The 8th AI Journey International conference was held in Moscow from 22 to 24 November.
The event focused on the latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), their role in new scientific discoveries, and the significance of AI in the development of business and society as a whole.
In addition, much attention was devoted to popularizing AI amongst young people.
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The conference brought together over 200 renowned speakers from Russia, India, China, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, the UAE, South Africa and other countries to discuss the biggest issues in AI and IT today for both specialists and ordinary users.
Streamed in three languages – Russian, English and, for the first time, Arabic – the event could be viewed from anywhere in the world.
One of the topics explored on the final day was sustainable development, with a discussion in the ESG track of AI's impact on climate, the energy transition, biodiversity, education and the social sphere.
In presentations given on the main conference stage, Janet Sawari from South Africa and Koh Chen Tien from Malaysia highlighted the use of AI to achieve sustainable development goals. They also spoke about key trends that will help in future AI innovations with due consideration for ESG principles.
Sawari presented the X–VSN Illuminate platform, which uses data from various video monitoring systems to audit production sites and improve workplace safety, thereby contributing to one aspect of ESG.
Koh Chen Tien, the chairman of Malaysian company Vero AI, described AI as the "new electricity," thereby emphasizing the indispensability of AI in the near future, or even today. He backed up his claim by citing numerous examples from international companies that use AI in trading, logistics optimization and many other activities. Interestingly, China and India have learned to apply AI to boost harvests, and in Malaysia, AI is used to check the authenticity of consumer goods, medicines and food products.
AI systems are being organically integrated into environmental solutions in, for example, decarbonization, forest restoration and waste management, raising the issue of how to reduce the hydrocarbon footprint of the AI models themselves.
The solution is to retrain and reuse existing models rather than create new ones from scratch. The relevance and legitimacy of using AI in environmental protection has been confirmed by a survey conducted in Russia by Sber and Rambler & Co, which also confirmed public trust in AI in the context of the green agenda.
Most of the respondents said they believe that AI will help mankind to address climate challenges by predicting natural disasters, changes and risks, and even helping to create environmentally friendly materials.
Neural networks would become an integral part of ordinary people’s lives, because they could help to make the human intellect truly boundless and be of great benefit to society. For example, by predicting business revenue – something that has become a reality in the form of a software module from SberAnalytics
The module can predict revenue in various areas of business with an accuracy of up to 90%. Speaking during the conference, Deputy Chairman of Sberbank's Executive Board Anatoly Popov shared the news that this innovative solution can be tested in the bank's GeoAnalytics online panel. The module will help businesses to assess the competitive environment and to understand their audience and consumer demand, while also helping to find the most attractive retail premises for their business and avoid unprofitable locations.
It is also possible to boost customer loyalty with the help of AI, this time using a solution called Voice AI, which can collect, process and perform a detailed analysis of dialogs in any channel, including chats and calls. The model analyzes conversations to identify trends and patterns, enabling more effective assessment of operator performance and boosting customer convenience and loyalty.
But the service is not limited to these functions: Voice AI addresses a whole range of important business issues, such as identifying fraud, measuring the effectiveness of sales scripts etc.
The climax of the three-day conference was a debate entitled 'The Generative AI Revolution: New Opportunities,' in which Russian President Vladimir Putin shared his vision of the development of neural networks in Russia.
The meeting was moderated by Sberbank CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board Herman Gref, who listed three key areas in which the experts predict AI will make the biggest breakthroughs: healthcare, education, and the creation of fundamentally new management systems.
The debate also addressed the main issue of concern to people involved in the creation, training and implementation of AI: what can generative AI do for mankind and how can it expand the individual's capabilities? Vladimir Putin noted that in Russia, for example, the use of AI solutions has expanded by 50% over the past year in the social and economic spheres alone. One can only imagine the scale of AI application worldwide. More and more investment is being poured into the creation of generative models, and companies are handing over more and more routine tasks that do not require human intervention to AI helpers.
It is important to note that the success and productivity of AI should be measured not only by quantitative business indicators or scientific records, but also, most importantly, by how much trust people place in it. At the end of the day, the more positive people are on AI, the more rapidly and effectively it can be applied in science, education and healthcare, opening up a new chapter for mankind.
It is always important to stress that generative models will become buddies and partners to people, without replacing them in any way. Already today, AI is producing drawings and specifications for designers and architects, as well as helping in the search for molecules for medicines and creating efficient business models.
AI is an incredibly powerful resource for business and government. And for ordinary folk it offers convenience and assistance in addressing everyday tasks when there are never enough hours in the day to "get everything done". Thus, with the application of AI, mankind is continuously acquiring more and more tools for achieving happiness, health and harmony.