Lomonosov 2025 International Scientific Conference

16 April 2025 International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration Members Participated in The Lomonosov 2025 International Scientific Conference

International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration members, Senior Research Fellow Maria Yudina and Research Assistant Violetta Homyakova participated in the 32nd International Scientific Conference for Undergraduate and Graduate Students and Young Scientists "Lomonosov". They participated in the section "The Vanguard of Digital Public Administration: Data Economics and Technological Leadership", which were organized by the Higher School of Public Administration (Moscow State University Faculty).

International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration (ILDT) members applied to the subsection ‘Artificial intelligence and digital transformation in business and public administration’. Their thesis were accepted for it, but ILDT members made their presentation one day earlier, at the subsection ‘Innovative economics and industrial policy’. The event participants discussed the implementation of AI in public administration, the digitalization of industry, the transformation of production models and the development of innovative infrastructure in the context of technological change.
M. Yudina and V. Homyakova made a presentation on "Insatiable artificial intelligence and its ecological footprint." They drew the attention of the conference participants to the downside of technological progress – the significant energy consumption and water intake accompanying the creation and operation of large-scale AI language models, as well as the associated greenhouse gas emissions. The study covered various scales: from comparing the water footprint of AI with the annual needs of entire countries to analyzing scenarios for the growth of energy consumption of data centers. In their presentation, the speakers raised issues of the territorial concentration of AI infrastructure, competition for resources with the population, and the threat to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (in particular, SDGs 6 and 7). Special attention was paid to the problem of the lack of sufficient regulation by the states and the need to take into account the environmental impact in the strategic planning of the development of AI infrastructure.
The report aroused great interest among the conference participants and became an occasion for discussion about new challenges of sustainable technological development. According to the results of the meeting of the subsection, the work was included in the top 5 best presentations, receiving high praise from fellow researchers.