Croatian researcher Karlo Vrančić, who is researching artificial intelligence safety at Harvard, delivered a speech at the main stage of the 10th annual conference of the Croatian-American Professionals Association (ACAP) in Seattle. The lecture, titled 'Monsters or Mirrors?', addressed how the technology works, whether artificial intelligence can be creative, and whether it possesses human-like emotions and goals.
'I am honestly afraid of artificial intelligence. I believe it is a technology that will change our lives the most. That is precisely why we must understand it,' Vrančić stated.
Vrančić works as a researcher at Harvard, while also serving as a guest lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he works on speech synthesis from MRI scans.
His academic journey began in Zagreb, where he completed a bachelor's degree in computing at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) of the University of Zagreb. He continued his education at the Swiss École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), before choosing to study data science at Harvard. His international academic path includes experience related to CERN.
During the 2023/2024 academic year, he received three awards from the University of Zagreb. Among the awarded projects was his individual work, 'A Scientific Approach to the Development of Commercial Applications, Exemplified by the Sports App Sportscape'. He also participated in the MedBay project, which focuses on the digitalisation of medical rehabilitation.
Vranščić appeared on the Croatian podcast Podkist seven months ago, where he spoke about life in the United States, drawing parallels between the lifestyle there and in Croatia, and discussing the workings of Harvard.
