We are pleased to introduce the first issue of the Journal of Digital economy research (JDER), a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary scientific journal.

Digital economy rapid developments raise plenty of discussions. The aim of this journal is to be the forum for researchers and practitioners, politicians, and officials to discuss the development strategies and best international case studies to ensure the comprehensive development of society in the digital economy.

The journal focuses on:
• the research results in the field of the development of the digital economy,
• issues in digital transformation management,
• assessmentofresultsandrisksof digitalization,
• the challenges of international cooperation, and
• the development of separate industries and regional segments of the digital economy.

JDER is an open access journal with four issues per year. We do hope that this publishing strategy will support the broader discussions of theoretical and empirical aspects of digital transformation pushing forward cooperation between relevant groups of actors. Research and review articles covering examples from practice and cases, reviews of conferences and books, interviews of leading experts could brief researchers and practitioners with contemporary development issues.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the editorial board members and the authors of the first issue for their trust in the future of the JDER, precious support and advices, high-quality and original scientific contributions. We thank the anonymous reviewers who have greatly contributed the issue for the comments and valuable time.

We are grateful to MGIMO-University authorities and the national grant programme Proirity 2030 for their support of the creation and promotion of the JDER.

The main objective of the paper is to give an overview of global effects of AI technologies, including socio-ethical principles, direct and non-direct economic impact and regulatory frameworks for developing strategies of sustainable development based on AI technologies. We will discuss these problems considering AI as a part of the global process of technological development, and, therefore, will briefly overview relationships between AI and other close fields (computational technologies, data acquisition techniques etc). A particular focus will be on global risks associated with the intensive use of AI technologies. Special attention will be given to the issues of international standardization of AI and related technologies. A section on AI-based social ranking will discuss fundamental problems inherent for such systems (biases, non-transparency etc). That section will be followed by a section on deepfakes which will be discussed in view of their dramatic effect on the conception of trust, both on individual and population/state levels. The paper will also discuss effects of widespread introduction of AI on other fields of research, such as chemical sciences and molecular biology. We will discuss pathways for sustainable development of “Trustworthy AI” which may achieve the desired balance between the benefits and risks of using these technologies and a global scale. We will discuss approaches that may lead to development of strategic principles for accessing long term effects of AI followed by relevant regulatory approaches.

Today, a number of researchers representing both technical knowledge and the humanities believe that it is necessary to endow Artificial Intelligence with subjective “human” qualities, which include the ability to self-aware, as well as to make a free choice. In this regard, the problem of the AI autonomy becomes extremely relevant, and further – AI creator’s rights and capabilities (or ineligibility) to hold control over AI. Within this framework the Artificial Personality project has been developing over the past 20 years. Given its active scientific and social activities with the involvement of the remarkable interdisciplinary community, the project is far from complete. The presented article summarizes the executed research for Artificial Personality conceptualization and demonstrates that today the fundamental possibility of the creation of Artificial Personality has not yet been convincingly proven. Also, conceptually, there has not been formulated the single generally accepted approach to promising methods and technology for the implementation and the embodiment of the Artificial Personality. So, at the current stage, the study of the Artificial Personality is rather abstract theoretical research. As a result of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that today it is reasonable to use the results of the Natural Personality and Natural Intelligence studies and transfer the methods that have shown their relative effectiveness in various existing manifestations of real social life to the field of creating the concept of Artificial Personality. The proposed approach for the conceptualization of Artificial Personality will help to create a theoretical and methodological foundation for theoretical research and further implementation of Artificial Personality projects.

The issue of AI development and application is high on the international agenda now. One of the reasons is its excessive popularity among the public. Numerous international actors are now developing AI regulations. It is both universal and specialized international organisations with global and regional reach. Informal international fora are also active in this area. This process is a complex one and incorporate different factors which are both of objective and subjective character. In effect, AI regulation all the more often becomes a political tool for promoting economic interests of national IT companies or an instrument for secretariats of international organisations to keep a high profile. National AI regulation is often considered as a shield against malign use of AI by Western governments to manipulate domestic processes in other countries and to interfere into internal affairs. There are also different approaches which are practiced by intergovernmental organisations depending on their specialization. While specialized fora strive to build common grounds for the development and use of AI, regional organisations attach broader perspective to AI regulation and tend to politicize it. These various factors are likely to result in a fragmented regulatory field in this area according to national borders or borders of military and political alliances.

The development of AI technologies has heightened the problem of humanitarian challenges at all levels of social regulations. Ethical issues and, in particular, the problem of trust have become relevant to the field of high technology, given the fact that AI performs increasingly significant managerial functions that previously could only be performed by humans. This issue is directly related to artificial intelligence systems, which have already been embodied in specific extensive projects. In this study, the authors analyze the concept of trust through the prism of technological development. For this purpose, the study presents an overview of historical and contemporary interpretations of the concept of trust and proves that this concept is relevant and necessary to control the risks that arise when integrating AI products into social life. The authors show that a rethinking of the concepts of ethics and morality in the new context is required. This is a necessary requirement for the creation of trusted AI and for the achievement of trust in human interaction with technology products. The authors conclude that it is necessary to build an interdisciplinary dialogue to integrate theory and practice from numerous fields. To do this, it is necessary to create a common knowledge base and a platform for communication between all stakeholders, but it is also important to create favorable conditions for sustainable and constructive interaction. Therefore, trust is a relevant concept that needs to be constructed in a multidimensional frame of reference that targets different stakeholders and also takes into account interaction between human and technology, in other words, at all levels and on all scales.

Rapid technological developments in Artificial Intelligence technologies and its multiple applications on the workplace have stoked many fears and speculations in the society about possible job loss. Current studies report no decrease in demand of high-skilled workers associated with AI technologies. Also, there are no evidences that they will displace jobs in the near future. More companies keep on using and scaling AI in nearly every industry. Most of the businesses are getting benefits after implementation of AI. Most of the progress AI made relate to highly-educated and skilled occupations. To develop further, companies should decide which tasks and routines to be performed and delegate them to humans or robots. AI will not only lead to automation, but will also complement labor. Implementation of AI technologies widely across all industries still face challenges. Part of the limitations is technical related, there are also potential issues with data protection, its fraudulent use and cybersecurity are the main challenges to focus. Businesses and authorities should harness AI development and benefit from the increased productivity and working performance. Focus should be on ensuring the transition to new technologies is smooth and stressless.