From 3 to 6 August, the Institute of Cyber Intelligent Systems of MEPhI has held an International scientific conference “Perspective neurotechnologies”. The event became the eighth meeting of the international scientific community BICA (Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures), which brought together leading scientists from 30 countries who discussed recent achievements and current developments in the field of artificial intelligence and computer science, cognitive and neuroscience, robotics and cybersecurity.
The challenge to replicate all the key features of the human mind in a digital environment using a biologically inspired approach is the spirit and the core of the new frontier that every year attracts more and more young scientists. After many decades of progress in the field of artificial intelligence, problems that we are facing today require a fresh, muiltidisciplinary view. We need to learn from scratch how to achieve goals that could never be taken seriously in the past, with an understanding that a novel approach is necessary, because essential qualities of biological intelligent systems like robustness, flexibility, adaptability, communicability, and reliability are still unmatched by their artificial counterparts.
The head of Neuroinformatics Department at the Center of optical and neural technologies at RAS Scientific Research Institute of System Analysis, Professor Vitaly Dunin-Barkovsky noted that “at the moment there is quite a few competent organizations and researchers in this field in our country. The situation must be changed, so such events with such international representation is an advantage”.
On the eve of the conference there was held an international school of young scientists on “Artificial intelligence and cyber security”, where during three days students, postgraduates and young scientists attended lectures by internationally recognized experts. It was attended by representatives of MEPhI, who made several reports. Also Artur Chubarov and Daniil Azarnov, who are entering the magistracy at the Cybernetics Department of MEPhI, presented their work at the conference. Under the leadership of Professor at the George Mason University, Professor of MEPhI A.V. Samsonovich they have created a “Virtual Actor” – a computer game with a built-in virtual agent that is intended for carrying out the Turing test.
It is worth noting that more than 440 authors submitted about 170 articles on different topics to the conference and school, and number of participants of the event has broken its previous records.
According to Professor Samsonovich, which is the organizer of the conference, the BICA community is distributed around the world, so conferences are being held in different countries: France, Italy, and Ukraine. Last year the event was held with the support of MEPhI in New York, and now, finally, it was Russia. “I consider it as a great achievement that we managed to hold the Western conference. Such major international events are of particular importance in case of unification of people, because, in addition to the existing intellectual barriers among different fields of science, there are geographical barriers: each country is its own world. If we managed to break this barrier in some way, it makes me happy,” said Alexey Vladimirovich.
