🎬 The Countdown to Fest Anča 2026 Begins
Darren Chastney | 24 June 2026 In just a few days, Žilina will once again become the home of international animation as the 19th edition of Fest Anča International Animation Festival opens on 30 June. This year’s theme, FAKE, could hardly be more timely. In an age of AI-generated content, deepfakes, manipulated images and competing […]
Slovakia’s AI Ambitions: Can Regional Investment Transform the Innovation Landscape?
Recent reports highlighting artificial intelligence investment initiatives linked to the Trenčín region raise an important question: can targeted AI investment help reshape Slovakia’s economic future? Across Europe, governments and regional authorities are increasingly viewing AI not merely as a technological trend, but as a strategic driver of competitiveness, productivity, and long-term economic resilience. Slovakia faces […]
AI Doesn’t Just Learn From Authors. It Learns From Researchers Too.
When people talk about the copyright implications of artificial intelligence, the conversation usually centres on novelists, journalists, musicians, and artists. But there is another group whose work has quietly become part of the AI story: Researchers. Every journal article, conference paper, textbook chapter, and academic publication represents years of specialised work. Behind each publication are […]
AI and Authors’ Rights: Can Innovation and Fairness Coexist?
Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we create, publish, translate, and consume content. Yet one of the most important questions remains unresolved: Who should benefit when AI systems are trained on the work of others? As part of my current editorial work with LITA (the Slovak Literary and Information Centre), I have been following ongoing […]
The Sydney AI Controversy Isn’t About Cheating. It’s About Disclosure.
Darren Chastney | 3 June 2026 A recent controversy in Australia has sparked intense debate after a university academic reportedly used AI to help draft a newspaper opinion piece that warned students against relying on AI in their academic work. Predictably, accusations of hypocrisy followed. But I think many people are focusing on the wrong […]
If Even Literary Prize Judges Can’t Tell, What Happens Next?
Darren Chastney | 28 May 2026 A major literary controversy last week has raised an uncomfortable question for publishers, prize judges, and readers alike: Can we still reliably tell the difference between human writing and AI-generated fiction? The debate emerged after concerns were raised over one of the regional winners of the 2026 Commonwealth Short […]
“Book Club” Scam Targets Content Producers
Darren Chastney May 25, 2026 A few days ago, I received an email from someone claiming to run a literary organisation called “vermontbookclub”. At first glance, it looked entirely legitimate. The sender referenced my recent posts about AI guardrails, translation ethics, and the challenges of preserving meaning between languages. They mentioned my work in Bratislava, […]
NOK Computer – When AI Goes Rogue
When AI Accidentally Switches Languages: A Small Error with Big Implications During a recent writing task, an unusual thing happened. In the middle of an English sentence, the Arabic word “موجود” suddenly appeared: “A similarity score is the percentage of text in a document that matches content already موجود in databases…” The intended word was […]
The Uncanny Valley of Academic Similarity Scores
What Is a “Similarity Score” — and Why Should Researchers Care? Many researchers are familiar with plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin or iThenticate, but fewer fully understand what a similarity score actually means. A similarity score is the percentage of text in a document that matches content already found in databases, journals, websites, student […]
When AI Runs the Risk of Reputational Damage
The rapid adoption of generative AI in higher education has introduced a new and evolving risk: the intersection of AI-assisted writing and increasingly sophisticated detection systems. While AI tools are widely used to support drafting and editing, universities are simultaneously expanding the use of AI-detection technologies to identify undeclared machine-generated content. Recent reporting indicates thousands […]