Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
© Dmitry Orlov / Roscongress Foundation
“Technologies of the future: a single global space or everyone for himself” – this question was put in the title of the session held on June 19 with the support of Alfa-Bank at SPIEF-2025. The discussion was attended by the rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics Nikita Anisimov, and the moderator was journalist, TV presenter and public figure Ksenia Sobchak.
Opening the discussion, Ksenia Sobchak noted that we are currently experiencing a second technological revolution. The first was the universal use of computers and the Internet, and the second is related to AI, which means that we will see a huge number of breakthroughs in the economy, medicine, and in our human existence in general.
“It would seem that this is a chance to join forces like never before, to face new challenges and opportunities together, but these breakthroughs are happening against the backdrop of a global technological divide, and this presents a huge number of additional challenges for all of us,” the moderator emphasized.
Vladimir Verkhoshinsky, CEO of Alfa-Bank, said that the policy of technological isolation leads to a dead end, so his bank puts openness first. Previously, in the industrial economy, it was possible to patent a gear, a machine, a robot, but now, in the digital economy, it is impossible to patent a code, any innovation is easily copied, and the speaker believes that this is good.
“Western countries were great in the 1990s and early 2000s, when they were technological leaders and openly shared technologies with the world,” added Vladimir Verkhoshinsky. In his opinion, now the leaders of many countries are pursuing protectionist policies, trying to close and ban everything.
Addressing Nikita Anisimov, Ksenia Sobchak stated that the Higher School of Economics, as a source of personnel, must also face these modern challenges, and, in particular, asked how the university adapts its programs to the needs of AI.
Nikita Anisimov specified that the entire education system can be considered a forge of personnel, while some simply prepare for the workplace, while others create the technologies of tomorrow, think about the future and form the values of the future. “It is important for us, and there are not many such universities in the world, that there is an environment that creates future technologies. There should be universities in the world that are a forge not of personnel, but of the technologies of the future,” he said. Such institutions – universities – exist both in our country and in the world, where AI technologies are introduced into the educational process and taught.
“For the Higher School of Economics, teaching artificial intelligence technologies is a hygienic requirement. Our students take an exam on digital literacy already in their first year, and if they fail, we expel them,” the rector explained.
He also said that 1% of the world’s leading universities compete for 1% of the world’s talent, and each person views studying at these universities as entering a special environment and culture, investing in themselves, creating opportunities for self-realization, and not preparing for a specific job. According to Nikita Anisimov, this understanding of the university was initially characteristic of Russia.
The HSE rector also put forward a hypothesis that the preparation of a student for a specific job today is determined by a strong demographic impact on the labor market. So solving the demographic problem will help preserve the essence of university education.
“What is a talent pool for? To fill jobs. And then you tell every university, even the one that is supposed to create an environment for creating the future, listen, but we don’t have enough people. Therefore, solving the demographic issue is critically important for technological leadership,” Nikita Anisimov emphasized.
The moderator’s questions, addressed to Rostelecom President Mikhail Oseevsky, concerned the possibility of transforming various AI solutions for editing, design, visuals, etc. into a single system. “Many different wallets, with different currencies in them. It seems to be in order, but in fact it’s chaos,” Ksenia Sobchak drew an analogy.
Mikhail Oseevsky responded that it is impossible to create a single universal solution that will be effective for different types of tasks. “That is why we create for ourselves and then bring to market a product called a “neural gateway” that allows employees and clients, depending on the task that needs to be solved, to access different “engines” “under the hood”. These can be global networks,” he explained.
At the same time, in his opinion, it is necessary to keep in mind that in order to ensure security and sovereignty, not all information can be loaded into solutions that do not belong to us. In corporate activities, interaction should be carried out with those neural networks that are located in our data centers and that are specially trained on our material.
“We believe that we need to focus on diversity, but within the framework of one product, ensuring personal and corporate security,” concluded Mikhail Oseevsky.
The discussion was also attended by Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Ivan Chebeskov, Chairman of the Board of the Moscow Exchange Viktor Zhidkov, and futurist writer from Singapore, author of the bestseller “AI 2041” Chen Qiufan.
In conclusion, Ksenia Sobchak invited the session participants to briefly answer the question posed in its title. As it turned out, the speakers were unable to come to a consensus on whether it would be possible to create a single global technology space.
Vladimir Verkhoshinsky offered an optimistic formulation: “Technology has no borders, especially now, in the digital world, like friendship and love. Perhaps, in the short term of 30-50 years, everyone will be for themselves, and if we look strategically 100-200 years ahead, we will have a single world, I would like to hope, a beautiful, space.”
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