President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia will develop artificial intelligence (AI) together with BRICS partners and other countries, in an attempt to challenge the dominance of the United States of America in one of the most promising and important technologies of the 21st century.
He said at the Russian conference on AI that the new network of the Alliance for AI will include national associations and institutions for the development of artificial intelligence from BRICS countries and other interested countries, Reuters reported.
"Russia must participate equally in the global race to create strong artificial intelligence. Russian scientists are currently working on advanced solutions," Putin said at a conference in Moscow.
"We invite scientists from all over the world to join the collaboration," he added.
Western sanctions, aimed at limiting Russia's access to technologies it needs to wage war against Ukraine, have led the world's biggest microchip makers to freeze exports to Russia, severely curtailing its AI ambitions, according to Reuters.
Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, is leading the country's AI development, but its CEO German Gref admitted in 2023 that Russia is having the hardest time finding a replacement for graphics processing units (GPUs), the microchips that form the basis of AI development.
That bank announced yesterday that national AI associations from the BRICS member countries, Brazil, China, India and South Africa, as well as from Serbia, Indonesia and other non-BRICS countries, have joined the Alliance for AI network, according to Reuters.
It is said that the network will facilitate joint research in the field of AI technology and regulation, as well as provide opportunities to market AI products to member countries' markets.
The US and China are the world's leading AI powers, and US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed a "White House AI and Crypto Czar" to ensure the US remains the richest and most technologically advanced power in the world.
However, Putin's move to partner with China could change the dynamics of the race in the field of AI, according to Reuters.
Russia is one of ten countries, including the US, China, Britain and Israel, that are developing their own models of generative AI.
Russia estimates that the application of AI technologies across all sectors will contribute to an increase in GDP of 11,2 trillion rubles ($109 billion) by 2030, compared to 0,2 trillion rubles ($1,9 billion) in 2023.
Its AI strategy also foresees that 80 percent of all Russian workers will have AI skills by 2030, compared to five percent in 2023, while investments in this area should increase sevenfold, to 850 billion rubles.
Reuters writes that Sberbank, which developed the generative AI model GigaChat, and technology leader Yandex, with its model YandexGPT, dominate the domestic AI market in Russia.
Russia is currently in 31st place out of 83 countries in terms of implementation, innovation and investment in AI, according to the Global AI Index of the British Tortoise Media, which is significantly behind the USA and China, but also India and Brazil.
Stanford University's AI Dynamic Assessment Tool, which ranks 36 countries based on 42 AI indicators, ranks Russia 29th.
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