How can digital technologies become more intelligent without compromising security and trust? This question was at the heart of the first International Conference on Secure and Intelligent Digital Ecosystems (SIDe’26), currently taking place at Nazarbayev University (NU). International experts are discussing how to ensure the reliability of digital systems amid the rapid development of artificial intelligence and emerging technological challenges.
Opening the conference, NU Provost Professor Rehan Sadiq emphasised that security must be built into innovation as intelligent technologies become increasingly widespread.
“We live in an era when everything is becoming ‘smart’ and ‘intelligent’, but intelligence alone is not enough. Without security, even the most advanced system cannot be reliable or trusted. Innovation must also address privacy, fairness, accountability, resilience and the responsible use of technology. That is why the words ‘secure’ and ‘intelligent’ are central to the name SIDe’26: these are interconnected issues that the conference aims to address,” he said.
One of the key topics at SIDe’26 was the challenge of detecting deepfakes and ensuring the reliability of detection tools. Professor Shehzad Ashraf Chaudhary of Abu Dhabi University (UAE) highlighted the importance of human judgement in identifying manipulated digital content. While artificial intelligence can help detect deepfakes, he stressed that its findings must be independently verified.
“Whatever tools we use, whether AI-based systems or other methods of detection and analysis, they can produce both false negatives and false positives. Human involvement in the verification process therefore remains essential,” he said.
Organised by NU’s School of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) in partnership with the IEEE Kazakhstan Section, SIDe’26 has brought together researchers, students and industry representatives to discuss the secure development and use of digital technologies. The conference is chaired on behalf of NU by Professors Adnan Yazici, Anwar Ghani and Hari Mohan Rai.
Participants are also exploring cybersecurity, machine learning, cloud technologies and AI applications across a range of sectors, from healthcare and finance to business. Particular attention is being paid to voice-based AI agents for Kazakh and Russian. Industry participants include representatives of EPAM Systems, Freedom AI Labs, Beeline Kazakhstan and QazCode.
The international reach of the conference reflects growing research interest in these issues. SIDe’26 received 343 research paper submissions from authors in around 30 countries. Participants represent more than 100 universities and companies, including IBM, Goldman Sachs, Capital One and Infineon.
In 2026, NU established the School of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (SCAI), bringing together existing academic and research programmes in computer science, robotics, applied mathematics, machine learning, cybersecurity, data science and artificial intelligence.
