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Humans may lose control of their gadgets, Russian Academy of Sciences president warns

According to Gennady Krasnikov, "it should be recognized that a smartphone at any moment can start sending messages to everyone on your own behalf"

MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. The main risk artificial intelligence is fraught with is humans may lose control over the gadgets and equipment at their disposal, Gennady Krasnikov, the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has told TASS in an interview on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Krasnikov noted that he did not like the term "artificial intelligence" and prefered to discuss neural networks and machine learning.

"Is an artificial neural network a good thing? Yes, but cybersecurity concerns, such as your image and voice can be tampered with and used against you are bad. You’ve asked me about the revolt of machines. My answer is that much more real today is the risk of a situation where you will be unable to manage your gadgets or someone else will be able to do that for you," Krasnikov stated.

Asked what cell phone model he used, Krasnikov said: "A foreign one, but with disabled basic functions. There is no ID, no geo-navigation, no cloud storage, nothing. Basically, it serves only for making calls. For security reasons."

Also, according to the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, "it should be recognized that a smartphone at any moment can start sending messages to everyone on your own behalf. Or spoofing videos."

"You will be unable to resist this. The gadget will start working against you. This should also be taken into account," Krasnikov noted.

RAS and its president

The Russian Academy of Sciences was founded on January 28 (February 8, New Style), 1724 by decree of Emperor Peter I (Peter the Great). In 2024, on this day, it will turn 300 years old. Every year, since 2000, February 8 has been celebrated as the Day of Russian Science, which was established in 1999.

Gennady Krasnikov was born in Tambov on April 30, 1958. On September 20, 2022, he was elected president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, winning 871 votes with more than 50% of the RAS voting members supporting him. On September 26 he was confirmed in office by presidential decree.