Synthetic intelligence is on all people’s lips lately, sparking pleasure, worry and limitless debates. Is it a power for good or unhealthy – or a power we even have but to totally perceive? We sat down with distinguished laptop scientist and AI researcher Mária Bieliková to debate these and different urgent points surrounding AI, its influence on humanity, and broader moral dilemmas and questions of belief it raises.
Congratulations on changing into the newest laureate of the ESET Science Award. How does it really feel to win the award?
I really feel immense gratitude and happiness. Receiving the award from Emmanuelle Charpentier herself was an unbelievable expertise, stuffed with intense feelings. This award does not simply belong to me – it belongs to all of the outstanding individuals who accompanied me on this journey. I consider they had been all equally thrilled. In IT and in addition in applied sciences typically, outcomes are achieved by groups, not people.
I am delighted that that is the primary time the primary class of the award has gone to the sphere of IT and AI. 2024 was additionally the primary yr the Nobel Prize was awarded for progress in AI. Actually, there have been 4 Nobel Prizes for AI-related innovations – two in Physics for Machine Studying of Neural Networks and two in Chemistry for coaching Deep Neural Networks that predict protein constructions.
And naturally, I really feel immense delight for the Kempelen Institute of Clever Applied sciences, which was established 4 years in the past and now holds a secure place within the AI ecosystem of Central Europe.
A number one Slovak laptop scientist, Mária Bieliková has performed intensive analysis in human-computer interplay evaluation, consumer modelling and personalization. Her work additionally extends to the info evaluation and modelling of delinquent habits on the internet, and she or he’s a distinguished voice within the public discourse about reliable AI, the unfold of disinformation, and the way AI can be utilized to fight the problem. She additionally co-founded and at present heads up the Kempelen Institute of Clever Applied sciences (KInIT), the place ESET acts as a mentor and companion. Ms. Bieliková lately gained the Excellent Scientist in Slovakia class of the ESET Science Award.
Creator and historian Yuval Noah Harari has made the pithy commentary that for the primary time in human historical past, nobody is aware of what the world will seem like in 20 years or what to show in colleges in the present day. As somebody deeply concerned in AI analysis, how do you envision the world twenty years from now, significantly when it comes to know-how and AI? What are the talents and competencies that may as soon as be important for in the present day’s youngsters?
The world has at all times been troublesome, unsure, and ambiguous. Right now, know-how accelerates these challenges in ways in which folks wrestle to handle in actual time, making it exhausting to foresee the implications. AI not solely helps us automate our actions and exchange people in varied fields, but additionally create new constructions and artificial organisms, which might probably trigger new pandemics.
Even when we didn’t anticipate such situations, know-how is consciously or unconsciously used to divide teams and societies. It is not simply digital viruses aiming to paralyze infrastructure or acquire assets; it is a direct manipulation of human considering by propaganda unfold on the pace of sunshine and magnitude we could not have imagined a couple of many years in the past.
I don’t know what sort of society we’ll stay in 20 years from now or how the principles of humanity will change. It would take longer, however we’d even have the ability to alter our meritocratic system, at present primarily based on the analysis of information, in a method that doesn’t divide society. Maybe we’ll change the way in which we deal with knowledge as soon as we understand we won’t totally belief our senses.
I’m satisfied that even our kids will more and more deviate from the necessity for information and evaluating success in varied assessments, together with IQ assessments. Data will stay necessary, but it surely should be information that we are able to apply. What’s going to actually matter is the power persons are prepared to spend money on doing significant issues. That is true in the present day, however we regularly underutilize this attitude when discussing training. We nonetheless consider cognitive expertise and information regardless of figuring out these competencies alone are inadequate in the true world in the present day.
I consider that as know-how advances, our want for sturdy communities and the event of social and emotional expertise will solely develop.
