He sees artificial intelligence as a threat as well as an opportunity. According to him, we now face a five-year period that will decide the stability of the entire Western society. “In five years, we will know exactly where the puck is going. We must be prepared for changes that are science fiction for politicians today,” he warns in an interview for the FLOW program.
Mathematics is the best medicine
In the interview, the CTU rector also explains why mathematics is the best medicine against disinformation and the pitfalls of AI. “We must teach people to resist algorithmic manipulation,” warns Pěchouček, who is not a typical academic, but also has extensive experience in business. In the past, he sold his startup to the giant Cisco for hundreds of millions of crowns, for example, and gained experience in a managerial position at Avast.
North Korean danger
In the interview, he also describes how artificial intelligence will change society. The middle class – programmers, lawyers, or banking analysts, for example – will be the hardest hit. According to him, a debate on AI taxation is in order, because society will lose tax revenues and this will have fatal impacts on state budgets. “If the state does not start addressing AI taxation in time, we risk a society in which the value of property will drop significantly due to the breakdown of social harmony,” he explains, explaining the realistic scenario of the future. At the same time, he warns in the interview that politicians are not paying attention to the topic and are addressing the marginalized.
According to him, a major danger associated with artificial intelligence is also well-thought-out cyber attacks at the hands of undemocratic regimes, such as North Korea. In the interview, he explains the asymmetry of the modern world, where attack is cheap and defense is increasingly expensive. He also warns that modern AI systems like Mythos can already autonomously find weaknesses in any network.
On the other hand, he believes that 2026 is a turning point in the acceleration of scientific research with the help of artificial intelligence.
What will all this bring specifically? And how can resilience against AI threats be strengthened? Why is not only math essential, but also reading?
Veronika Jonášová discussed these and other topics on the FLOW program, watch the video (in Czech) here: Zdanění umělé inteligence se nevyhneme, říká rektor ČVUT Pěchouček | e15.cz