VEB.RF and RT Academy present “Humans of AI” at SPIEF' 2026 — Featuring Top Officials and Experts
At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a session titled “Humans of AI” took place, organized by VEB.RF in partnership with RT.
The Head of RT Academy, Anna Kovtunova moderated the session, setting the tone and connecting the key themes of how different industries are implementing AI.
James Goetz, Output Editor at RT International and RT Academy instructor, drove home the point that in the “Age of the Machines” in the media sphere, technology is not going to replace journalists, it's liberating them. It's there to do the heavy lifting, the mundane tasks and provide a skeleton, but the final essence of a story script can only be crafted by humans, because really, we still can't trust the bots, suggesting the theory of “QUESTION MORE” is just not part of the code.
Alexander Albychev, Deputy Head, Federal Treasury: AI in public administration has long been a working tool for monitoring national projects, prioritizing tasks, and processing large volumes of data. For example, a digital assistant handles part of user inquiries within the “Electronic Budget” system.
Anna Tsivileva, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation and Chair of the “Defenders of the Fatherland” Foundation, noted that AI helps process requests and navigate support measures in the social sphere, but technology cannot provide empathy or warmth.
Grigory Sergeev from “LizaAlert” shared the organization has been using neural networks to search for people since 2018. Their in-house solution helped locate missing individuals from drone images faster and more accurately than humans. At the same time, he warned that fully ceding control to AI can lead to a loss of human skills, which is dangerous.
The forum also featured Marat Ismagulov of Alfa-Bank — highlighting the importance of critical thinking and data skills — and also Svyatoslav Chevalier from VEB.RF — on AI in HR.
