Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The All-Russian scientific-practical and educational-methodical conference with international participation “Fundamental and applied research in the field of management, economics and trade” was held at the Polytechnic University.
The plenary session of the conference was devoted to the discussion of cross-industry solutions using artificial intelligence in various sectors of the economy. The session was opened and the discussion was moderated by the chairperson of the conference program committee, director of the scientific and educational center for information technology and business analysis “Gazprom Neft”, professor of the Higher Engineering and Economics School of the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade of SPbPU Irina Rudskaya.
Welcoming the participants of the conference, which opened in the White Hall of SPbPU, Vice-Rector for Research Yuri Fomin recalled that the university has chosen three relevant areas in its development strategy until 2030, including the development of artificial intelligence technologies.
It is gratifying that our university is increasingly having discussion platforms on this topic. This is important for working out the decisions being made, finding answers to the questions that AI poses to us, said Yuri Vladimirovich.
In turn, Vladimir Shchepinin, Director of the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade of SPbPU, noted that within the framework of the conference, the institute is holding a plenary session in the format of a panel discussion for the first time, as well as a competition of scientific works of students and postgraduates, according to the results of which the winners will receive scholarships from the institute’s fund, formed together with industrial partners.
For two hours, the panelists kept the audience’s interest alive. The tone and theme were set by Yuri Fomin, who oversees the AI development direction at SPbPU.
For us, cross-industry is everything related to engineering, not a specific segment. This is our competitive advantage. Today, we earn about two hundred million rubles a year on such developments using AI, and by 2030, we plan to reach one and a half billion rubles, concentrating on performing applied tasks for our partners, – said Yuri Fomin and spoke about some of the projects being implemented today.
The Vice-Rector for Research also identified the main barriers that prevent more effective use of AI in the real sector of the economy. The first barrier is the lack of clear formalization of the business process, and for the implementation of AL technologies there must be a clear sequence of actions. The second barrier is insufficient digitalization: correct data is obtained from correctly digitized business processes. Incorrect data leads to making incorrect decisions.
All speakers, starting with the Vice President, Director of the North-West Macroregional Branch of PJSC Rostelecom Alexander Loginov, spoke about overcoming such barriers and other tasks. He noted that the data really should be reliable, and that infrastructure and personnel are also needed to use AI. Alexander Evgenievich cited the results of one foreign study, according to which more than 60% of employees hide from management that they use AI, and 66% blindly trust all the information received. All participants in the discussion agreed that the solutions and answers offered by neural networks should be verified. This is especially important in such a field as medicine, although the largest number of datasets have been collected here and most of the data is carefully verified. As Petr Shegai, Deputy Director General for Science at the National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Russian Ministry of Health, explained, Russian AL technologies for medicine, based on data collected in the country, today make it possible to prescribe treatment and help to partly equalize the opportunities of experienced and novice doctors, although, of course, any final decision on the appointment is made by a person.
Svetlana Merkushina, Executive Director of the Sber Education Industry Center, spoke about the main trends related to data analysis, the advantages of using AI, including reducing the risk of human factor and accelerating all processes. Any AI is data plus algorithms that increase productivity. But what needs to be done to make AI truly generative? According to Maxim Patrushev, Deputy Head of the Kurchatov Complex of NBICS-nature-like technologies at the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, there is no answer to this question yet, but methods for increasing productivity using AI are being actively created, big data is being analyzed for decision-making, and options for solutions in working with genes are being calculated. For example, scientists at the NRC are working on the Controlled Evolution software.
Continuing the topic of possible solutions, Director of the Federal Scientific Center for Vegetable Growing, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Soldatenko emphasized the possibilities of using AI to solve the problem of food security, increase agricultural yields and reduce labor costs. AI is actively used in breeding, development of animal nutrition, and “smart” video surveillance of animal behavior. Among the problems identified in the implementation of new technologies, Alexey Vasilyevich named an insufficiently developed regulatory framework, and also noted that technologies will change so rapidly that they will have to be mastered constantly.
The importance of continuous training was also highlighted by the rector of the Gazprom Neft Corporate University, Ilya Dementyev, who noted that each employee of their company undergoes additional training three times a year. Summing up the discussion, Ilya Aleksandrovich identified another problem – a lack of understanding of the essence of artificial intelligence.
We need to think about whether we have reached a point of singularity, when the technologies being created are used by people who do not understand what they are using. Therefore, we need to stimulate not only the development of technologies, but also the development of education in the field of artificial intelligence. And it is important that there is a demand from within – from the teachers themselves, who must understand how to use AI in teaching, and from students, who must understand what competencies they will need, the speaker noted.
The panel discussion ended with a conversation with the audience. The speakers answered questions about how they see the labor market changing, what skills employers need, what language models are best to use, and what ethical issues remain unresolved. There was no clear answer to the last question, “What is artificial intelligence?” And while there is no understanding of what is in the “black box,” according to experts, it is worth asking more about how to use it rather than what AI is.
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