"The key idea is to make encyclopedic knowledge more accessible through the synergy of resources"

Last week, the Russian encyclopedia "Ruviki" announced the introduction of an ecosystem of AI services, and then signed a cooperation agreement with the Rutube video platform at the Russian Internet Forum. Vladimir Medeyko, CEO of Ruviki, talks about how these innovations will change the encyclopedic landscape in an interview with Izvestia.

— An agreement on joint projects with Rutuve was signed today. What does this mean in practice?

— We have indeed agreed with our colleagues on mutually beneficial and interesting integration. The key idea is to make encyclopedic knowledge more accessible to users through the synergy of resources. In a practical sense, this means that collections of thematic videos from Rutube will appear in the articles of the encyclopedia, the Ruviki neural responses — intelligent short answers to users' questions — will also be accompanied by collections of video materials, and the video collections in Rutube will be supplemented with short descriptions based on articles from Ruviki. Also, the assistant "Ruviki" will be available on the Rutube video page, which will answer users' questions. For us, this is an important step that allows users not only to receive a text answer to their question, but also to delve into video collections on an interesting topic. In addition, Rutube users will have the opportunity to expand their knowledge thanks to Ruviki.

— In what time frame is the implementation of this project expected?

— We will see the first results before the end of the year, but the project is large and will be implemented in several stages.

— Just last week, you announced the introduction of AI services to update the encyclopedia. Are there any risks of losing control over the encyclopedic nature of the texts?

— No, because all automation at Ruviki works under human control. AI services are editors' assistants in solving routine tasks. They allow you to do typical things faster and more efficiently — analyze information feeds and update articles based on them, for example, regarding personnel appointments or the results of sports competitions. Build a database for a new article based on reliable sources. But what the reader sees at the exit will inevitably pass editorial control. The researcher carefully checks the quality of the AI's work. In addition, we are expanding our cooperation with partners. Among them are the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Presidential Library, and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. Last week we signed an agreement with the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan and will announce new partnerships in the near future. The number of peer-reviewed materials in Ruviki will only grow.

— Do you see the result of these efforts? What is the attendance at Ruviki today?

— Over the year, the project has grown in traffic from 4 to 7 million unique users per month, and this figure continues to grow. In the second quarter, 25 million people read Ruviki. Our library has expanded with more than 130,000 new materials, and we have successfully implemented a Yandex GPT-based neural response and an ecosystem of AI services to update the encyclopedia. Work has been carried out on resource stability and data security. All this contributes to the growth of the audience.

— What are you betting on in the development of the project?

— Today, with the development of AI, there is an obvious danger of the dominance of synthetic materials, which can become the basis for distorting facts. At the same time, the old methods of updating data are not keeping up with the new reality. At Ruviki, we are building a system that allows us to find a balance between data relevance, which is achieved largely through process automation, and classical academic expertise, which allows us to preserve our experience and history. I think that in the very near future this combination will be the most popular among readers around the world.