provides an opportunity for hands-on experience with various generative models. In this way, we can prioritise that knowledge is communicated through co-creative practice and creative storytelling," Karsten Olsen explains, who is also employed at the Science Museums at AU and collaborates with the National Museum of Denmark in the research project "The Power of Models", which examines new communication formats and cognitive processes.

"The Never-ending Story" is part of the dissemination
In addition to short research lectures and debate sessions, a recurring element across the workshops is the installation "The Never-ending Story", developed by the team from AU. Here, the participants engage in co-writing stories using artificial intelligence as a tool. The installation consists of several different generative text and image models, which help the participants to continue and build on stories from previous workshops. At the same time, new narratives emerge that can be continued by the next workshop participants. In this way, "The Never-ending Story" develops for each workshop in their tour around Denmark - so that in the end, one long story arises which is then exhibited in the final.

"It's exciting to see our exam project unfold in the 'real world'. " The "Never-Ending Story" has quickly taken off, and we've had to teach ourselves a whole lot of new tools in the process. But it's worth all the work, when we see the participants interact with the installation. We have received great feedback, and the participants say that it is both fun and exciting to explore artificial intelligence through the activity. We are excited to see where the story takes us after the collaboration with VidenSkaber," says Regitze Hammer Holt, 3rd semester student from Cognitive Science.

The grand final
On Thursday 28 November, VidenSkaber 2024 concludes with a grand finale event in Vandrehallen and Aulaen at Aarhus University. Here we collect insights from the many activities. In collaboration with the Science Museums in Aarhus, "The Never-ending Story" is exhibited, so both the workshop participants and all the guests at the final can experience the result and continue to write the story. The event is open and information can be found here

"The "Never-Ending Story" is supported by the research projects 'Experimenting Experiencing Reflecting' (funded by the Carlsberg Foundation) and 'The Power of the Model' (Velux Foundation) and has collaborated with Jes Elgin Jensen and Kristoffer Nielbo from the Center for Humanities Computing at AU.

Contact

Karsten Olsen, Assistant Professor
Interacting Minds Centre
School of Culture and Society
Aarhus University
Mail: etnoko@cas.au.dk
Mobile: 6166 8460