January 23, 2023

No Money, No AI


No Money, No AI
An inspection of the Skolkovo Foundation building under construction  Skolkovo Foundation

According to Kommersant, Russian authorities have significantly reduced funding for development of AI technologies.

In a 2019 roadmap spanning the forthcoming five years, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media of Russia planned to spend R56.8 billion ($830 million) on the development of artificial intelligence technologies.

According to a new roadmap, however, the state will only spend R24.6 billion ($359 million) from now through 2030. Expected extra-budgetary financing for the sector decreased even more significantly: from R334 billion ($4.8 billion) through 2024 to R111 billion ($1.6 billion) through 2030. 

Expectations of the return on investment have also decreased. In 2019, it was assumed that, by 2024, the domestic AI technology market would total R160 billion ($2.3 billion). The new document assumes a market less than one-tenth that size.

Thirty foundations, universities, and government entities will be engaged in the development of AI technologies in Russia. Among them are the Skolkovo Foundation, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and Sberbank, all of which are under EU and US sanctions, complicating their access to technological products.

As an example of the effects that western sanctions are having on Russia's IT sector, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan's TSMC company suspended deliveries to Russia and refused to produce new chips for Russian developers. This forced Baikal Electronics (a domestic semiconductor company) to suspend production of server CPUs.

Russian technology companies also are short on personnel. An estimated 500,000 citizens have left Russia. According to Forbes, about 30 percent of Russia's IT specialists have left the country or are planning to do so soon.

You Might Also Like

A Year of Decline
  • December 31, 2022

A Year of Decline

Russia’s War on Ukraine is exacting deep and enduring economic and social costs on the country.
Russia in 2022
  • December 23, 2022

Russia in 2022

In which we look back at Russia's performance in 2022.
While Supplies Last
  • December 20, 2022

While Supplies Last

Prices for Moscow real estate, usually a hot market, are down a record 35 percent.
Russians Getting a Raise?
  • December 08, 2022

Russians Getting a Raise?

In a November 30 speech, President Vladimir Putin said the next big challenge for his government will be raising the economic well-being of Russians.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955