The International AI Alliance is holding a series of foresight sessions on artificial intelligence

A series of international foresight sessions on AI will be held in various countries around the world.

Leading AI researchers from around the world will unite for an international foresight session—a series of events on artificial intelligence (AI) research aimed at identifying priority areas for AI and its future development prospects.

Strategic sessions will be held at major technology and business events in Russia and other countries. The foresight session is being conducted by the Russian Government, represented by the Strategic Agency for Support and Development of AI Research (SAPFIR), with the participation of the International AI Alliance Network, which comprises 17 industry associations from 14 countries, including the Russian AI Alliance.

Participants in the international foresight session will work in nine or ten areas:

— architecture, machine learning algorithms, optimization, and mathematics;

— AI computing;

— AI data;

— fundamental and generative models;

— security, trust, and explainability;

— task-specific AI;

— control, decision making, and agent/multi-agent systems;

— elements of general AI;

— human-machine interaction.

Key case studies and recommendations from AI experts will be included in a large-scale international report, which will be available to specialists worldwide.

The first session of the international foresight project was held on April 16 in Morocco at the GITEX Africa 2025 technology exhibition. It was attended by researchers from five leading universities and research organizations (with h-indexes ranging from 10 to 24). All of them expressed their interest in joining the «AI Horizons» project (an international project created by the AI ​​Alliance Network) and undergoing in-depth interviews.

The second International AI Foresight Conference was successfully held on April 24 on the sidelines of the annual, largest AI Summit in the Middle East, Machines Can See 2025. Andrey Neznamov, Managing Director of Sberbank’s Human-Centered AI Center, delivered the opening keynote address on behalf of the International AI Alliance.

The Foresight Conference brought together AI researchers from key research organizations in the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries, including scientists with an h-index of over 120. Participants outlined prospects for the further development of AI technologies and presented successful AI implementation cases, such as those in healthcare. Over 70 scientists from around the world attended the Foresight Conference. Over 130 people registered for the event.

A series of partner sessions at events organized by members of the Global AI Alliance kicked off with a foresight session at the Shenzhen Global AI Expo (GAIE) in Shenzhen, China, on May 22. The event was organized by the Shenzhen AI Association, a member of the Global AI Alliance. The Russian delegation included leading scientists such as Sergey Markov and Harutyun Avetisyan. The foresight session was attended by Xiao Jing, President of the Shenzhen AI Association and Chief Scientist of the Ping An Group, formerly of Microsoft, and Hou Haowen, one of the key authors of the innovative RWKV neural network architecture, which represents a promising alternative to transformer models. Despite initial caution from Chinese scientists, interest in collaboration proved significant. Furthermore, Russian and Chinese scientists agreed to regularly exchange information on the development of non-transformational language models and discussed plans for joint experiments and publications.

Another foresight session was organized on May 25 in Serbia thanks to the International AI Alliance partner, the Serbian AI Association, which invited approximately 20 scientists. The Serbian scientists demonstrated exceptional openness to working with Russia. Denis Dimitrov represented the Russian side. Key Serbian participants included Nebojša Bačanin, one of Serbia’s leading scientists with an h-index of 59, and Vladimir Milovanović, a scientist from the University of California, Berkeley/University of Kragujevac who previously worked with Geoffrey Hinton in the United States. During the Serbian session, participants agreed that energy consumption and energy efficiency are critical areas of research. Current AI models consume excessive amounts of energy, which is becoming a critical issue in the context of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Energy efficiency must be a priority. Furthermore, the Serbian Association shared its successful experience of hosting the AI ​​Fashion Show and AI Film Festival, proposing to reuse this experience for AI development in other areas.

The next foresight session will be held on June 16 at Sber’s technology hub in St. Petersburg. It will bring together researchers from around the world to discuss advances in artificial intelligence and possible future developments.