In the International Wilds of Machine Mind

"The development of artificial intelligence opens a new era in the history of mankind, and therefore bans and containment measures in this area are meaningless," Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a conference at the International Trade Center.

"Russia is now among those few, by the way, countries that have their own technologies" - among the developments are Sberbank's algorithms GigaChat and Kandinsky, as well as YandexGPT and Masterpiece from Yandex. The dominance of Western developments in Russia is "unacceptable, dangerous and unacceptable," Putin said at the Travel to the World of Artificial Intelligence conference.

"Artificial Intelligence" is a federal project of the national project "Digital Economy." By decision of the President of Russia, it has been implemented since 2021 under the leadership of the Ministry of Economic Development. The main tasks include the formation of the personnel potential of the industry, stimulating scientific research, support in the development and implementation of domestic solutions. Details in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.

How to strengthen competitive advantages by creating new markets, new "constellations of products and services" based on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies? Answers should be given by the Decree on the Development of Artificial Intelligence in the Russian Federation in its new edition.

The updated AI strategy will be part of the national Data Economics project, calculated until 2030. Priorities in the application of AI technologies in Russia are the tasks of improving the quality of life, medicine and education, industry and fuel and energy complex, transport and logistics, including the Northern Sea Route.

Investment is needed to advance

The country presents the entire portfolio of basic AI technologies and products, the Russian Federation is included in the list of twenty leading countries in this field of research. For further promotion, investments are needed, it is necessary to attract business to applied research.

It is clear that the Government of the Russian Federation, the private sector and state-owned companies have to take into account the external conditions in which the process of formation of domestic technologies is underway. In terms of the growth rate of this industry, Russia is not inferior to world leaders, and the directions of development coincide.

The United States, mainly, until recently led in the field of generative AI. China is considered a leader in areas such as pattern recognition and the application of commercial applications. More than 90% of Chinese people use mobile payment apps - Alipay and WeChat.

Chinese online retail broker Tiger Brokers (Up Fintech Holdings) runs on AI, analyzes data and generates information in real time, helping users make investment decisions, etc.

True, all major Chinese technology players, from Baidu Inc. to Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., have presented their ChatGPT counterparts or announced such plans. Today, big tech companies in generative services include Tencent, Baidu, Huawei Technologies, Alibaba Group, JD.com, ByteDance, iFlytek and Kuaishou Technology. In terms of their number, China is ahead of the United States.

Baidu, Inc. It ranks 13th in the list of 15 leading AI companies in the world. Baidu is the leader in online search after Google leaves China.

China and competition...

The State Council of the People's Republic of China in 2017 announced a strategy for the development of AI, setting goals in this area for 2030. In November 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the country needs technological innovations, "the [Chinese] economy is moving to the stage of changing the model of economic growth, improving the structure and new growth drivers."

In May 2023, Xi Jinping stressed the determination to use AI's capabilities to build a "holistic, advanced and harmless" industrial system.

China accounts for over 40% of global AI patent applications. This year, Chinese developers have submitted 29.8 thousand applications for patents related to AI, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.

According to the agency, the number of patent applications for AI filed by the United States decreased by 5.5% to 16.8 thousand applications. South Korea and Japan filed a total of 16.7 thousand applications.

The Chinese market is called the "nursery of innovation" in the field of AI. China is still inferior to the United States in the number of large language models (LLM), but there are already about one and a half hundred of them, which is about 40% of the total number of LLMs in the world. Large language models (LLMs) are AI systems designed to process, understand and create text similar to the author's.

… in the interest of confrontation?

Not surprisingly, Washington perceives China as a strategic threat in this area, urges not to invest in Chinese companies working with AI technologies, agitates Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to put geopolitics first in relations with Beijing. Tokyo and Seoul at the tripartite summit at Camp David promised to support Washington. At the G7 summit, the main issue was the issue of international regulation of AI.

In an effort to limit China's development opportunities, the Joe Biden administration plans to encourage Beijing to work together on norms for the use of AI in weapons systems. Washington at the same time limits the export to China of equipment for the production of chips, as well as powerful chips.

At an international conference in The Hague in February this year, the State Department unveiled the "Political Declaration on the Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems." The document calls for the use of AI in armed conflicts "in compliance with proper international humanitarian law" so that the vertical of command and control with human participation is ensured.

Americans are especially concerned with the use of AI in the field of nuclear weapons management. Nevertheless, the United States opposes a legally binding treaty prohibiting military AI, but is allegedly "open" to jointly developing a "rules-based" liability system with the PRC.

Regulation for Safety

In Russia, nine programs of experimental legal regimes for the use of AI in the field of highly automated vehicles, telemedicine have been adopted, dozens of national and international standards have been approved.

Amendments to the law on experimental legal regimes in the field of digital innovation have been prepared, which may enter into force in 2024. Liability will be introduced for causing harm to health, life or property as a result of testing digital technologies.

"In the very near future," Vladimir Putin will sign a decree on the new Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence. It is necessary to look for "common solutions necessary for everyone," the President of the Russian Federation suggested. "Russian solutions are needed in the field of creating reliable, transparent and safe systems for humans" AI, and specialists in humanitarian disciplines need to be connected to them. The regulator of technological progress should be traditional culture and ethics.

In China, the Chinese Cyberspace Administration (CAC) has already adopted a draft resolution on generative artificial intelligence. All companies developing generative AI products are offered to register and pass security checks, to ensure that the algorithms used "do not compromise national security or the public interest."

The European Parliament has approved a draft of the new Artificial Intelligence Act. The European Union is considering a bill called the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. The bill has been discussed for two years, has not been signed, it proposes to evaluate AI tools by risk level. According to German Gref, the tough approach "strangled" the development of artificial intelligence in Europe and more or less large companies moved outside the EU.

In May, AI hearings were held in the Senate of the US Congress, during which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called for strengthening AI regulation and creating an American or global agency to oversee companies' compliance with security standards. The Biden administration in October introduced the "AI Bill of Rights Plan," and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is coordinating work on AI regulation in the United States.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of federal regulations, Microsoft and Google have set up their own management groups and principles that define the adoption of AI technologies. Both giants cite "safety, inclusivity and accountability" as key requirements in developing and implementing new products.

Personnel solve a lot, they also need a lot

Every second of the large Russian companies uses AI and the market for these services is growing. Its volume amounted to about 550 billion rubles. in 2021 and grew to 650 billion rubles. in 2022. It is estimated that in 2025 AI technologies will save about 1 trillion rubles.

Personnel for work in the field of AI are being prepared at HSE, MIPT, ITMO, Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University and Skoltech. The field of AI is engaged in Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Lipetsk and Sakhalin regions. Hundreds of Russian companies have received grants, more than a hundred universities are preparing personnel to work in the field of artificial intelligence.

According to a study by the Association of Computer and Information Technology Enterprises, the rapid growth of the Internet of Things market, as well as an increase in demand for AI technologies, will lead to an increase in the annual personnel need for qualified specialists to 300 thousand people, according to the authors of the article in the journal "Forecasting Problems," 2023, No. 1.

In China, this is also a big problem. The shortage of workers in the AI industry in China was predicted back in 2020. The deficit in specialists in 2023 was estimated at about 5 million people, about 10% of the need for them. At the same time, the government warned that if systemic efforts are not made to train workers, their shortage by 2026 could exceed 10 million people.

It remains to hope for the help of artificial intelligence in replenishing the ranks of specialists!