Music producer, graphic designer, and journalist Marko Mihalinec, alongside journalist, writer, and screenwriter Velimir Grgić, are co-authors of three books, the third of which wouldn’t have been possible without artificial intelligence. While their first two books were published without issues in 2004, Croatia’s accession to the European Union brought stricter copyright regulations, making it impossible to use posters and images from movies. The authors devised a creative solution – using AI for their reissues and the creation of the third book, saving around ten months of work.
Despite their adept use of modern tools, Mihalinec labeled AI a pessimist during the podcast, elaborating further as an “AI realist.” One pressing issue already being felt, and likely to worsen without intervention, is the loss of Croatia’s digital sovereignty. Krešimir Macan pointed out a telling example: when generating subtitles for a podcast, AI often misidentifies Croatian speech as Serbian.
Language is just one area where AI can “get it wrong.” When answering questions, AI relies on the data it gathers, including interactions with users. “If someone trains AI to believe there was no genocide in Srebrenica, it will coldly respond that there was no genocide in Srebrenica,” was one comment made on the podcast.
While Croatia is not alone in facing these challenges, others are actively addressing them. Much can be achieved through government initiatives – France, for instance, vigilantly safeguards its digital sovereignty, and Aleksandar Vučić’s SNS party in Serbia has already begun investing in artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Croatia remains passive. “We need a Ministry of Digital Defense,” noted the host and guests.
However, attempts to rectify these issues can sometimes backfire. AI is a reflection of ourselves, and when we first looked into the mirror, the image was shocking. AI models have been found to propagate racist biases, and while Google’s Gemini attempted to correct this, overcompensation led to comical results. For instance, in an effort to avoid depicting only white individuals in historical scenes, it generated historically inaccurate portrayals, such as Black Nazi soldiers or medieval European rulers of mixed race.
In the new season of the podcast, Krešimir Macan brings insights from experts across various sectors, exploring potential solutions to challenges and current issues in Croatia and beyond. Špica s Macanom premieres on YouTube every Saturday at 10 a.m. and is rebroadcast on TV channels Libertas TV, TV Zelina, Trend TV, and TV Nova. All episodes are also available on Spotify.
