HSE ISSEK Foresight Center experts held an International Foresight Session on AI development

The International Foresight Session on AI development trends was held at M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University with the organizational and methodological support of the Foresight Center, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Leading foreign and Russian scientists took part in the event.

International Foresight is being conducted on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with the aim to formulate expert recommendations for identifying strategic priorities of AI development.

In 2024 HSE University together with Sberbank conducted a foresight study to identify priority areas for fundamental and exploratory research in AI. Each research task set under foresight-study had a clearly defined problem and expected result. A closed list of 10 areas, 37 sub-areas and 127 separate research tasks was shaped based on large-scale study outcomes.

In 2025 the Strategic Agency for Support and Formation of AI Development with the methodological support of the HSE ISSEK Foresight Center held a series of international foresight workshops to update the list of AI areas and research tasks.

As expected the final report containing a results analysis obtained under the foresight sessions will be presented to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the framework of an annual international conference ‘AI Journey’ in October 2025.

“The foresight outcomes should be published so that each scientist can contribute and see the activities results” noted Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Chernyshenko within one of foresight sessions took place in the Republic of Belarus.

To prepare information and analytical report on International AI Foresight the HSE ISSEK Foresight Center faced a multifactorial task to develop a methodological guide for foresight sessions, workshops and interviews in English with participation of international experts.

Under the leadership of Director of the HSE ISSEK Foresight Center Professor Alexander Sokolov, Olesia Maibakh, Head of Foresight Research Methodology and Organization Unit developed a scenario and held the first Foresight Session at the Moscow State University.

Foresight participants validated the following research tasks in four key areas of AI development:

Foundation and Generative Models

Creating of more efficient architectures, training, and fine-tuning methods for large-scale language and multimodal models.

Data for AI

Improving methods for creating, processing and cleaning data, as well as developing best practices for ensuring privacy and security.

Computations for AI

Development and optimization of hardware and software solutions for efficient training and launch of large-scale AI models.

"The International AI Foresight outcomes are not only a list of the most promising research tasks, but also a basis for global cooperation. Methodology plays an important role: it ensures the comparability of expert opinions from different countries, organizes discussion, and transforms the most heated scientific debates energy into a force moves the dialogue forward. As a result, not just a report is formed, but a common coordinate system and a single language for determining priority areas and launching joint projects in AI field."

It is planned to hold a Foresight Sessions in Innopolis and at the HSE University.