Where is Russia in the AI race? The US and China aspire to artificial intelligence supremacy. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are spending billions of dollars to position themselves as AI hubs. Governments from South Korea to Kazakhstan have issued strategies for sovereign AI programmes. Russia boasts an enviable history of engineering talent. It has a native ecosystem of internet-era tech companies, from search engine Yandex to social media site VKontakte. The Telegram messenger service was created by Russian businessman Pavel Durov. Russian criminal entrepreneurs have been innovators in the sphere of ransomware and crypto heists. In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that whoever leads in AI will “rule the world”. Yet three years into a global AI boom, Russia is conspicuously absent. It’s not because AI doesn’t matter to Russia. Its drone war with Ukraine relies on increasingly autonomous systems. AI-enabled drone “swarms” — aspirational at the start of the full-scale invasion — are now on the brink of being realised.

Full opinion : In the global AI boom, Russia is conspicuously absent.