“The Czech Republic is very lucky – in the field of artificial intelligence we have good scientists, interesting startups and relevant industry – but there is very little of everything. Politicians are not willing to raise artificial intelligence as a topic, while Germany already sent two billion to research years ago.” said Professor Michal Pěchouček during the first live recording of the Crunch podcast.
Michal Pěchouček is in a unique position – as a professor at CTU, he works as the head of the Center for Artificial Intelligence, in business he is currently known as the technical director of the antivirus company Gen and is also a successful startup entrepreneur. The two AI startups he co-founded ended up in the hands of the international giants Cisco and Adastra. Precisely from a position at the intersection of science, business and the startup ecosystem, he regularly lectures on artificial intelligence and draws attention to its opportunities and threats.
“It’s a specific insight and I’m glad for it. I may not have gotten that far in science, but I can solve problems on the border between the academic view and the application of artificial intelligence. I want to be where artificial intelligence helps people, but also protects them from the negative consequences of its development.” said one of the three guests of the first Crunch Live, which took place on April 29 at CAMP in Prague. You can listen to the recording of the interview in the video above, on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
There are several dangers associated with AI. Exactly one year ago, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and hundreds of other experts called out in an open letter called Pause giant experiments with artificial intelligence after slowing down the development of generative AI, saying that it poses a great risk to society and humanity.
“I did not join that petition at the time, although I deeply agree with the threat. But I rather call for us to have a direct link between how much is invested in development and how much is invested in studying the dangers of artificial intelligence and defense. I also don’t believe in a moratorium on artificial intelligence. Banning the training or development of AI would only cause it to move into the illegal realm or into the hands of hostile regimes where you no longer have any control.” Pěchouček explained.
He describes himself as a technological optimist. And as a remedy for possible negative consequences of artificial intelligence, he sees, among other things, that people will not be afraid to take it as a direct part of their working lives. “The adoption of artificial intelligence will save our jobs for perhaps as long as possible. Perhaps the surprise for us scientists was that AI started to take jobs away from creative people. We have always thought that humanity has a patent for creativity, but developments in recent years show that this is not the case,” said the co-founder of the prg.ai initiative to penetrate generative AI into music, graphics and film.
We don’t disturb bachelorettes because of AI
The involvement of artificial intelligence in education and training is also a big topic. Last November, the dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at VŠE, Jiří Hnilica, canceled bachelor’s theses, among other things, with a reference to the widespread use of generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT. And the possibility of replacing written papers is also being discussed at other Czech universities.
“It strikes me as a primitive reaction, with all due respect to teachers who are trying. In bachelor’s theses and other study projects, generative artificial intelligence can be used so that students create the most interesting results possible. What they should be concerned about is the ethics of using AI – just as we all learn to cite sources, it would be appropriate to cite the use of specific technologies.” said Pěchouček. And it’s not just for university students. According to him, it is good to include the use of AI already in primary school education.
“Primary school pupils should read first, write second and prompt third. All three activities are equally important. Prompting AI teaches us all to think abstractly, which is very important – a lot of people can’t or are lazy about it – whereas reading and writing is a linear activity. It used to prevail, today it may be on the decline, but those who will not be able to think linearly well, i.e. read and write, that’s how you’ll know – because they won’t be able to speak, express themselves.” added the professor.
Listen to the full interview. In it you will also learn:
- Will we care if the content is human-made or AI-made?
- What does Pěchouček see as the most fundamental and most dangerous possible use of artificial intelligence?
- Will generative AI run into a lack of source data?
- And are we living in a simulation?
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Tags: danger artificial intelligence Czech Republic opportunity
