Social and Managerial Aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Development: Results of the Methodological Seminar of FCTAS RAS

The article provides an overview of the theoretical and methodological seminar in memory of Prof. A.V. Tikhonov, "Possibilities and Risks of Using Artificial Intelligence Technologies at Different Levels of Social Management," held in June 2024. The seminar was organised by the Center for Sociology of Management and Social Technologies and the Laboratory of Infosocial Technologies of the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and three research committees of the Russian Society of Sociologists (Sociology of Management and Organisations, Sociology of Digital Society, and Urban and Regional Development). The papers presented at the seminar explore the history of the creation and institutionalisation of artificial intelligence through its integration into various social practices and areas of public activity. Two strategies for developing hybrid governance systems using AI are identified: one at the level of public administration and business, as a unified technocratic strategy for achieving goals, and a strategy for implementing AI scientifically grounded as a socially oriented. The pros and cons of conceptual foundations and applied approaches to the study and development of AI are highlighted. The urgent need to identify and define the role, place and significance of sociology and industry-specific sociological disciplines in these processes is identified, namely, as a science that has the ability to track, study, and develop socially grounded forecasts for subsequent transformation adequate to the needs of society against the backdrop of large-scale technical innovations. Various points of view are proposed on the current state of the processes of developing and integrating AI technologies at various levels of social governance: societal (institutional) – interaction between the state and society; industry – organisational behaviour and functioning of production structures; territorial and local (interpersonal).