Before the plenary session, Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maxim Oreshkin and President and Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank German Gref, toured an exhibition dedicated to the development of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
At the GigaChat and Smart Devices display stand, the President was given a presentation of the capabilities of Sber’s AI-enabled products such as a smart ring that reads biometric data and interprets them using GigaChat. At the stand GigaChat: Results of the Year with the President, specialists explained that AI was being used to process people’s appeals received by the Direct Line for the first time. The neural network is now helping the combined editorial team to process the incoming array of requests ten times faster.
The Autonomous Tractor-Trailers display showcases the results of testing unmanned tractor-trailers on the M-11 Neva motorway from Moscow to St Petersburg as part of the Unmanned Logistics Corridors federal project. The 3D Modeling and Kandinsky stand demonstrates the capabilities of generative AI for creating images and videos, as well as a 3D modeling project that uses AI to make parts for industrial equipment.
At the T-Bank display, AI in Education, the President was given information about corporate educational programmes for schoolchildren, students, and IT specialists.
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Speech at the AI Journey international conference
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
Friends,
I am very pleased to welcome you to Artificial Intelligence Journey. This conference has already become one of the most high-profile and much-anticipated international events in the science and technology domain.
My colleagues just told me that millions of citizens of our country as well as foreigners, from all over the world, are participating in the conference online and are closely following the discussions. About half of the audience are young people, new researchers and software developers who are directly involved in the creation, design, and use of products and services that are ahead of our time.
We also have in this room today the winners of the Russian School Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence. My colleagues just told me that they are taking part in the plenary session. I sincerely congratulate them on this significant achievement. Let’s honour them. I am sure that being at such a high-level conference will be extremely useful for our future joint work in education and for your career trajectory.
Sberbank has certainly played a major role in making Russia a significant platform for discussing advanced technologies, and I would like to thank Sberbank, as well as the Alliance in the sphere of AI, an industry organisation created five years ago by the largest domestic companies here at this conference.
I would like to congratulate you all on this meaningful milestone. I would also like to thank you for your work, for your perseverance in promoting the ideas of progress, for your aspiration to make the most daring and fantastic dreams come true, and to bring them to everyday products and services, to projects that might seem simple, but are game-changers nonetheless. Due to these successful projects, Russia is now at the forefront of the momentous changes taking place around the world.
They are gaining momentum and strength, which means that we – I am primarily addressing the Russian audience – we need to gain traction as well and come up with truly innovative, out-of-the-box solutions.
I would like to note that in just a year, artificial intelligence technologies have transformed entire industries beyond recognition, even the so-called creative industries, where human sense of harmony and beauty had seemed absolutely irreplaceable. To be honest, I thought this was impossible, but these boundaries are being erased now.
Generative models can create high-quality music in various genres, simultaneously translate speech into dozens of languages in real time, produce videos that are hardly distinguishable from real footage, create video games using text or pictures, as well as 3D models, digital twins of complex systems. In fact, this means that a revolution is happening in engineering, in the design and construction of fundamentally new components and entire devices.
Artificial intelligence now reads and analyses even hard-to-read images and videos, regardless of weather conditions or other interferences. This opens up entirely different opportunities for robotics, for the creation of unmanned vehicles for land, air and water.
Generative AI tools predict natural disasters quite accurately. They can analyse tables and diagrams and solve the most complex mathematical and physics problems in just a few short steps.
The fact that the domestic companies are quickly implementing these innovations and achievements in their work and are moving in lockstep with time is vitally important. For example, Sber released a GigaChat MAX service based on innovative solutions, and Yandex presented the fourth generation of Yandex Chat. T-Bank, MTS, and VK have made great strides in developing their neural models. As you are aware, the restrictions imposed on Russia and the Russian economy push us to look for new solutions, and you are effectively finding them.
What makes the leap in AI algorithms fundamentally distinct? Our colleagues have just briefed me about it. These algorithms are now capable of reasoning and use logic when they expound their thoughts, meaning that the generative artificial intelligence has significantly improved its cognitive, thinking abilities.
In this regard, mathematician Rene Descartes once famously said, “I think, therefore I am”. This dictum has become a symbol of the scientific revolution of the Age of Enlightenment. That was back in the 16th and the 17th centuries. Up until now, reasoning, as well as memory, speech, and empathy were considered foundational characteristics of homo sapiens, a human being.
At the same time, a growing number of experts and researchers are saying that progress in the reasoning ability will, in the foreseeable future, lead to the emergence of what is known as strong artificial intelligence, i.e. technologies that will surpass humans in key activities. The processes which now take years to accomplish, will be completed, and in some areas are already completed, not in days, but in hours, minutes and even seconds.
For example, the scale and complexity of research is growing in all areas of science ranging from genetics to creating innovative materials. Artificial intelligence is capable of processing huge amounts of data, modeling the most daring experiments, and finding new, as researchers say, state space search-based solutions which can shorten the path from hypothesis to scientific discovery by tens, and even hundreds of times.
Clearly, the availability of our own research potential in the field of the new generation of artificial intelligence is one of the key prerequisites for scientific, technological and, importantly, our country’s worldview sovereignty.
I brought up the worldview sovereignty, because the algorithms, the underlying AI principles are being laid down, at least for the time being, mostly by humans who are guided by certain values, language, images, culture, history, and traditions, as well as national specifics and interests. To be able to determine the future of Russia, we must create such technologies ourselves and, of course, do so in collaboration with those who are willing to work.
