Interdisciplinary lecture series: AI and language in focus!

Interdisciplinary lecture series: AI and language in focus!

The University of Passau is starting an interdisciplinary lecture series on generative language models, also known as large language models, in June and July 2025. The focus is on relevant topics such as understanding language, argumentation skills and their access to legal science. This lecture series is organized by Florian Lemmerich, Professor of Applied Machine Learning, and considers disciplines such as computer science, business information systems, computational linguistics and law. The aim of the event series is to present different perspectives on the diverse topics.

The first lecture, entitled “How well can language models reason?”, will take place on Thursday, June 5th at 6 p.m. The speakers here are Prof. Dr. Annette Hautli-Janisz from the University of Passau and Prof. Dr. Henning Wachsmuth from the University of Hanover. The talk offers a deep insight into the reasoning abilities of AI systems and lays the foundation for the following discussions, which deal with the different aspects of generative AI.

A diverse program

The series includes several lectures that deal with various applications and challenges of generative AI systems. On June 12th at 6 p.m. Lara Brinzing from Robert Bosch GmbH will be speaking together with Prof. Dr. Ulrich Gnewuch from the University of Passau will give the lecture “Generative AI assistants in the workplace”.

This will be followed on June 26th, also at 6 p.m., by the lecture “Large Language Models for Code: Productivity Booster or Technical Debt Generator?” with Marko Ivankovic from Cogna.co and Prof. Dr. Gordon Fraser from the University of Passau. On July 3rd at 6 p.m. Prof. Dr. Johann-Mattis List together with Dr. Christian Bentz from the University of Passau answered the question “Do Large Language Models really understand human language?” discuss.

The series of events concludes on July 10th at 6 p.m. with the lecture “AI2J – language models: a new approach to law?”. Sven Galla from AIGHT legal and Prof. Dr. Brian Valerius from the University of Passau will shed light on central questions about the legal application of language models.

Publicity and interactivity

All lectures are open to the public; prior registration is only necessary for the quiz show. This will take place on July 17th at 6 p.m. and will be led by Prof. Dr. Steffen Herbold moderates. The quiz show “5 against AI” is held in the TV studio of the Center for Media and Communication and enables an interactive discussion of the topics previously covered. The entire event will be published online, allowing for wider participation.

In summary, the lecture series at the University of Passau promises not only exciting insights into the world of generative language models, but also stimulating discussions about their application in various disciplines. In addition, the event series offers the opportunity to exchange ideas with leading experts in this rapidly developing field. Further information is available at University of Passau to find.