High School Students from SOŠ Handlová at KInIT

Recently, we had the pleasure of welcoming high school students from SOŠ Handlová, who had the opportunity to meet our PhD students and learn more about modern technologies, artificial intelligence, and especially about their research.

At the beginning of the visit, our researcher Jakub Šimko, head of the WUDAP team, welcomed the students. He introduced them to KInIT and gave an overview of the topics our institute focuses on.

Next, our PhD student Róbert Belanec, a graduate of this very school, spoke to the students. Róbert presented KInIT from the perspective of a young researcher and shared more about his work and research projects:

“If you don’t usually work with AI, it’s hard to imagine what lies behind all the layers of abstraction we see in tools like ChatGPT. This can create the impression that AI is some kind of crystal ball or that it’s truly intelligent. Because of that, AI may initially seem unreachable or overly abstract to students, something they can’t really touch or run on their own laptops,” explained Róbert.

“In my lecture, I tried to show students what AI really looks like ‘under the hood,’ why AI models are inefficient (which is the topic I focus on at KInIT), and I recommended materials that can help them set up AI, look inside it, and better understand how it works. Based on the students’ questions, I also noticed that many people don’t quite know what an average day of an AI researcher looks like, how experiments are conducted, or what tools we use in research. I discussed this and much more during their visit. I really enjoyed the students’ reactions and the pleasant atmosphere throughout the day.”

Continuing on the theme of responsible use of artificial intelligence, Branislav Pecher, who successfully completed his PhD studies with us, spoke next. He explained how large language models (don’t) work in practice:

“In my lecture, I focused mainly on the problems associated with large language models and how they’re discussed in society. For example, I showed how easily we can bypass ‘guardrails,’ the built-in safety mechanisms designed to prevent these models from generating harmful responses, and how they can be made to produce, for instance, a disinformation article,” Branislav explained.

“I also addressed the tendency to overestimate these models’ abilities and emphasized that we shouldn’t see them as omnipotent tools. My talk was more of a philosophical reflection on what’s good and bad about these models and what awaits us in the future, and I received very positive feedback. I believe it inspired students not to blindly trust the models or their creators, who often present them as the world’s ultimate solution, but to view them critically. That’s also one of the key topics I worked on at KInIT: to better understand what these large language models can do, where they fail, and how we can fix them.”

Our PhD student Ivana Beňová highlighted in her lecture that artificial intelligence is not perfect and still has its limits:

“My talk focused on the fact that AI can still make mistakes. It was great to see how the students’ opinions about AI changed thanks to the lecture. Even though they’re IT-focused high school students, many thought AI can already do almost everything. My presentation included demonstrations of where and how AI can still make errors. I think this caught their attention and showed them that there’s still plenty of room for improvement in AI. That’s one of the areas they could explore more deeply here at KInIT in the future,” said Ivana.

“I think AI education is still missing at the high school level. Even after talking with the students, I felt they didn’t yet have a broad understanding of the topic, which is why I’m so glad they came. It’s great that schools take advantage of this opportunity to spend a whole day with us, talk about how AI works, and take away something extra beyond their regular classes.”

Thanks to the BrAIn civic association, we’re able to support young talents and motivate them to pursue education in AI. We’re proud that our young PhD students and researchers can pass their knowledge on to the next generation.

Peter Fabian, a teacher from SOŠ Handlová, also shared his impressions from the visit:

“This kind of experience is essential for young people, especially so they don’t fall for various types of misinformation and learn to verify all information and facts. They must learn not to consume everything AI or chatbots present as the ‘right’ answer to their questions. Informatics is advancing every day, and teachers must keep learning too. New technologies can help us with that; they allow us to find new information that we can then share with our students,” Peter said.

We are extremely pleased that the feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive. Some were so fascinated by the AI topics discussed that they said they would love to stay with us and start working on research right away. We believe they will return to continue their education and exploration of artificial intelligence.

Thank you for visiting us — we look forward to seeing you again soon!

The visit was organised in collaboration with the lorAI project, one of the goals of which is to attend, contribute to, or organise events aimed at promoting science among young people and the general public.