As AI continues to advance, it challenges long-standing philosophical concepts about what it means to be human. Do you assume René Descartes’ commentary about human exceptionalism, “I feel, subsequently I’m”, will should be re-evaluated in an period the place machines can “assume”? How far do you consider we’re from AI programs that may push us to redefine human consciousness and intelligence?
AI programs, particularly the massive basis fashions, are revolutionizing the way in which AI is utilized in society. They’re regularly enhancing. Earlier than the tip of 2024, OpenAI introduced new fashions, O3 and O3mini, which achieved important developments in all assessments, together with the ARC-AGI benchmark that measures AI’s effectivity in buying expertise for unknown duties.
From this, one may assume that we’re near attaining Synthetic Basic Intelligence (AGI). Personally, I consider we aren’t fairly there with present know-how. We’ve wonderful programs that may help in programming sure duties, reply quite a few questions, and in lots of assessments, they carry out higher than people. Nevertheless, they don’t actually perceive what they’re doing. Subsequently, we can’t but discuss real considering, although some reasoning behind job decision is already being achieved by machines.
Simply as we perceive phrases like intelligence and consciousness in the present day, we are able to say that AI possesses a sure degree of intelligence – that means it has the flexibility to resolve complicated issues. Nevertheless, as of now, it lacks consciousness. Primarily based on the way it features, AI doesn’t have the aptitude to really feel and use feelings within the duties it’s given. Whether or not this can ever change, or if our understanding of those ideas will evolve, is troublesome to foretell.
The notion that “to create is human” is being more and more questioned as AI programs grow to be able to producing artwork, music, and literature. In your view, how does the rise of generative AI influence the human expertise of creativity? Does it improve or diminish our sense of identification and uniqueness as creators?
Right now, we witness many debates on creativity and AI. Folks devise varied assessments to showcase how far AI has come and the place these AI programs or fashions surpass human capabilities. AI can generate photographs, music, and literature, a few of which might be thought of inventive, however actually not in the identical method as human creativity.
AI programs can and do create authentic artifacts. Though they generate them from pre-existing supplies, we might nonetheless discover some actually new creations. However that is not the one necessary facet. Why do folks create artwork, and why do folks watch, learn, and hearken to artwork? At its essence, artwork helps folks discover and strengthen relationships with each other.
Artwork is an inseparable a part of our lives; with out it, our society could be very totally different. This is the reason we are able to respect AI-generated music or work – AI was created by people. Nevertheless, I don’t consider AI-generated artwork would fulfill us long-term to the identical extent as actual artwork created by people, or by people with the help of know-how.
Simply as we develop applied sciences, we additionally search causes to stay and to stay meaningfully. We would stay in a meritocracy the place we attempt to measure every thing, however what brings us nearer collectively and characterizes us are tales. Sure, we might generate these too, however I’m speaking in regards to the tales that we stay.
AI analysis has seen fluctuations in progress over the many years, however the latest tempo of development – particularly in machine studying and generative AI – has stunned even many consultants. How briskly is simply too quick? Do you assume this speedy progress is sustainable and even fascinating? Ought to we decelerate AI innovation to raised perceive its societal impacts, or does slowing down danger stifling helpful breakthroughs?
The pace at which new fashions are rising and enhancing is unprecedented. That is largely as a result of method our world features in the present day – a large focus of wealth in personal corporations and sure elements of the world, in addition to a worldwide race in a number of fields. AI is a major a part of these races.
To some extent, progress is dependent upon the exhaustion of in the present day’s know-how and the event of recent approaches. How a lot can we enhance present fashions with identified strategies? To what extent will huge corporations share new approaches? Given the excessive value of coaching massive fashions, will we simply be observers of enhancing black bins?
At current, there isn’t a stability between the programs humanity can create and our understanding of their results on our lives. Slowing down, given how our society works, just isn’t attainable, in my view, with out a paradigm shift.
This is the reason it’s essential to allocate assets and power to analysis the implications of those programs and to review the fashions themselves, not simply by standardized assessments as their creators do. For instance, on the Kempelen Institute, we analysis the expertise and willingness of fashions to generate disinformation. Not too long ago, we’ve additionally been trying into the technology of customized disinformation.
