Russia’s Putin calls for national AI task force
By Gleb Bryanski
MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin called on Wednesday for the establishment of a national task force to coordinate Russia’s work on domestic generative artificial intelligence models, which he said are vital to preserving Russia’s sovereignty.
Putin said that broad-language models have become an important tool in the dissemination of information and can influence the views of entire nations. He added that dependence on master’s programs designed in other countries is not acceptable for Russia.
“For Russia, this is a matter of national, technological and value-based sovereignty. Therefore, our country must have a comprehensive set of its own technologies and products in the field of productive artificial intelligence,” Putin said at AI Journey, Russia’s flagship AI event.
Putin said the task force should focus on developing data centers across the country and ensuring nearby energy sources such as small-scale nuclear power plants.
While Russia lags behind the United States and China in artificial intelligence, two broad-based models, Gigachat and Yandex GPT, were developed by the country’s main AI-focused companies, Sberbank and Yandex.
Sberbank, which has transformed from a traditional bank to a technology company, announced a new version of Gigachat on Wednesday, pitching AI-powered products to Putin, from humanoid robots to health-scanning ATMs.
Putin said that the contribution of artificial intelligence-supported technologies to Russia’s gross domestic product should exceed 11 trillion rubles ($136.57 billion) by 2030. He called for the development of a national AI implementation plan, in addition to a task force, and urged government agencies and companies to make greater use of AI.
Western sanctions have hindered Russia’s efforts to expand computing capacity and develop artificial intelligence by blocking imports of hardware, including microchips.
Putin warned against over-regulation of AI but said only Russian models should be used for national security and intelligence gathering purposes to ensure data does not leave the country.
($1 = 80.5455 rubles)
(Writing by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
