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Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming science and society, presenting significant opportunities alongside inherent challenges. European digital science institutes and organizations are well-positioned to contribute to responsible development and use of these technologies.

This report summarizes the discussions and findings from the 2024 ERCIM Visionary Event "Challenges and Opportunities of Foundational Models and Generative AI (GenAI) for Science and Society," held on 16 April 2024 in Brussels. Experts from across Europe convened to examine the rapidly evolving landscape of GenAI and LLMs, their impact on science and society, and the role of European institutions in this context.

This report first presents the findings of the event. Subsequently, it outlines several key highlights and high-level recommendations. For more details, see the section Recommendations for Institutional AI Strategies.

by Behçet Uğur Töreyin (İTÜ), Maria Trocan (ISEP) and Davide Moroni (CNR-ISTI)

Approximately forty researchers attended the International Workshop on Computational Intelligence for Multimedia Understanding (IWCIM), organized annually by the ERCIM Working Group Multimedia Understanding through Semantics, Computation and Learning (MUSCLE). The workshop took place as a satellite event of IEEE ISCAS 2024 held in Singapore on 21 May 2024.

by Maurice ter Beek (CNR-ISTI)

The yearly conference of the ERCIM Working Group on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems, FMICS [L1], the key conference at the intersection of industrial applications and formal methods, reached its 29th edition. This year the participants met in Milan, Italy, during 9-11 September 2024.

Nicola's research is distinguished by its high quality, interdisciplinary approach, and significant impact. His work spans across multiple domains, including Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, and Multimedia Information Retrieval. He has made substantial contributions to both the theoretical and applied aspects of these fields, with measurable scientific and practical outcomes.

ERCIM and JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) are co-organizing the 5th joint workshop on ‘Exploring New Research Challenges and Collaborations in AI/BD/HCI/IoT. This workshop aims to present recent results and emerging R&D work conducted in European institutions and in the context of the JST AIP (Advanced Integrated Intelligence Platform) project in Japan. This event will provide an opportunity to its European and Japanese participants to discuss research challenges in these areas, as well as to consider collaboration prospects that may arise in the context of European programs and the relevant counterpart initiatives of JST.

In this workshop, invited participants will investigate research challenges, social aspects as well as potential collaboration opportunities in the following topics:

• #1’Trustworthy and Reliable Human-Machine Symbiotic Collaboration’,
• #2’Extracting Actionable Knowledge in the Presence of Uncertainty’,
• #3‘Trust in Data-driven Research: The role of Actors, Research Infrastructures and Processes’,
• #4’Infrastructure and Service Resilience for Smart Society’.

For more information, see:
https://www.ercim.eu/events/5th-ercim-jst-joint-workshop-2024

The ERCIM fall meetings will be held in the beautiful city of Budapest on 15-16 October 2024, hosted by HUN-REN Institute for Computer Science and Control (HUN-REN SZTAKI). Please save the date for this important event, and we recommend that you book your accommodation as soon as possible. Registration is mandatory for participation in the meetings. We will inform the members when the registration form is available.

Note that in the same week, the ERCIM Ethics Working Group will hold the Beyond Compliance 2024 Workshop "Research Ethics in the Digital Age" on 13-14 October 2024, and the ERCIM-JST Joint Workshop (participation by invitation) will be held after the ERCIM fall meetings on 17-18 October. 

For details, see https://www.ercim.eu/events/ercim-days/ercim-fall-meetings-2024

Budapest, 14-15 October 2024

For the third edition of the Forum, co-organized by ERCIM, SZTAKI, and the CCNE-numérique, the program will consist of invited presentations, invited contributions to round tables, a tutorial session, and selected contributions based on the answers to this call. The program will be structured into six topical sessions focusing on ethical issues in digital research about Cultural Influences, Democracy, Regulation Making, Cooperative Agents, Digital Health, and Emerging Topics; and two sessions for a Tutorial and Selected Contributions. We invite the community to propose contributions in the form of short presentations. These can include case study reports, novel developments from research projects, policy recommendations, or proposals and hypotheses put forward for discussion.

The ERCIM 2024 spring meetings will be held on 21-22 May 2024 in Málaga, Spain & online. The meetings are hosted by our member ITIS Software/Univerisity of Malaga. Online participation will be possible. Registration is mandatory.

For the programme and registration form, see https://www.ercim.eu/events/ercim-days/ercim-spring-meetings-2024