“We need to use our brains, our hands in our feet and do something” – an interview with Marina Anshina about IT in the industry in 2024

At the end of last year, we spoke with digital directors and IT industry leaders for our tg channel about IT in the industry.”Digital Director“We were interested in the hopes (and fears) of our colleagues for 2024 in IT. Why is the commissioning of solutions suffering in Russia, why fashion in technology is not always good, and why do IT specialists have their own “Hippocratic Oath”? Read in the interview with Marina Anshina, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Union of IT Directors, President of the FOSTAS Foundation.

Digital Director: Marina Lvovna, what existing IT solutions in your opinion will become trends in the industry in 2024?

Marina Anshina: I will not name specific decisions, because, to be honest, I have complaints about almost everyone. Still, the quality of the products is very poor. When you're an IT director, operations support is just as important, if not more important, than development. I work with students, and the problem is that even the textbooks on this topic all end up being put into industrial use. That is, it turns out that the life cycle of the software system ends at this moment. I usually also draw the life cycle of a person for students. We can assume that before industrial exploitation this is intrauterine development. And to imagine that a person’s life is what happens in the mother’s belly would be somehow strange.

— Is this a global problem, or are you seeing this specifically in Russia?

— This imbalance exists to a greater extent in Russian practice, because even in the standards the emphasis is completely in the wrong direction. In Western practice, even in standard IEC 12207, there is still some kind of minimum balance. The concept of maintainability is one of the areas of quality of information systems. This is just an area according to the SQuaRE standard, that's obvious. But no one thinks about this, everyone is trying to push these systems out, but what will happen to them next will not always be clear. Therefore, I believe that if they understand that the quality of systems is important and begin to deal with these issues from the point of view of perhaps unobvious quality parameters: maintainability, ease of use, then maybe then something will move somewhere.

— In what areas do you expect to see changes and what?

— Of course, I would like a more competitive environment, but now in many areas there is monopolization, which, of course, is harmful. I hope for startups, for young people who are developing quite interestingly. If we talk about which areas, then I think analytics. There were Russian systems here even before any import substitutions. They were there, but they somehow moved forward very timidly, because they simply did not have enough resources. And not only money, but also strength, understanding of business, understanding of how to promote it.

If we talk about artificial intelligence, then… there seems to be no harm here! Because these are fashionable technologies that Gartner curve are experiencing peak expectations. Fashion is not always good for technology, because you still need to understand how to use it correctly, and artificial intelligence is a philosophically complex area.

— Since we're on this topic, tell us about what to expect in the field of artificial intelligence ethics.

— Recently there was a conference on the ethics of artificial intelligence. It is also not very clear yet what to do with this ethics and how to work with it. I’ve been thinking lately that ethics is still a humanities science, but as soon as we talk about artificial intelligence, which begins to act like intelligence in some areas, then ethics moves from the category of humanities to exact sciences. Because a computer, artificial intelligence, needs to quite clearly determine how to behave, and this is done on the basis of ethical views, which should already be understood by society and the state.

A classic example is driving vehicles. How should artificial intelligence behave if a critical situation arises? Moreover, this does not only concern our country; at the global level, this has not yet been decided. A computer must know how to behave; this ethics must be embedded in it at the level of the algorithm. And philosophy is now doing this, and artificial intelligence developers are doing it. One of the manufacturers of famous cars came up with the idea that if such a situation arises, control switches to the person. But this is not a passable option, because it is absolutely clear that the computer reacts faster and no normal person will buy himself such artificial intelligence, which essentially substitutes him.

In general, modern technologies require a revision of ethical principles, even cloud computing, which has been around for a long time and is used by everyone. Here, too, quite complex relationships arise in terms of determining quality and who is responsible for what. This should be decided quite clearly at the legislative level, there should be a contractual structure. Because if a bank uses some external service and something happened there, then you need to understand who is responsible for what. These are serious issues that are also not fully resolved.

This also includes big data technologies, with which, based on the analysis of big data, it is possible to engage in personalized campaigning. There are studies that after 600-700 likes (I’m afraid to lie with the number, but it doesn’t matter), artificial intelligence predicts human behavior more accurately than the person himself. But this is also a danger worse than an atomic bomb to some extent, because it affects huge masses of people. And there are also ethical questions about how to do all this.

It is clear that terrorism will move to the digital zone. This is also the foreseeable future. Therefore, returning to the question of which area should be developed – security. But safety must be supported by some ethical issue. Many theorists are already concerned about this. Same Kosinski as Academician Sakharov once began all articles with the fact that this is a great opportunity, but also a great threat.

— What can you recommend in this regard to those who are advancing these areas?

“I would like, this is a cry from the heart, for my colleagues who work in this industry to take their work more seriously. Most companies can no longer live without IT. Businesses and entire industries are already so dependent on IT, but we are not ready. Many people do not realize the responsibility, the seriousness of support, operation, and the quality of systems that enter the market at absolutely nothing. Although our industry is quite well regulated, there are many standards, many techniques that are well described. Either they don’t know them, or they don’t want to use them. I honestly can’t say. I suspect it's both equally. The idea that now the state will invest a lot of money here and something will appear, in my opinion, is absolutely unfounded. On the contrary, when projects are quite expensive, people are attached to them who, in principle, cannot do anything, they only know how to spend money and master it. So they master them, and now nothing happens with us. There is no need to try to fill everything with money. This is probably the simplest thing, but it will not lead to results.

Another question is to quickly make a profit. Profit is an integral concept; people don’t always think about it either. That is, you can extract it by reducing costs, for example, it will be instantaneous, but it will be ineffective. If you organize your work correctly, you can get completely different financial results over a period of time. And so – they just took it, got something like that and everyone is happy. There is quite a serious disappointment in IT, this also needs to be understood.

— Frustration on the part of the user?

– User, yes. Even before digital transformation, I always said that our industry is at most 80 years old. Well, what is 80 years, this is a person’s life, what do you want from us, we are developing very quickly. But now, to be honest, I don’t say that anymore, because it’s developing faster and faster. So you have to somehow comply. Whether you're 80 or not 80 doesn't matter. We need to use our brains, our hands in our feet and do something

— What is your craziest positive and negative forecast for 2024?

— There is such a danger, and this applies to IT to a greater extent, when big words replace action. For example, digital transformation. It is believed that if you hire a director of transformation, then here is the transformation for you. But in fact, there is a poorly functioning information system, without which it is easier to work manually. These are just my last negative impressions. That is, a negative forecast – trust in IT will fall, and people will compile numbers on paper.

If we talk about a positive forecast, then, it seems to me, we need to somehow unite, unite both suppliers and consumers, as is happening all over the world, and form some principles. They exist: the ethical principles of software engineering, the ethical principles of architects, but they are unknown. It seems to me that there should be something on the level of the Hippocratic Oath, to that extent. So that people who work in this area understand their responsibility and the risks that these technologies pose to society.

More about IT in industry and business – in our Telegram channel. Subscribe!)