Radio Sputnik, Escalation Show Host: Today on the agenda we have some topics that are by no means trivial. We’d like to talk about how artificial intelligence and its applications are entering and changing our lives. What should we be wary of? After all, for many people today, AI is practically a nightmare: being “digitally branded” or facing algorithmic aggression online has become more frightening to people than real-world threats. On the other hand, there are direct instructions from the Russian president and statements from top government officials: by 2030, all enterprises must actively integrate these technologies into their operations. And now we’re seeing the first reports: the Ministry of Health states that digitalization and AI assistants are helping to combat staff shortages and making life easier for doctors and staff. Electronic document management is already commonplace, and such steps by the government seem encouraging. Healthcare is increasingly being discussed in this context. But how should we really view this? Is it a long-awaited relief from our current realities, or something truly frightening lurking behind the facade of convenience? How do you see this situation?
Alexander Dugin: I think the problem of artificial intelligence is the main problem of our time. And it is not merely a technological one. It is not simply a matter of how many employees it will replace, whom it will see fired, or whom it will render unnecessary. Artificial intelligence poses colossal threats of a completely different nature. It is no coincidence that Trump has said that the arms race is now unfolding not so much in the nuclear sphere as in the field of AI. Whoever controls artificial intelligence—if it is even possible to control it, which is a major philosophical problem—controls the world.
Today, the outcome of wars is decided through control over the collective consciousness of society. This became clear a century ago, if not sooner. What sociologist Émile Durkheim called the “collective consciousness” is the key to power. By controlling it, one can manage not only people’s bodies, forcing them to do something, but also their minds, souls, and hearts. One can make them believe that one thing exists and another thing doesn’t. Technologies for manipulating social consciousness have been in use for a long time: religions, ideologies, and entire civilizations are built on this.
Today, however, this problem is becoming a technical one. Whoever builds the foundational paradigms and algorithms of AI will become the “ruler of the world,” the ultimate authority. Resisting this in a Luddite manner—by burning computers or rejecting technology—is clearly not the way forward. We can fight this process, but it’s important to understand the trajectory toward strong artificial intelligence, toward AGI. Of course, we can laugh at “internet slops” and the amusing errors of neural networks, but we must admit: AI is already writing posts and articles that are sometimes far more coherent than those of many people.
I’ve been experimenting with it and I see that while just three or four months ago the best models—like Claude, Grok, or the quite capable Gemini—were writing at the level of a Ph.D. candidate, they’ve now reached the level of a full professor. And it is absolutely impossible to call this “slop” or some kind of empty drivel. The overwhelming majority of scientific work consists of combinatorics and the retelling of previous ideas, for which AI is ideally suited. It handles this better than the average Ph.D.
Of course, creating a fundamentally new system or idea is a task for a genius who breaks through to the contemplation of eternal truths once in a century. But this cannot be demanded of an ordinary academic. And AI handles all the intellectual details superbly.
