On April 7, Saratov State University hosted the 11th International Research-to-Practice Conference entitled Artificial Intelligence in Modern Humanities.
The humanitarian conference has become traditional for the university. The forum is organized by the Faculties of Humanities and institutes of SSU: Institute of History and International Relations, Institute of Philology and Journalism, Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, Institute of Risks, Institute of Arts, Faculty of Psychology, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Linguodidactics, Faculty of Psychological, Pedagogical and Special Education, Philosophical, Sociological, Economic, Law Faculties. This year, at the suggestion of the Vice-Rector for Research and Digital Development, Professor A.A. Koronovsky was joined by two more faculties – the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology.
The geography of the participants covers many regions of Russia and abroad. Colleagues from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tomsk, Tula, Chelyabinsk, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, as well as Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Iraq joined the discussion of the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in science.
The beginning of the conference was preceded by the acquaintance of the participants with the photo exhibition "New World of Art?", presented in the foyer of the auditorium 701 of the XII building of SSU. Its author is Associate Professor of the Department of Theory of State and Law of the Faculty of Law of SSU Svetlana Strygina. The peculiarity of the exhibition lies in the subject of works in which the relationship with artificial intelligence is traced. The greatest interest of visitors was aroused by the work "Self-portrait of artificial intelligence". The participants of the conference reacted with humor to the vision of AI in such topics as "Student", "Session", "Writing a dissertation", the works "Blue Dream", "Sunny Summer Day", "Mysterious Distances", "Candle", "Melody" and others seemed very touching.
The Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Honorary Worker of Education of the Russian Federation Galina Komkova opened the scientific meeting. Galina Nikolaevna reminded the guests and participants about the history of the conference: "Since 2012, we have been holding this scientific event together with other humanities faculties and institutes. The topics of the meetings cover a wide range of issues in the field of knowledge about man and society and are aimed at generalizing experience in the field of domestic and foreign research, determining the role of man in the modern world."
According to Galina Nikolaevna, during the forum, about 3,000 scientists from 40 regions of Russia and foreign countries took part in it: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Italy, the UAE, Italy, Moldova and others. Since 2020, the conference has been held in a mixed – face–to-face and distance format.
"Today the conference acquires new perspectives, because time dictates new trends and approaches in the research of the humanities and social sciences of the key problems of our time and creates new prospects for scientific exchange," concluded Galina Nikolaevna.
Vice-Rector for Research and Digital Development Aleksei Koronovskii on behalf of the Rector of SSU A.N. Chumachenko welcomed the participants of the conference: "The university holds about 200 conferences a year, but only some of them become the hallmarks of the university. Today's forum is among them. Interest in the development of artificial intelligence is incredibly high today, this phenomenon, on the one hand, is gradually becoming an integral part of our life, on the other hand, its development is in the discussion field of modern science, as it brings new problems and challenges to the development of the human community."
Then, during the plenary session, Associate Professor of the Department of Mathematical Theory of Elasticity and Biomechanics, Head of the Department of Digital and Information Technologies Leonid Bessonov presented an overview of the development of artificial intelligence technologies and big data analysis. The speaker focused on machine learning models, neural networks for image generation, areas in which AI has achieved high results. These are machine translation, chatbots, image recognition and others.
Professor, Head of the Department of Law, Digital Technologies and Biopraw of the Faculty of Law of the HSE N.N. Kovaleva considered artificial intelligence in a legal way, namely in public administration. I.V. Veshneva, Professor of the Department of Information Systems and Technologies in Education of the Faculty of KNiIT SSU, spoke about the classification of artificial intelligence technologies, prospects and threats. The research of cognitive abilities of a person based on computer modeling was considered in her report by Professor of the Department of Social Psychology of Education and Development of SSU Tatyana Belykh.
An unexpected metaphor of trypophobia in the digital world was used by Professor, Head of the Department of Theory and Practice of Public Relations of the Russian State University S.V. Klyagin to systematize modern humanitarian approaches to the reception of the next information technology revolution taking place in our time.
The social dimensions of artificial intelligence were introduced to the participants of the meeting by Professor of the Department of Social Informatics of the Faculty of Sociology of SSU Nina Melnikova.
Professor of the Department of Theory, History of Language and Applied Linguistics of SSU Vadim Dementyev presented the report "Genres of speech and digitalization of literature", in which, among other things, the results of solving the provocative task "heart to heart" by artificial intelligence were shown.
Neural networks as a new agent of digital aesthetics were considered by Professor of the Department of Theoretical and Social Philosophy of SSU Sophia Tikhonova. In her speech, Sofya Vladimirovna presented the results of visualization of ideas and images in the style of the most popular fantasy worlds and noted that the development of artificial intelligence makes us think about the subjectivity of creative activity.
The report on the implementation of the linguodidactic potential of artificial intelligence methods, prepared jointly with scientists G.A. Nikitina and E.A. Maksimova, was presented by the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Linguodidactics of SSU Svetlana Shilova.
Associate Professor of the Department of General and Consultative Psychology, head of the Master's program "Cognitive Psychology" of SSU Alexander Panteleyev spoke about psychological risks in the Internet environment.
"Artificial intelligence in diplomacy and international Relations" was the topic of a speech by Associate Professor of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Russia SSU Dennis Alekseyev.
Within the framework of the conference, five round tables were held, where participants discussed ethical and legal problems of the use of artificial intelligence, its impact on humans and society, the history of the development of artificial intelligence technology, paradigmatic models of attitudes to ontological, social, cultural and psychological changes caused by the development of digital technologies, as well as the role of AI in the field of physical culture.
