Forum
EMERGE 2025: Dialogues with AI
18 November 2025, 17:00
Palace of Science (Palata nauke), Kralja Milana 11, Belgrade
EMERGE 2025: Dialogues with AI invites us to explore the evolving conversation between humans and intelligent machines. It looks at how AI is reshaping communication, creativity, and social life — from the ways we produce and share information to how we understand language, emotion, and intent.
The program highlights AI’s growing role in the media, exposing both its transformative potential for storytelling and its risks to truth, editorial integrity, and public trust. Discussions will also address how data-driven AI systems influence creative discovery and decision-making, how large language models displace human intentionality and reshape the meaning of discourse, and how AI’s expanding capabilities raise urgent questions about privacy, data protection, and legal accountability. Together, these dialogues reveal both the promise and the precarity of a world increasingly mediated by intelligent systems.
Ultimately, EMERGE 2025 asks a central question: How can we ensure that the dialogue between humans and machines remains grounded in justice, dignity, and human values? Through public talks, critical debates, and shared insights, the forum aims to bridge disciplines and encourage new alliances for a more ethical and inclusive technological future.
Join us for EMERGE 2025: Dialogues with AI and be part of the conversation shaping our digital tomorrow.
EMERGE is an annual international forum dedicated to exploring how emerging technologies transform our world and redefine what it means to be human. Founded in Belgrade, it has become a vibrant meeting point for scholars, artists, technologists, and policymakers engaging in open dialogue about the social, ethical, and cultural dimensions of artificial intelligence. Building on previous editions that explored AI ethics, media freedom, art, education, and sustainability, EMERGE continues to spark critical conversations on how technology can empower humanity rather than dominate it.
Speakers
Ana Toskic Cvetinovic
Ana Toskić Cvetinović, LL.M, is a human rights lawyer with over 15 years of experience in the Western Balkans. Ana specializes in privacy, freedom of information, and legal aspects of information management. She develops and implements training programs, research, and advocacy campaigns aimed at improving information management in legislative frameworks and practices. Throughout her work, Ana explores the intersection between the rule of law and the use of new technologies, including the development of AI and automation and their impact on human rights. She authored a number of studies and reports in the field of privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, and digital rights.
Ivana Uspenski, PhD / Hearts & Science Germany
Head of Insights and Channel Planning
Ivana Uspenski is an award-winning strategic and academic leader with over two decades of experience at the intersection of media, communication, and technology. She is currently Head of Insights and Channel Planning at Hearts & Science Germany, where she leads data-driven communication strategies, brand transformation, and innovation initiatives for global clients.
Holding a PhD in Art and Media Studies from the University of Arts in Belgrade, Ivana’s research explores the intersections of media theory, digital cognition, and communication systems, with published work addressing topics such as hypertextuality, artificial life, and the relationship between media and consciousness. Her academic contributions have been featured in international journals and conferences, reflecting her ongoing commitment to bridging theoretical insight with applied practice.
Throughout her career, Ivana has held senior leadership roles at agencies including McCann Worldgroup, BBDO, Mindshare, PHD, and OMD, where she has built and mentored high-performing teams, developed new strategic frameworks, and guided digital transformation across European and global markets. Her work has been recognized with international awards such as Cannes Lions and Deutscher Mediapreis.
Mihajlo Popesku
Dr Mihajlo Popesku is a marketing scientist and the Founder & CEO of Latenta, a London-based consultancy that measures the latent phenomena driving human behaviour. With over 15 years of experience and a PhD in Marketing Science, he transforms complex behavioural data into strategic insights for governments, political parties, and global corporations using AI-enhanced methodologies.
At Latenta, Mike has pioneered an approach that combines behavioural psychology and method triangulation with AI, synthetic data generation, and advanced modelling. This strategy, the focus of his talk, has enabled the consultancy to operate as a “small giant,” securing high-value contracts with leading global brands and governments.
Prior to founding Latenta, Mihajlo held senior leadership roles, including Chief Research Officer at Questionardo and Head of Research at Cambridge Analytica. He has also held academic positions as a Senior Lecturer at Liverpool Business School and lectured on quantitative research methods at the universities of Leicester and Nottingham.
Dr Popesku is ranked in the top 0.0007% of research industry experts by UpWork.
Tanja Maksić
Tanja Maksić, Program Coordinator, has been a member of the BIRN Serbia team since 2010. From 2018 to 2022, she was a member of the working group for drafting and monitoring the implementation of the Media Strategy.
She designs and leads projects in the fields of media policy, good governance, and the digital transformation of the media. Within BIRN, Tanja conducts media research and is responsible for developing research topics and methodologies, writing policy reports and recommendations, and designing further advocacy actions.
Although she studied journalism, Tanja specialized during her university studies in media monitoring, particularly in analyzing media production content, budgetary financing of the media, and, more recently, the impact of the digital environment on media operations.
Tanja graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. Before joining BIRN, she worked at the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and was an associate at the Media Center Belgrade.
Vanja Subotić
Vanja Subotić (1994) earned her Ph.D. from the University of Belgrade and currently works as a Research Associate at the Institute of Philosophy within the Faculty of Philosophy of the same university. She holds an MA and BA in Philosophy (cum laude) and an MSc in Computational Methods for Social Sciences and Humanities. Subotić was an EPSA Research Fellow at the University of Turin and a visiting lecturer at the University of Rijeka. Her areas of expertise encompass the philosophy of cognitive neuroscience, philosophy of AI, general methodology of science, and philosophy of language. So far, Subotić has published one edited volume, and her papers have appeared in venues like Synthese, The Journal of Value Inquiry, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, etc. She served as a consultant for the HORIZON 2020 project TechEthos, offering insights into ethical challenges associated with emerging technologies, most notably digital extended reality and conversational AI. Subotić is also a certified scientific communicator and maintains a close collaboration with the Center for the Promotion of Science in Belgrade.