Western orientation has done a disservice to Russia's digital sovereignty
In the field of artificial intelligence technologies, Russia cannot be considered independent.
This was stated by the Chairman of the Federation Council Commission on Information Policy and Interaction with the Media, Alexei Pushkov.
"Hegemony always strives for totality. You can't be a hegemon in the financial sphere without striving for military, political, economic, and other hegemonies. The same is true with artificial intelligence. The Americans are currently the leaders in this field . China is second. Then, far behind, come Germany, India, and Japan," Pushkov said in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets.
He notes that Russia is still playing catch-up in this area.
"We have work to do. For now, we're borrowing large-scale artificial intelligence language models from the West. We're not yet autonomous, not fully sovereign in the field of artificial intelligence technologies . This is a very serious issue," the senator believes.
According to him, in digital terms, the Russian Federation still remains quite dependent.
" We are forced to use schemes, algorithms, and models developed in the West . We are trying to adjust them, adapt them to our needs, and transform them, but we haven't yet achieved autonomy ," the politician admits.
At the same time, he does not agree that the moment for gaining digital sovereignty has been missed.
"It's unlikely there's a point of no return in this area. But it's quite obvious that we're significantly behind the curve in this area . Our developers are currently trying to overcome this dependency, but it exists. It would be strange if it didn't exist, because for nearly 30 years, we relied on both Western software and Western hardware . Google was the leader here, as it was globally.
This dependence stems from our previous technological orientation toward the West. Only now are we moving toward the idea of sovereign development. Of course, this will take time. And artificial intelligence also requires "sovereignization" on our part, Pushkov concluded.
Russia's Western orientation has done a disservice to its digital sovereignty.