There’s a number of pleasure round AI’s potential to resolve world challenges – from healthcare to local weather change. The place do you consider the promise of AI is biggest when it comes to sensible and moral functions? Can AI be the “technological repair” for a few of humanity’s most urgent points, or can we danger overestimating its capabilities?
AI will help us sort out essentially the most urgent points whereas concurrently creating new ones. The world is stuffed with paradoxes, and with AI, we see this at each flip. AI has been helpful in varied fields. Healthcare is one such space the place, with out AI, some progress – for instance, in creating new drugs – wouldn’t be attainable, or we must wait for much longer. AlphaFold, which predicts the construction of proteins, has monumental potential and has been used for years now.
Alternatively, AI additionally permits the creation of artificial organisms, which may be helpful but additionally pose dangers equivalent to pandemics or different unexpected conditions.
AI assists in spreading disinformation and manipulating folks’s ideas on points like local weather change, whereas on the similar time, it may well assist folks perceive that local weather change is actual. AI fashions can reveal the potential penalties for our planet if we proceed on our present path. That is essential, as folks are inclined to focus solely on short-term challenges and sometimes underestimate the seriousness of the state of affairs until it straight impacts them.
Nevertheless, AI can solely assist us to the extent that we, as people, permit it to. That is the most important problem. Since AI does not perceive what it produces, it has no intentions. However folks do.
With nice potential additionally come important dangers. Outstanding figures in tech and AI have expressed considerations about AI changing into an existential menace to humanity. How do you assume we are able to stability accountable AI improvement with the necessity to push boundaries, all whereas avoiding alarmism?
As I discussed earlier than, the paradoxes we witness with AI are immense, elevating questions for which we’ve no solutions. They pose important dangers. It is fascinating to discover the chances and limits of know-how, however alternatively, we aren’t prepared – as people, nor as a society – for such a automation of our expertise.
We have to make investments not less than as a lot in researching the technological influence on folks, their considering, and their functioning as we do within the applied sciences themselves. We’d like multidisciplinary groups to collectively discover the chances of know-how and their influence on humanity.
It is as if we had been making a product with out caring in regards to the worth it brings to the patron, who should purchase it, and why. If we didn’t have a vendor, we would not promote a lot. The state of affairs with AI is extra severe, although. We’ve use circumstances, merchandise, and individuals who need them, however as a society, we don’t totally perceive what’s taking place once we use them. And maybe most individuals do not even need to know.
In in the present day’s world world, we can’t cease progress, nor can we sluggish it down. It solely slows once we are saturated with outcomes and discover it exhausting to enhance, or once we run out of assets, as coaching massive AI fashions may be very costly. That’s the reason their greatest safety is researching their influence from the start of their improvement and creating boundaries for his or her use. Everyone knows that it’s prohibited to drink alcohol earlier than the age of 18, or 21 in some international locations, but typically with out hesitation, we permit youngsters to speak with AI programs, which they will simply liken to people and belief implicitly with out understanding the content material.
Belief in AI is a serious matter globally, with attitudes towards AI programs various broadly between cultures and areas. How can the AI analysis group assist foster belief in AI applied sciences and be certain that they’re considered as helpful and reliable throughout various societies?
As I used to be saying, multidisciplinary analysis is crucial not just for discovering new prospects and enhancing AI applied sciences but additionally for evaluating their expertise, how we understand them, and their influence on people and society.
The rise of deep neural networks is altering the scientific strategies of AI and IT. We’ve synthetic programs the place the core rules are identified, however by scaling, they will develop expertise that we can’t at all times clarify. As scientists and engineers, we devise methods to make sure the required accuracy in particular conditions by combining varied processes. Nevertheless, there’s nonetheless a lot we do not perceive, and we can’t totally consider the properties of those fashions.
