Where are we going with artificial intelligence? This is the question that the SocAIety 2050: Quo vadis homo conference sought to answer. organized by the Director of the Centre for the City of the Future Ing. arch. Michal Postránecký. Let us look back at this important event this autumn.
Vision 2050 and the younger generation
In the introduction Michal Postránecký explained how this conference differs from other activities on artificial intelligence. Its aim was to look far into the future – to 2050 and beyond. „We have a lot of young people with us today because they will be the ones who will be running society in 2050,“ he said. And indeed, there was no shortage of young people in the audience. However, it is perhaps a pity that they did not get a platform. However, the announced next edition already counts on them.
Support from major institutions
The conference received the patronage of the Mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda, the Governor of the Central Bohemia Region Petra Pecková and the Rector of the CTU Vojtěch Petráček. The latter two attended the conference in person and actively contributed to the panel discussions. The conference was also supported by the CIIRC – Future City Centre, EDIH CTU, National Centre for Industry 4.0, National Centre for Construction 4.0 and RICAIP.
Education of the future
Radko Sáblík, director of the famous „Smíchov Industrial School“, brought a simple but important message: ‚The teacher must be the one who brings innovation into the classroom, not forbid it. He should know them himself and actively use them. If we frustrate young people, they will take the path of least resistance.“
Interactive AIBOT fest
An AIBOT fest was prepared for the general public and schools, where participants could play checkers with a robot, walk through the design of a Teplator modular nuclear reactor using virtual reality or try out various robotic cleaning machines. There was also a tasting of RISTRE – the food of the future.
Photo: Roman Sejkot
RESPONSES to AIBOT fest
„At first, I was worried that the professional-sounding conference programme would be able to attract even our third-graders. My fears disappeared in the first seconds. The absolutely great organization, personal approach and immeasurable willingness of the organizers, speakers and exhibitors took my breath away several times. Children could try virtual reality, play checkers with a robotic hand, cuddle a robot teddy bear that helps sick people, see giant cleaning machines and try controlling an electric car. All their questions (and there were many!) were answered by experts. Even those who I thought might find the world of technology a little difficult came into their own. The children talked about attending the Socaiety 2050 conference for days afterwards. They couldn’t praise the programme enough. Thank you very much for a wonderful experience.“ Class teacher and pupils from the 3rd grade of the FZŠ Grafická
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„Socaiety 2050 Conference: ‚Quo vadis homo? “ had a much richer program for my eighth grade class than I could have imagined: In addition to learning how to build a functional and high-speed rocket, they also met a boy who was able to elevate his childhood hobby of building rockets out of paper into a field of study and future career interest, in addition to a lecture on building and programming humanoids, they saw that girls are also cool with technology, and in addition to robots that can clean, play checkers, help people with dementia, or even search data, they were able to talk directly to the creators of these helpers. If they dared and actually asked, they received an erudite and passionate explanation. In short, in a very small space, they got the chance to see AI being worked on in the flesh, by people who either had a dream, or perhaps „just“ got an assignment at school that shot them up the career ladder. At a time when there is talk of dismantling many professions, at a time when people are communicating with each other through machines, we were treated to warm human interactions, nice conversations, a glimpse into those new professions, and meeting people with a real passion for their cause. It was great. Thank you very much.“ Class teacher of the 8th grade at the FZŠ Grafická