I would add in this regard that our activities in the field of artificial intelligence should rely on a solid foundation created by outstanding Russian philosophers, secular and religious thinkers, historians, linguists, and recognised authorities in the field of humanitarian and cultural knowledge. Of course, that includes scholars, mathematicians, specialists in the field of cybernetics and IT. I will name just some of them, whom you, as specialists, certainly know and rely on their works and achievements of the past years. These are Andrei Kolmogorov, Alexei Lyapunov, and Alexander Galushkin.
It is our direct duty to build on their legacy, and to act as equal participants in the global race to create a strong artificial intelligence.
The Russian scientists are working on developing advanced solutions. Our cultural figures are well known and honoured by wide audiences. The names of the researchers are heard less often, but I will give you some names: Yevgeny Burnayev, Alexander Gasnikov, and Ivan Oseledets. Our key AI research centres are operating successfully. We encourage scientists from all over the world to join us in our research activities.
In this regard, we propose to hold an international foresight in Russia, a kind of strategic session to discuss the future of artificial intelligence, and to put our heads together regarding the future of this powerful technology. This will allow us to promptly respond to emerging challenges and risks, to use outside-the-box solutions and opportunities, and to outline new areas for scientific breakthroughs and partnerships.
Colleagues,
The AI technology is called upon to become the critical resource for achieving national development goals, to strengthen the country’s defence capability, to ensure high-quality development of the economy and social sectors, public administration, and growth of innovations. In order to successfully meet these challenges, Russia must become a world leader not only in matters of creation, but also in the scale of using artificial intelligence in all spheres of our life without exception.
I think the state will do the right thing if it shows an example of bold and advanced approaches. Of course, we must begin with ourselves. Our colleagues have just shared how they are helping me prepare for the Direct Line and the year-end news conference on December 19. A large language model developed by Sber is now being used for the first time ever to receive, process and analyse calls, millions of them every year. This tool gets the results that cause respect and exceed all expectations.
What does this mean in practice? Previously, call centre operators and employees of the Russian Popular Front worked day and night to manually sieve through incoming questions concerning the topics that most people find important. Today, though, the massive amount of questions, which used to be processed over the course of a year with the involvement of a large number of specialists, will be handled in a completely different way.
Prior to the beginning of the programme, we will now see an almost complete, objective, and comprehensive picture of the issues that people of different ages, generations, professions, and residents of particular population centres and regions, the entire country, in fact, find important. Based on the results, we will immediately set tasks for specific agencies, governors, and ministries. The most pressing issues are already being raised, and the agencies have already started working on them and responding to them. This is a vivid example of AI use in public administration.
Such a feedback tool in our interaction with the people is unrivalled in the full sense of the word. I am aware that Sber has plans to refine this product based on its performance during the Direct Line. It will be extremely useful in everyday work of the authorities of all levels.
Overall, the outcomes of such a major experiment will significantly impact the efficiency of public administration. Primarily, the newly gained experience should be used in creating integrated digital platforms. The widespread implementation of such platforms will go beyond public administration, and be also used in healthcare, the manufacturing industry, transport, tourism, and every other sphere, and be completed in or before 2030.
Platform solutions like this should become the foundation for digitalising management systems in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In the upcoming years, many regional services should be provided using generative artificial intelligence. I would like to ask the Government to help our colleagues at all levels in fulfilling these tasks, both in municipalities and in the regions.
The implementation of these approaches will allow the entire country to transfer to data-based management, automate bureaucratic procedures, and provide a completely different level of control and decision-making, in fact, making a fundamental technological transition in the entire management system.
This difficult but very important work must be guided by our leaders, those who are not afraid of the new and introduce cutting-edge solutions. I would like to use this opportunity to name the regions that won the National Prize for artificial intelligence. We are holding this competition to encourage work at the regional level. This year’s winners are Moscow, and the Moscow, Lipetsk, Tula, and Tyumen Regions. I congratulate my colleagues and wish them further success.
Friends,
Russia’s experience in the practical implementation of artificial intelligence is needed in various countries. Today, nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America, as well as our partners from the CIS, the Eurasian Economic Union, the SCO, BRICS, and other associations are forming promising economic sectors and introducing innovations. Russia unquestionably shares and supports their commitment to developing, and also supports domestic companies in creating AI-based products and services both for themselves and for the whole world.
We will provide the countries of the Global South and East with consultative and technical assistance in the domain of artificial intelligence. Of course, we hope that we will also borrow our partners’ achievements and implement joint projects based on equal access to knowledge, technology, and scientific achievements. This priority is enshrined in the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence.
We are ready to help create and apply generative models not only in Russian, but also in other languages. As I have said, these systems’ algorithms must be trusted, that is, clear, open, and unbiased. They must also be developed considering cultural and national peculiarities of each civilisation with its history, identity and traditions, which we, in Russia, deeply respect.
I am confident that an international alliance of AI National associations and development institutions of the BRICS countries and other interested states will give a boost to this cooperation. This Alliance will be launched at the AI Journey conference today. I hope that new foreign participants, including my colleagues, leaders of state, will attend this event.
Friends, colleagues,
I with you new achievements, scientific and technological breakthroughs.
Thank you for your attention. All the best. Thank you.
To be continued.