On April 7 at 16:00, we invite you to participate in the online research seminar "Historical hallucinations: How generative artificial intelligence applications (mis)represent the history of the Holocaust in Ukraine", hosted by Dr. Mykola Makhortykh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Communication and Media Science at the University of Bern. Duration: 1,5 hours.
Abstract
The rise of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) enables new opportunities in learning about past events. However, these tools can sometimes provide incorrect information or distort the history of the past, as they operate on a probabilistic logic that does not account for historical nuance and complex ethical considerations. Under these circumstances, it is important to investigate how genAI can represent or misinterpret the past, how their performance can vary depending on the language or user inquiry, and what are the implications of genAI adoption for historical knowledge.
During the seminar, the researcher will discuss the results of a study on how three genAI chatbots - Gemini, Copilot and ChatGPT - represent the Ukrainian Holocaust story, which is being used by the Kremlin to create anti-Ukrainian propaganda. The study aims to assess whether chatbot outputs’ align with the historical consensus and whether they contain false details regarding the Holocaust.
Speaker bio
Mykola Makhortykh studies the impact of algorithmic systems and AI on Holocaust memory transmission at the Institute of Communication and Media Science. In his research, Mykola focuses on politics- and history-centred information behaviour in online environments and how it is affected by the information retrieval systems, such as search engines and recommender systems.
Please register HERE.
This research seminar is part of the spring 2025 seminar series of the Department of Digital Cultures and Communication, Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University, organised by the Connective Research Group, and moderated by Prof. Costis (Konstantinos) Dallas. For further information contact .