In Other News: HSE ICRT Experts Speak on Future Technologies
From March to September 2020, HSE ICRT experts have participated in broadcasts on the development of artificial intelligence, careers in IT, and the influence of the pandemic on the IT industry. The experts talked about artificial intelligence helping to fight coronavirus, most promising IT startups, 5G and the Internet of things, the use of machine learning for ensuring road safety, and the experimental legal status of AI introduced in Moscow in July 2020.
The audience was most interested in IT careers after the pandemic, the latest trends in Russian IT education, the fate of IT startups in Russia during the crisis, and the coexistence of AI and humans.
The Profile correspondents and the Echo of Moscow hosts were particularly interested in the possibility and probability of friendship and romance between AI and humans (“When Sex and Friendship with Robots Will Become the Reality”) because quarantine and social distancing have sharpened the problem of loneliness. Many users are now actively communicating with AI. “For example, Relpika chatbot developers have revealed that 40% of 500,000 users consider it a romantic partner. Around 20% of users contact the support on the questions of relationship,” - commented Kirill Kosolapov, professor of the Faculty of Computer Science, HSE University, CEO of Data4 to Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Ilya Samonenko, head of HSE ICRT, deputy dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, HSE University talked with Vechernyaya Moskva-TV and Sputnik correspondents about the developments of artificial intelligence that allow the machine to become a companion, a friend, or a partner of man. The expert explained why AI still cannot fully communicate with humans and predicted when robots capable of friendship and romance will appear.
Robots can advise humans as well as communicate with them, playing the part of a psychologist. Adel Valiullin, professor of the Faculty of Computer Science, HSE University, CEO of Gazprombank’s Department for Data Analysis and Modeling, talked about neuromarketing - the use of AI to discover what emotions different products bring up in consumers, in Sputnik’s broadcast “Money and Smiles: AI Watches Emotions”.
Moreover, in the next few years, robots may start to control people. AL may modernise the system of drivers’ control. In the Kommersant FM broadcast “Traffic Police to Follow Western Experience”, representatives of the Faculty of Computer Science, HSE University expressed their opinion that AI and big data analysis will allow finding anomalies in the individual driving style. This information can be then used by traffic police officers to check the drivers’ sobriety.
The same technology can be used to fight fake news. The Prosecutor General’s Office estimates that the number of fakes on the Internet increased ten times during the pandemic. Andrey Zimonov, senior lecturer of the Faculty of Computer Science, HSE University talked about robotic fake news recognition in the life broadcast of Vechernyaya Moskva-TV.
Many questions were asked on AI defeating the coronavirus. Harvard and MIT researchers use machine learning to analyse the recordings of healthy persons and those infected with the coronavirus. “The researchers aimed at teaching neural networks to distinguish the voices of people who might be infected. A similar project is tried at Carnegie Mellon University. If these developments will demonstrate their efficiency, people will be able to self-isolate even without COVID-19 test. This is a very simple instrument for enterprises when they open. People can just speak or cough - artificial intelligence will inform them if anything’s wrong,” - said ICRT experts on machine learning for speech and natural languages analysis.
The readers of Invest Foresight business magazine (more than one million unique visitors and 2.2 million views per month) were looking for the information on the AI experiment in Moscow. Representatives of the Faculty of Computer Science, HSE University working in ICRT told the journalists why this experiment may facilitate AI development in Russia and what fields demand these technologies the most. The experts also commented on the problems of the experiment including the risk of personal data leaks and their prevention.
ICRT experts mentioned the problem of IT projects’ development during the pandemic. Exclusively for Kommersant FM they have analysed the positions of the promising Russian startups, listed the reasons for the success of some and failure of others, and named the pandemic’s beneficiaries as well as technologies that attract investors’ attention.
“Sometimes the crisis does not destroy the business but forces it to change rapidly. This allows implementing new technologies,” experts point out. In the Kommersant FM broadcast “Robots Take over Workplaces” they told that AI already can give personalised food tips to customers based on their recent favourite products. Moreover, robots will be able to replace chefs as well as vendors. Algorithms are now able to create original receipts for dishes.
ICRT researchers talk about the changes IT brings to workplaces in a weekly programme of Vechernyaya Moskva-TV.
Ilya Samonenko explained that AI can drastically change medicine. “Robots can diagnose for the doctors to validate or refuse it,” - the expert claims. AI, therefore, becomes an innovative product to simplify doctors’ work.
On the verge of entrance exams, Ilya Samonenko touched upon the topic of education for programmes. He commented on the survey of the most popular educational programmes among the 2020 applicants, described the latest trends in IT education in Russia, and invited professors of computer science and mathematics of Russian universities to take internships and advanced training courses at the HSE International Centre for Research and Teaching.