On the first day of the 14th Russian Internet Governance Forum, participants discussed issues of the data economy, the development of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and global digital cooperation.
During the section “Data Economics: International Cooperation and Technological Leadership,” moderated by Alexey Sidoryuk (ANO “Digital Economy”), the main topics were the role of development institutions in shaping the data economy, the demand for Russian technologies abroad and the development of AI technologies by Russian and foreign companies.
Vladimir Dozhdev (Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia) presented the work of digital attaches and announced the opening of representative offices in 35 countries – currently 14 such representative offices are already functioning. “Digital attaches”, being full-time employees of Trade Missions of the Russian Federation abroad, act as a link between Russian business and partners in the host country, identify demand and potential niches, and also assist Russian companies in building a constructive dialogue with foreign counterparties. The main task of the “digital attaches” is to increase the volume of exports of Russian goods and services in the field of information technology (software and radio-electronic products).
Sergey Plugotarenko (ANO Digital Economy) noted that over the past two years a huge amount of new software has appeared in Russia, and the Internet economy is developing 10 times faster than before 2022.
“With the support of Minister Maksut Shadayev, we created the Center for Technological Leadership, the purpose of which is to support and develop domestic technologies, solutions and leaders in the field of digital technologies and technological independence. One of the main conclusions of our work: technological leadership deserves to become a national idea,” the speaker said.
Also, Alexander Pavlov (Russian Foundation for Information Technology Development), Yu Xiaoyu (Chinese Institute of Information and Communications, IDEA), Vadim Glushchenko (Center for Global IT-Cooperation) and Evgeny Burnaev (Skoltech) have also taken part in the discussion.
During the section “Formation of Strategies for the Development of AI,” moderator Andrey Neznamov (Sberbank) invited experts to discuss what strategies for the development of artificial intelligence are being developed in different countries, what principles underlie them and what regulatory mechanisms are used.
Anna Abramova (MGIMO Center for Artificial Intelligence), Zaur Mamedyarov (Higher School of Economics), Alexander Tyulkanov (Center for International Intellectual Property Research), Konstantin Vishnevsky (Center for Strategic Analytics and Big Data, National Research University Higher School of Economics) and Evgeny Burnaev (Skoltech) spoke about national strategies for the development of AI.
Konstantin Vishnevsky noted that the economic effect of introducing artificial intelligence is extremely difficult to assess. “This results in most companies spending no more than 1% of their ICT budget on AI technologies. At the same time, only 2% of companies took advantage of state support to develop their own AI solutions,” the speaker said.
Anna Abramova spoke about the need to separate regulation and development of AI. She called for finding a balance between regulation and free markets to ensure technological leadership. And Evgeny Burnaev hastened to reassure the participants: “Artificial intelligence will not take away jobs. Perhaps at first yes, but then it will return them in double volume, so you should not be afraid of this technology.”
“Cybersecurity, Cybercrime and Internet Security” was held in the afternoon at RIGF 2024 the section. Its participants, together with moderator Irina Levova (Internet Research Institute), discussed problems and trends in the field of cybersecurity: changing vectors of phishing and cyberattacks, the possibility of using AI by hackers and fraudsters, security problems of IoT devices, anonymization of data and the use of cryptography to combat leaks, and also possibilities for protecting personal data.
Alexey Lukatsky (Positive Technologies), Roman Chaplygin (Solar), Stanislav Smyshlyaev (CRYPTO-PRO) and Sergey Petrenko (MTS RED) took part in the discussion about new challenges and threats.
Answering a question about new vectors of cyber attacks in connection with the use of artificial intelligence, Alexey Lukatsky said:
“We see changes, they have been developing for a long time due to the active development of LLM models related to working with text. Firstly, this has made phishing much easier, even in languages and dialects that attackers had not previously used. It has also become much easier for scammers to profile their victims - the use of AI allows them to set up a bot that collects all the information about the victim. After which a digital double is created that attacks with much greater efficiency than a human. The third method of application is the creation of phishing sites, which, with the help of AI, can be easily cloned and automated, as well as adjusted to the desired audience. In addition, AI is actively used to search for vulnerabilities and generate cyber attacks."
The first day of RIGF 2024 concluded with the section “Global Digital Governance and Cooperation,” moderated by Roman Chukov (Center for Global IT-Cooperation).
Experts analyzed the progress of the preparation of the text of the Global Digital Compact and discussed the prospects of the IGF as a platform for international cooperation and dialogue between stakeholders.
Their positions were expressed by Vadim Glushchenko (Center for Global IT-Cooperation), Vyacheslav, Erokhin (Research Institute of Radio), Boris Vasiliev (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation), Tiku Saba (Youth IGF of Ethiopia), Milos Jovanovic (OpenLink Group), Yu Xiao (Institute digital economy and artificial systems) and Renata Dvon (Office of the UN Secretary-General for Technology).
Experts agreed that the current version of the treaty does not meet the interests of Russia and developing countries, since many important amendments for Russia were not taken into account, in addition, the dates for consultations are constantly being shifted. Therefore, under the current conditions, it will be quite difficult to prepare a version of the Treaty that suits all countries and interested parties by September of this year.
Tomorrow the forum will continue its work - join the online broadcast of RIGF 2024!
