Caitlin Ailis Roach: "There's no place like home"A conversation about AI, research, language, thinking , and what actually creates real impact.
“I am proud to be part of an open access institution - as a daughter of a librarian, access to knowledge has always been personal to me.”

Caitlin Ailis Roach, Head of Publications at European Alliance for Innovation - EAICaitlin comes from Kansas City and has Irish roots, maybe that’s also why she naturally feels close to Europe.

Caitlin Roach leads publications at European Alliance for Innovation, Bratislava, Slovakia and works daily with research that shapes the future.

She openly says that up to 70% of scientific papers today are written with the help of AI.
And that’s exactly why she emphasizes something that is no longer obvious - not becoming dependent on AI and not losing our own thinking.

Caitlin loves languages. She speaks French and Slovak fluently and is currently learning Turkish and German.
Maybe that’s why AI-generated content often feels flat and boring to her, lacking nuance and depth.

After France, she moved to the United Kingdom, specifically to Lancaster, where we also touched on English accents and how language shapes perception.

She originally comes from Kansas "The land of The Wizard of Oz"
She has been living in Slovakia for 10 years and knows Bratislava better than many locals. If you want to know where to go for coffee or where to host a meeting, ask Caitlin.

But her beginnings here were not easy.
When she first arrived in Slovakia, she had a moment when she honestly thought she had just messed up her life.
She first lived in Stupava, and that experience shaped her first impression of the country.

It’s also interesting how she compares the way we treat foreigners in Slovakia versus how they are socializing with them in Kansas. Her perspective is surprising.

And one more thing that stood out:we, Slovaks, are often overly critical of the cities we come from.
That’s why it’s interesting to hear what she appreciates about Bratislava, things we might overlook ourselves.

From her perspective, Kansas and Slovakia have more in common than we would expect.

We also talk about research:

A large number of studies never make it out into the world.
They are rejected or never applied in practice.

And even those that do get published often take years before they are actually implemented, for example in fields like space technology or smart cities.

We also look back at the COVID-19 pandemic, how it accelerated research, but also led to a wave of publications, some of which are now considered controversial or are being questioned only in hindsight. Y

There are also platforms that openly address research quality such as Retraction Watch. It is an independent watchdog platform that tracks retracted and questionable scientific publications.

Interestingly, Slovakia does not appear there as often, it’s not as big of an issue here as in some other countries.

At the same time, there is growing frustration in academic circles about the misuse of AI: not as a tool, but as a shortcut that replaces thinking.

On the other hand, we also talk about the positive side: AI as a tool that can genuinely help for example in improving the health and functioning of cities.

And then there is one more interesting concept: tortured phrases.
These are distorted, poorly translated or AI-generated expressions: often unintentionally funny.

And maybe the most important point at the end:

Caitlin believes that the future of science lies in Open access.

At the same time, she highlights a paradox: many research projects are funded by public money, for example from the European Union, yet access to them is still behind paywalls.

The public funds the research, but many times not have access to it.

https://retractionwatch.com/

https://www.irit.fr/~Guillaume.Cabanac/problematic-paper-screener