enigm{ai}ntelligence | How machines and humans understand each other
EN RU
Project Skoltech · 2026-2027

enigm{ai}ntelligence

How machines and humans understand each other
While we may not know what AI will be like in twenty years, we can continue to learn and preserve the current efforts to understand it
01 / about the project

enigmAIntelligence is an attempt to capture a moment in time when humanity first encountered artificial intelligence.

The core idea of the project is to tell the story of AI and document the expectations surrounding it. What do researchers think about AGI? When, in their opinion, will AI transition from being a tool to an independent agent? Will work fields disappear? Will digital consciousness emerge? Will humans even be able to comprehend the intelligence they create? And will this intelligence be able to understand us?

The project is structured as a time capsule. We're collecting interviews with scientists, engineers, researchers, developers and then transforming this data into an interactive timeline.

01 Why Now?

Today, the conversation surrounding artificial intelligence is filled with buzzwords. News, memes, panic, endless predictions, "Top 10 Best Prompts," "This new model is 100 times better than anything you've ever seen," and so on. Everyone is talking about AI, but very few are capturing the key element: who predicted it, and why? In ten years, many of these ideas will seem obvious, even though very few are completely certain today.

Everyone is talking about AI, but very few are capturing who predicted it and in which context.
02 How it Works

Each point on the timeline leads to an interview with a researcher, providing a comprehensive understanding of the situation with full context. This format will be useful for those who are familiar with AI through news and buzz, as well as for the academic community.

03 Target Audience

For someone just starting to explore AI, this is an easy introduction to the topic and a clear understanding that AI didn't appear out of nowhere. For students and high school students, it offers the chance to see and be inspired by researcher’s work.

For journalists and researchers, it's a rare archive where predictions are tied to specific people and time points. For colleges and tech companies, it's an opportunity to participate in the cultural understanding of the era.

For those seeking specialized knowledge, we will add a convenient categorization feature. Those who want to read specifically about "AI in medicine" or "multi-agent AI" can easily find this information on the timeline and read the interviews where it's mentioned.

For convenience, the timeline will also allow you to select time ranges: past, present (2025-2027), future, specific decades, and so on.

04 The Time Capsule

Each prediction remains with a date, the name of the person making it, and the context. Then, the "capsule" is sealed at the moment of publication, up to a certain year (e.g., 2036). At this point, the project comes to life: we check what came true, what turned out to be childish, and what no one could have predicted. In this sense, "enigmAIntelligence" is a long-term story with no clear end point.

05 About people

We hope that the conversation about artificial intelligence will also be about humanity. About the fear of losing control. About the desire to create something beyond ourselves. About trying to understand our own consciousness through machines.

"enigmAIntelligence" is a document of time, in which people will feel that they are standing at the threshold of something as significant as the arrival of the internet or even computing technology itself.

FORMAT 01

Interactive Timeline

A reader can navigate the timeline from the early experiments of the 1950s to predictions about the future after 2070. Each point on the timeline represents a short thought, prediction, fact, discovery, or concern.

FORMAT 02

Book

A detailed interview between a journalist and an expert, reflecting the doubts, emotions, personal stories, and overall feeling of the era. The timeline provides a concise and convenient format, while the full-length interviews and book offer depth.

02 / experts

Scientists, engineers,
developers of AI

Two groups of experts: leading Russian AI centers, and international researchers. The list will change.

International experts

13 experts
Wen GaoPeking University (PKU)
Jiaya JiaThe Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
Xiang-Yang LiUniversity of Science and Technology of China (USTC)
Wenfeng LiangDeepSeek
Dahua LinThe Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
Tie-Yan LiuUniversity of Science and Technology of China (USTC)
Tieniu TanUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS)
Haifeng WangHarbin Institute of Technology (HIT)
Shuihua WangUniversity of Leicester
Bo ZhangTsinghua University
Zhi-Hua ZhouNanjing University (NJU)
Rifat HamoudiUniversity of Sharjah
Danil ProhorovToyota Research Institute of North America

Russian experts

35 experts
Valentin AnanikovZelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, RAS; Skoltech
Sergey BarannikovSkoltech
Alexander BernsteinSkoltech
Nikolay BrilliantovSkoltech
Evgeny BurnaevSkoltech
Alexander GasnikovInnopolis University; Skoltech
Svetlana IllarionovaSkoltech
Adil KhanInnopolis University
Alexander KorotinSkoltech
Alexey KovalevAIRI; MIPT
Alexander KrainovYandex
Alexander KuleshovSkoltech
Andrey KuznetsovAIRI
Ruslan LukinInnopolis University
Evgeny MirkesSkoltech
Alexey NaumovHSE University; Steklov Mathematical Institute, RAS
Artem NikonorovSamara University
Ivan OseledetsAIRI; Skoltech
Vladimir PalyulinSkoltech
Alexander PanchenkoSkoltech
Alexander PanovMIPT; AIRI; Skoltech
Vasily RamenskyLomonosov Moscow State University; National Medical Research Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine
Oleg RogovAIRI; Skoltech
Sergey RykovanovSkoltech
Sergey SafonovSkoltech
Dmitry SamofalovSkoltech
Dmitry ShadrinSkoltech
Alexander ShapeevSkoltech
Maxim SharaevSkoltech
Stanislav SmirnovSaint Petersburg State University; Skoltech
Evgeny SokolovHSE University
Ivan TyukinSkoltech
Vladimir VanovskySkoltech
Dmitry YarotskySkoltech
Alexey ZaytsevSkoltech
what we expect

Project in numbers

20+
scientists
20+
interviews
20+
predictions
100+
timeline entries (points)
1
book
1
website
10+
podcasts
20+
media publications
1
big historical overview
3
languages (Chinese, Russian, English)
“Technology for Youth”
1961
№ 10 · P. 16
A. N. Kolmogorov
…"In reality, the goal should be to replace this silly and pointless fear of machines that imitate us with the immense satisfaction of knowing that such complex and beautiful things can be created by a person who, only recently, found simple arithmetic to be something mysterious and wonderful"…
A. N. Kolmogorov “Technology for Youth”, 1961, No. 10, p. 16
03 / team

Project Team

Five people: scientific consultant, scientific supervisor, curator, designer, and manager.
Grigory Kabatyansky
Grigory Kabatyansky
Scientific Consultant

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor, Vice President for Science and Academic Relations, Skoltech
Ivan Tyukin
Ivan Tyukin
Scientific Supervisor

Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Laboratory for Reliable, Adaptive and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, AI Center, Skoltech
Inessa Grigalyunene
Inessa Grigalyunene
Curator

Head of Image Projects, Communications Department, Skoltech
Ekaterina Kholmogorova
Ekaterina Kholmogorova
Designer
Igor Oleinikov
Igor Oleinikov
Manager

Manager of image projects, communications department, Skoltech
04 / experience

Our successful experience
in popular science media projects at Skoltech

A collection of interviews with leading scientists – physics, math, biology.
The Forefront of Physics
Paulsen Publishing, 2020
Russian, English
Mathematical Walks+
Paulsen Publishing, 2017/2022
Chinese, Russian, English
Life and other stories
Paulsen Publishing, 2023–2024
Russian, English
* draft cover
NEW · 2027
enigmAIntelligence
In preparation
Chinese, Russian, English

Contacts.

Contact the project team to become a speaker or partner.
Scientific Supervisor
Ivan Tyukin
Professor, Head of the Laboratory for Reliable, Adaptive and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, Skoltech, Scientific Supervisor of "enigmAIntelligence" project
Project Manager
Igor Oleinikov
Manager of the Image project, department of communications, Skoltech, project manager of "enigmAIntelligence"