Science and Education in the Age of AI

Can we trust the machines?

Since the early 1900s, humanity has been fascinated by artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in society—as a tool, a helper, a fellow intelligent being, or even a threat. Today, AI is being rapidly integrated into all sectors. Some applications, like email drafting and automation, feel like natural extensions of our computing abilities. Others—like its use in art, scientific discovery, and education—challenge long-held ideas about what it means to be uniquely human. As algorithms grow in scale, complexity, and capability, longstanding anxieties about AI's power compel us to confront pressing ethical and practical questions: Who designs the algorithms? Who benefits? Who gets left behind?
 
On June 11, Science Café Nijmegen invites you to an evening exploring AI in science and education. Together with a panel of leading researchers, we’ll examine how artificial intelligence is transforming these essential fields—and what this transformation means for human expertise, responsibility, and trust. Sascha Caron (Radboud University) will introduce the foundations of AI and show how he uses deep learning to explore particle physics questions about the fundamental nature of our universe. Suzan Verberne (Leiden University), a specialist in natural language processing and large language models, will discuss the role of AI tools like ChatGPT in scientific research and education. Finally, Henk de Regt and Luca Consoli (Radboud University), philosophers of science and technology, will guide us through the ethical and societal implications of AI's growing role in knowledge creation and dissemination.
 
And because no evening at the Science Café is complete without music: enjoy a live performance by Limited Space, blending human creativity with rhythm and improvisation—a fitting contrast to our algorithmic age.