V-Shift

On 11 November 2025, Miklós Sebők delivered a lecture at University of Kentucky as part of the 2025 Fall Seminar Series. His presentation, titled Using AI Assistants in Comparative Research: The Case of the Comparative Agendas Project and the Babel Machine, introduced new AI-driven tools developed by poltextLAB to support large-scale political text classification. Sebők outlined a fine-tuning agent that enables researchers to adapt multilingual transformer models through natural-language instructions in Slack, automating validation, data strategy selection, and GPU-based training processes. He also presented RobotAssistant, a multi-model comparison framework that deploys classification tasks simultaneously across systems such as Claude, GPT, and DeepSeek. Together, these innovations aim to democratise gold-standard machine coding and reduce technical barriers in comparative political research.  Further details of the event can be found here: https://martin.uky.edu/events/seminar-miklos-sebok

On 10 November 2025, Miklós Sebők delivered a workshop titled Generative AI for Researchers — Tips and Tricks at the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration as part of the 2025 Fall Seminar Series. The session introduced participants to the concepts, tools, and research applications of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), exploring both introductory and advanced topics. Sebők discussed the ethical and responsible use of GenAI, demonstrated QuantiCheck — a custom GPT designed for peer review — and presented prompt-based methods for literature searches, classification, and regression. He also compared local and API-based models, highlighting how GenAI can be integrated with R and Python, and showcased the role of AI agents in automating data collection and classification. Further details of the event can be found here: https://martin.uky.edu/events/workshop-miklos-sebok

Miklós Sebők delivered a presentation at the University of Texas in Austin as part of a research visit programme, during which he introduced two newly developed poltextLAB dashboards: a New York Times analysis dashboard and a Congressional Speech Dashboard. Dr. Sebők highlighted how these tools integrate AI-based CAP sentiment measurement and additional coding schemes to support the systematic study of media narratives and legislative discourse. Using illustrative examples, he demonstrated how the dashboards enable comparative tracking of political topics, sentiment shifts, and rhetorical strategies in real time.

On 7 November 2025, Miklós Sebők delivered a presentation at the University of Texas at Austin during the panel Building the Dataset, organised as part of the broader event “A Celebration of The Policy Agendas Project and Bryan Jones.” In his contribution, Sebők highlighted the AI-assisted methodological and conceptual innovations required to construct robust, longitudinal policy datasets. He discussed challenges in ensuring coding consistency, integrating heterogeneous political information, and adapting established frameworks to new digital and multilingual sources. Sebők underscored the unique Importance of the Policy Agendas codebook developed by Bryan D. Jones and Frank Baumgartner. His presentation showed examples of how the collaborative, cross-national data project strengthens the analytical foundations of the Policy Agendas Project and enables more precise comparative research on policy change.

Ádám Kerényi chaired a panel on Competitiveness and Economic Development at the “2nd Network for European Studies Conference”. The event took place on 6 November, and was hosted by National University of Public Service. The session featured presentations by the following speakers: Enikő Győri (Member of the European Parliament), Csaba Fási and Petra Szűcs (National University of Public Service), Gabriella Németh (University of Szeged), Krisztián Manzinger and Ákos Kántor (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary).

On 29 October 2025, Miklós Sebők held a workshop for the University of Tampa’s faculty and computer science students titled Generative AI for Research (with some computer science applications). The session explored how generative artificial intelligence tools, including large language models, can enhance academic research workflows across the social sciences and computer science. Dr Sebők demonstrated practical examples of AI-assisted data collection, text analysis, and literature synthesis, showing how these tools can accelerate empirical and theoretical investigations.

Miklós Sebők, as head of the MTA-ELTE TK V-SHIFT Lendület Research Group, was a guest on KlubRádió’s morning show “Reggeli gyors” (Morning Express). During the half-hour-plus conversation, the main topic was current domestic and foreign policy developments in the United States.

Miklós Sebők, as head of the MTA-ELTE TK V-SHIFT Lendület Research Group, was a guest on Tilos Rádió’s show “Régen minden jobb volt”. During the hour-long discussion participants analyzed recent developments in the United States from a domestic and foreign policy angle.

On 2 October 2025, guest researcher Nathalie Neptune gave a workshop at poltextLAB on how satellite data can be combined with legal and policy information to study forest management and wildfire control in Hungary. She demonstrated how changes in forest laws — such as those governing harvesting rules, conservation, or emergency logging — can be linked to satellite indicators, including forest loss, burned area, and vegetation health. This approach helps reveal whether and when new policies have had visible effects on Hungary’s forests. The project employs advanced statistical methods, including interrupted time-series analysis, regression models, and Bayesian structural time-series (BSTS) models, as well as case studies. These methods test whether legislative changes correspond to measurable shifts in forest conditions or wildfire frequency, offering evidence to support more adaptive and data-driven forestry and fire management strategies. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences Distinguished Guest Scientists Fellowship Programme supports this research.

Miklós Sebők and Csaba Molnár gave a successful presentation at this year’s Comparative Agendas Project General Conference in Konstanz, Germany, where they received highly positive feedback. Additionally, Miklós Sebők showcased the latest features and models of the Babel Machine during a plenary session, highlighting its newest capabilities for classifying documents into specific public policy subtopics.