Such analysis doesn’t produce direct worth, which makes it difficult to garner voluntary help from the personal sector on a bigger scale. That is the place the personal and public sectors can collaborate for the way forward for all of us.
AI regulation has struggled to maintain up with the sphere’s speedy developments, and but, as somebody who advocates for AI ethics and transparency, you’ve seemingly thought of the position of regulation in shaping the longer term. How do you see AI researchers contributing to insurance policies and laws that guarantee the moral and accountable improvement of AI programs? Ought to they play a extra energetic position in policymaking?
Occupied with ethics in analysis is essential, not solely in analysis but additionally within the improvement of merchandise. Nevertheless, it may be fairly costly as a result of it will be significant that an actual want arises on the degree of crucial plenty. We nonetheless have to think about the dilemma of recent information acquisition versus the attainable interference with the autonomy or privateness of people.
I’m satisfied {that a} good decision is feasible. The query of ethics and credibility should be an integral a part of the event of any product or analysis from the start. On the Kempelen Institute, we’ve consultants on ethics and laws who assist not solely researchers but additionally corporations in evaluating the dangers linked to the ethics and credibility of their merchandise.
We see that each one of us have gotten extra delicate. Philosophers and attorneys take into consideration the applied sciences and supply options that don’t get rid of the dangers, whereas scientists and engineers are asking themselves questions they hadn’t thought of earlier than.
Basically, there are nonetheless too few of those actions. Our society evaluates outcomes based totally on the variety of scientific papers produced, leaving little room for coverage advocacy. This makes it much more crucial to create area for it. In recent times, in sure circles, equivalent to pure language processing or recommender system communities, it has grow to be commonplace for scientific papers to incorporate opinions on ethics as a part of the assessment course of.
As AI researchers work towards innovation, they’re typically confronted with moral dilemmas. Have you ever encountered challenges in balancing the moral imperatives of AI improvement with the necessity for scientific progress? How do you navigate these tensions, significantly in your work on customized AI programs and knowledge privateness?
On the Kempelen Institute, it has been helpful to have philosophers and attorneys concerned from the very starting, serving to us navigate these dilemmas. We’ve an ethics board, and variety of opinions is one among our core values.
For sure, it’s not straightforward. I significantly discover it problematic once we need to translate analysis outcomes into apply and encounter points with the info the mannequin was skilled on. On this regard, it’s essential to make sure transparency from the outset, so we can’t solely write a scientific paper but additionally assist corporations innovate their merchandise.
Given your collaboration with massive know-how corporations and organizations, equivalent to ESET, how necessary do you assume it’s for these corporations to guide by instance in selling moral AI, inclusivity, and sustainability? What position do you assume firms ought to play in shaping a future the place AI is aligned with societal values?
The Kempelen Institute was established primarily based on the collaboration of people with sturdy educational backgrounds and visionaries from a number of massive and medium-sized corporations. The concept is that shaping a future the place AI aligns with societal values can’t be realized by only one group. We’ve to attach and search synergies wherever attainable.
For that purpose, in 2024, we organized the primary version of the AI Awards, centered on Reliable AI. This occasion culminated on the Forbes Enterprise Fest, the place we introduced the laureate of the award – AI:Dental, a startup. In 2025 we’re efficiently persevering with the AI Awards and have obtained extra and better high quality functions.
We began discussing the subject of AI and disinformation virtually 10 years in the past. Again then, it was extra educational, however even then, we witnessed some malicious disinformation, particularly associated to human well being. We had no concept of the immense affect this matter would finally have on the world. And it is solely one among many urgent points.
I worry that the general public sector alone has no probability of tackling these points with out the assistance of enormous corporations, particularly in the present day when AI is being utilized by politicians to realize reputation. I contemplate the subject of trustworthiness in know-how, significantly AI, to be as necessary as different key matters in CSR. Supporting analysis on the options of AI fashions and their influence on people is key for sustainable progress and high quality life.
Thanks to your time!
