The event brought together 4.4 thousand IT specialists from different regions of the country. On November 25, forum guests were invited to a ceremonial event—Innopolis’ birthday celebration. It has been ten years since the platform focused on education and scientific research, a leader in training of professionals, was established.
At the forum’s venues, rectors and vice-rectors of top Russian universities, subject-matter experts and scientific workers usually share their experience in the field of digital transformation, artificial intelligence, establishment of digital universities, and commercialization of university research. DID participants get acquainted with new educational formats and practices, innovative products and scientific developments.
Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko spoke at the forum’s plenary session on “Integration of Education, Science and Industry: An Impetus for Russia’s Human and Scientific Research Capacity Development.” The deputy prime minister, three deputy ministers, and digital heads of the biggest Russian companies talked about new IT industry standards and priority goals for its development.
Carrying out effective import substitution was highlighted as the main priority at the current stage of the country’s development. The importance of consolidating customers who order scientific products was stressed as well. Today 300 companies are already establishing 43 import substitution competence centers in Russia. New projects approved by the state (there are 216 of them) require over 200 thousand specialists. The flagship educational center at Innopolis University, which has already trained over 34 thousand lecturers and methodologists, will become a one-stop shop for industrial centers’ technology transfer and an extremely important source of manpower supply for the industry.
The Center for Artificial Intelligence of Innopolis University organized this year’s edition of the annual “Conference on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Priority Sectors of the Economy,” which included eight thematic panel and expert discussions.
During the expert discussion on “Ethical Aspects of Using Artificial Intelligence,” the most urgent tasks and recommendations for practical implementation of ethical standards in different applications of AI were covered. This session was joined by representatives of Yandex, MTS, Transoil, Artificial Intelligence Agency, and Skolkovo Foundation. Head of Analytics at the Center for Global IT-Cooperation Andrey Ignatiev joined the discussion as a speaker on behalf of CGITC.
Rector of Innopolis University Alexander G. Tormasov, Dr. Phys.-Math. Sc., opened the session and actively participated in the dialogue. He urged to place primary emphasis on the industry’s practical and applicable side and stressed the importance of searching for new opportunities for implementing ethical norms at the technical, or practical, level. In their speeches, experts pointed out the need to use a more systemic and structured approach to the assessment of AI study cases in terms of their ethical side. There was an opinion expressed that, in order to carry out ethical examination of AI-based products at any stage of the product life cycle, it is important to possess certain knowledge helpful for understanding the technology on a professional level. However, all actors, including members of society and immediate customers who use products and services, should participate in determining appropriate approaches and benchmarks.
Andrey Ignatiev, representative of CGITC, named the improvement of ethical standards for AI implementation in Internet technologies (that is, algorithmic recommendations) as well as that for the use of chatbots (robopsychologists, kindergarten teachers, robotutors, and maybe even idea generators willing to help people and give them advice will be brought to market) as the most relevant practical objectives. The importance of mass distribution of deepfakes and synthetic content generation in the digital environment in terms of ethical lines of technology development was stressed as well. Backing up his thesis, the speaker used various examples from the study that the Center for Global IT-Cooperation has carried out this year as part of the Think20 project of the Group of Twenty—a target analytical report on “Deepfakes and Security in the Information Environment: Challenges for Governments, Society and Business.”
The session on ethics in the AI field sparked the audience’s interest, and participants had an opportunity to conduct a constructive debate, exchange opinions, and look into several practical examples of transport management intelligent automation.
Learn more about all forum events on the YES, I DID! Telegram channel.
