Artificial intelligence has been appreciated by many. It is used by industrialists, economists, scientists, as well as teachers and students. AI searches for new alloys, writes texts, translates poetry, and even helps overcome the fear of speaking a foreign language. But now universities are facing a serious challenge. Neural networks accelerate learning, scientists accomplish more, but students' belief that AI "will do everything for them" is beginning to affect the quality of education for future specialists. How to deal with this problem was discussed at a conference at the Higher School of Economics. Scientists and teachers from leading institutes and universities believe that AI should be used for good while preserving people's ability to think, applying their own "natural" intelligence.
AI — Seriously and for the Long Term
If until recently AI was discussed as an experiment and even called a "bubble," now it has become one of the key areas of development for countries — and Russia is no exception. Artificial intelligence technologies are already being considered as a tool to increase economic efficiency, accelerate scientific research, and train a new generation of personnel.
The basis of this policy is set by the National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence until 2030, updated in 2024. It outlines tasks for the widespread implementation of AI in various industries, the development of domestic technologies, and the formation of a system for training specialists capable of working with them. In February 2026, the topic received an additional level — the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation on the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies was created.
Russia is preparing a unified computer science textbook with an emphasis on domestic technologies, and more than 7,000 computer science teachers have already been trained to work with AI tools in 2025. Schoolchildren are no less involved: they participate in the All-Russian Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence, and in 2025 the Russian team won eight medals at the international Olympiad in AI in China. Skills in the field of AI in Russia are formed from school.
In mass training of personnel, the process is even faster. The Ministry of Digital Development reported that in 2026, almost 6.5 thousand students will enroll in programs for training top IT and AI specialists, and more than 840 IT retraining programs are being implemented in 139 universities. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, already in 2024, AI programs were implemented in 113 universities, and the number of trained specialists exceeded 23 thousand.
In other words, we are already talking about a systemic improvement of the educational environment. This is exactly what the participants of the conference "Artificial Intelligence in Teaching and Learning Eastern Languages: Academic Practices and Prospects" at the Higher School of Economics discussed. The conference brought together participants from leading universities and scientific institutions of the country.
AI Has Reached the Humanities — Scientists are Already Presenting Their Developments
Artificial intelligence has ceased to be "foreign" to the humanities. People who have chosen to study history, international relations, and foreign languages are now not only mastering, but also developing the AI industry themselves.
Conference participants discussed automated feedback in learning, AI assistants and chatbots that help master rare languages, and how to tailor programs to each student and do it as quickly as possible.
AI, for example, is capable of reducing the time spent working with sources in Eastern languages by 6–8 times, which fundamentally changes the very speed of humanities research. A proprietary technological base is also being formed for these purposes. The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with Yandex Cloud, already has solutions for analyzing Chinese media and working with scientific data on Eastern countries.
AI translators are being developed for dozens of Eastern languages, as well as technologies for recognizing ancient manuscripts. Developments are being carried out directly in the digital youth laboratory of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.
The fear of speaking Eastern languages and writing hieroglyphs incorrectly is also ceasing to be a problem. The fear of saying something wrong in front of future business partners from Asia is easily overcome with the help of large language models.
AI Changes Students — and Not Always for the Better
It was at the moment when AI became a daily tool that a new problem arose — controlling its use. A working group under the Federation Council is already preparing a bill to restrict the use of AI in education. According to the "Antiplagiat" system, in 2025, 24% of student works contained signs of AI use, while the students themselves admit that the real proportion may be higher. So far, we are talking about preparing an initiative, not an adopted law, but the very logic of the process is obvious.
In April 2025, it was reported that an inter-factional working group was created in the State Duma to develop laws on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and in May 2026, parliamentary hearings on the development of artificial intelligence technologies in Russia are planned.
For universities, AI has created not only opportunities, but also new challenges that teachers solve in "real time." Universities are increasingly faced with a gap between the quality of written work and the real knowledge of students. This is especially acute in language education, where you can submit a well-written text, but not be able to say a word in the classroom itself.
Because of this, universities have to improve the knowledge assessment system, placing greater emphasis on oral work, analytical thinking, and the ability to check results directly in the classroom. Otherwise, there is a risk that AI will begin to replace not individual skills, but the future specialists themselves. In a world where a machine can do almost everything, one thing becomes truly valuable — the ability of a person to think, understand, and make decisions.