Vladimir Putin instructed artificial intelligence to raise the Russian industry

Vladimir Putin spoke at Sberbank’s Artifical Intelligence Journey conference dedicated, as the name suggests, to artificial intelligence (AI). The discussion, in which the president took part, was called “Artificial Intelligence Technologies for Economic Growth.” At the conference, the president presented proposals for the development of information technologies, and also got acquainted with AI projects, in the development of which Sberbank and other Russian companies are involved.

At the beginning of the discussion, the president was surprised that he was seated so far from the participants. “As soon as they start doing something, they take something, they take it to the extreme a little,” he also noted.

Putin began his speech with the fact that now the significance of breakthroughs in the field of AI is colossal, the rivalry between states is fierce: “The place of Russia in the world, our sovereignty, the security and viability of our country, our capabilities depend on what results we achieve. solve the problems of economic, industrial, social development at a qualitatively new level, create broad conditions for self-realization of citizens, for launching public initiatives”.

He noted that now South Korea, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, which are partners of Russia, are among the top three leaders in the digitalization of public services. Russia itself is among the top ten global leaders in this indicator. Putin said that AI technologies should be used for various industries, as they increase productivity, some industries grow by 20-30% per decade due to this. Therefore, according to him, in the next decade, it is necessary to ensure the massive introduction of AI in all sectors of the economy, the social sphere and the public administration system. He cited the same Sberbank as an example, where, according to his data, every sixth ruble in 2021 was earned thanks to AI technologies.

Among the proposals made by the president during his speech is a new federal project for the development of robotics. Since Russia is lagging behind in the implementation of industrial robots, he instructed the government to determine the legal, tax, regulatory regimes, the necessary measures of state support, as well as a mechanism for financing developments and their subsequent implementation.

From 2023, businesses will be able to take advantage of tax incentives when purchasing and implementing domestic IT solutions – when calculating income tax, an amount that is 1.5 times higher than the company’s expenses for the purchase of Russian developments will not be taken into account. He instructed the government to submit proposals to change the regulatory requirements, standards and regulations that hinder the introduction of AI. The Cabinet of Ministers was also given the task to support the development of cloud technologies in Russia. According to Putin, it is necessary to assist “the development of our own sovereign cloud technologies”, in particular, to work and store data on the domestic cloud platform. The President instructed the State Duma to speed up work on a bill on access to anonymized data. These are government amendments to the law on personal data, where, among other things, we are talking about the use of depersonalized personal data of Russians “including for business activities.”

The president also addressed the heads of regions, in particular, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov, in order to disseminate the experience of introducing AI, which is used in the Moscow region, at the State Council site. He also instructed the government to prepare and implement the transition of the entire system of state power at the federal and regional levels to a data-based management model using a platform approach. Here, according to him, the experience of Moscow can also be used. In addition, he proposed to include the introduction of AI technologies in each national project, state programs and investment programs. In his opinion, businesses and industries must rethink their approaches and constantly learn something new.

The president also touched upon the topic of an independent system of international payments, which, in his opinion, can be created on the basis of digital currency and blockchain technologies. Such a system will be more convenient, but at the same time safe and independent of banks and interference from third countries, he believes. “The current system of international payments is expensive, its system of correspondent accounts and regulation are controlled by a narrow club of states and financial groups. In fact, they are the masters of life, they really, monopoly control everything,” Putin said.

The President also listened to scientists who are working on the topic of AI. Elena Sokolova from the Sberbank Artificial Intelligence Laboratory told how they are using AI to detect early cardiovascular and oncological diseases. In particular, she gave an example: a lot of lung CT results accumulated during the pandemic and they taught AI in the lab to find a predisposition to lung cancer from images. 1500 images were examined, of which the AI ​​​​found 12 – those people who can get lung cancer. As a result, the diagnosis was indeed confirmed in eight people, Sokolova said. She suggested that for such studies, it is easier to obtain depersonalized medical data.

In addition, the president listened to other developers who are engaged in drones, the creation of new materials and artificial intelligence, which is developing other artificial intelligences.