Putin says West cannot have monopoly on AI, calls for boost to Russian efforts

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Friday (Nov 24) warned that the West should not be allowed to develop a monopoly in the sphere of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and said that a much more ambitious Russian strategy for the development of AI would be approved shortly.

China and the United States are leading the development of AI, which many researchers and global leaders think will transform the world and revolutionise society in a way similar to the introduction of computers in the late 20th century.

Moscow also has ambitions to be an AI power but its efforts have been set back due to the war in Ukraine which prompted many talented scientists to leave Russia and triggered Western sanctions which have hindered the country’s high-tech imports.

Speaking to an AI conference in Moscow beside Sberbank CEO German Gref, Putin said that trying to ban AI was impossible and cautioned that it would be dangerous and unacceptable to allow Western platforms to gain a monopoly in AI technology.

“In the very near future, as one of the first steps, a presidential decree will be signed and a new version of the national strategy for the development of artificial intelligence will be approved,” Putin told the conference.

Putin said the new strategy would make significant changes, including “expanding fundamental and applied research in the field of generative artificial intelligence and large language models”.

Russia, he said, needed to make legislative and investment changes to spur the development of AI.