The professor of technical cybernetics, the science of self-driving machines, has an even bigger professional challenge ahead of him.
Or rather, a mission, as Pěchouček himself describes his recent appointment as rector of the technical university, who also focused on the area of digital threats in his role as technology director of the cybersecurity company Avast. He left the originally Czech company, which was taken over by the American company NortonLifeLock, the year before last. “I gradually realized that we can ensure the highest level of resilience of society by working with people rather than relying on technology. Being able to educate technical intelligence for a world full of technology is very important for the Czech economy. That is also why I decided to work in academia. It is a way in which I can help the Czech Republic,” adds the fifty-four-year-old Pěchouček. At the same time, he already knows how many pitfalls await him.
Working method through enthusiasm. The computer world, which is the rector of the Czech Technical University.
If only because Pěchouček expects a decline in interest in studying computer science.
“In the United States, this is already happening as a result of the more difficult job application of these graduates due to the advent of artificial intelligence. I see the solution in a much greater emphasis on connecting disciplines. For example, combining software engineering with biomedicine or architecture,” considers the head of the institution, where he co-founded the Center for Artificial Intelligence in 2001.
At the same time, Pěchouček admits that a possible overhaul of the structure of study programs will not be easy. “Their accreditation is a very formal process and the change takes a very long time.
But we have to manage it during my term of office. It is difficult,” says the professor. “Our institution is huge, there are a lot of great people working there who do their job. But at the same time, they stick to some of their own habits. And the rector does not have that much authority. The rector is not a CEO of a private company. Then it depends on how he manages to sufficiently excite and persuade others,” notes the academic, who has eight years to serve in his current position at most. The term of office of the rector lasts four years and he can be elected a maximum of two times in a row. Pěchouček is pushing for changes in technical education also because he does not intend to rely on the possible gradual fading of the current mania around AI.
Eating yourself alive. He does not take considerations about the transformation of the labor market and the entire society as just a theoretical exercise. According to him, the advent of AI is de facto inevitable. He is hard-pressed to find a fundamental weakness that could reverse the trend or at least significantly slow it down. Despite the fact that the smart conversational robots such as ChatGPT or Gemini, which are known to the general public, sometimes resemble a black box unable to give the same answer to the same question.
“The weakness of artificial intelligence is that it does not fully understand the negative phenomena in society as such,” Pěchouček thinks. "When people asked me if AI could eat us alive here, I always said it couldn't, because we can do it ourselves. I said that sometime in 2010, adding that before artificial intelligence even develops, there will be other, bigger problems. And those will somehow affect its development. Specifically, I was thinking of new viruses, major wars, and dangerous dictators. All of that has come. But if the world functioned without these negative externalities, then progress in AI is unstoppable." Anyone who doubts the dramatic impact of the advent of artificial intelligence in work and everyday life will, according to Pěchouček, be convinced of their hesitation in the next five to ten years. "I expect that we will see big changes in five years. By then we will understand which way the puck is going. Then we will have to be able to prepare for fundamental changes. I note that this is my personal feeling. However, I would say that it may be more of an understatement than an overstatement," warns the artificial intelligence expert, who estimated its business potential more than a decade ago. In 2013, the company Cognitive Security, which he co-founded, was bought by the American giant Cisco, and four years later, Pěchouček sold his stake in another machine learning startup called Blindspot AI.
Mathematics as a foundation. Pěchouček also described another pitfall of his rector's mission. One of the missions of his university is to prepare generations of people for future functioning in the labor market. However, its outlines today cannot look anything other than a blurry blur in a ten-year horizon. Nevertheless, the academic is convinced that smart technologies will not completely push people out of the work process. And that includes white-collar workers in offices. Although he expects that the demand for psychologists, for example, will significantly exceed that for software engineers. “As a society, we produce very few psychologists. I don’t want to interfere with my fellow rectors’ work, I just think it’s a huge shame. The more psychologists there are, the less people will use artificial intelligence as a substitute for therapy. We don’t need artificial intelligence algorithms to make us psychologists.”
However, Pěchouček assumes that AI algorithms will continue to need their psychologists, or more precisely, coaches and supervisors. “That imaginary last mile of automation, which would completely do without human supervision, for example, in the production of
The development of a car is extremely expensive. This also applies to software development. I consider it almost unnecessary for it to be created completely without human intervention. In short, people will play some role in production and development. "That way, it won't be artificial intelligence that will take their jobs, but a person who can work with it," Pěchouček points out. He adds that anyone who masters basic disciplines such as mathematics and physics need not fear the gusts caused by technological change. However, the way mathematics is taught also resists them, and according to the CTU rector, Pěchouček recently defended his imaginary first 100 days as CTU Rector Starting with the aim of attracting ten young assistant professors with experience from abroad. "We offered them the opportunity to start their own business," said Krištoufek, a former vice-rector for scientific and creative activities at Charles University. The professor of economics specializes in crypto-asset research. AGAINST MOBILE PHONES IN SCHOOLS Pěchouček also intends to influence events outside the campus walls near Prague's Vítězného and Karlovo náměstí, where CTU has its largest campuses. He sees the popularity of using smartphones among students as a major problem. primary and secondary school students. That is why Pěchouček signed a spring petition addressed to the government to restrict the use of smartphones in schools across the board. “Mobile phones reduce the teacher’s performance and take away the amount of time that children can spend creatively without disrupting their attention.” WHY AI IS NOT JUST A BUZZWORD
The term artificial intelligence today refers to various smart manifestations of computer programs. For example, the ability to answer any question in an educated way or create applications, images and entire videos based on a simple assignment. The so-called AI agents are a hit, i.e. smart programs that independently control a computer instead of a person. “The term artificial intelligence evolves over time. Its first use occurred in the middle of the last century. Back then, the term referred to a theoretical machine that could replicate human reasoning. Today, we could say that artificial intelligence is a set of technologies capable of not replicating, but replacing human communication skills,” explains Pěchouček.