A Look Into Russian A.I.

(Sophia, one of Russia's more recent and prominent examples of their advancements in AI and robotics)

Due to governmental corruption and pervasive state security, Russia can be a very difficult place for innovation to thrive. A prime example of this occurred back in 2010 when former Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, established the Skolkovo Technopark, which was essentially the Russian equivalent to Silicon Valley. It was created to spark innovation and to assist in creating technological breakthroughs in the country (Bateman, 2019). In just five years the Technopark has nearly 30000 people employed on a campus that was very similar to the Google Headquarters. However, due to corruption and almost no protection in private property, a majority of the leading contributors in innovation at the campus ended up leaving Russia to seek new opportunities in America and Europe.

Vladimir Putin recently announced back in February that the Russian government had plans to to implement an Artificial Intelligence strategy. This strategy was going to have a focus on the country's military advancements. The Russian government even created a competetion to develop breakthroughs in the AI field. It is very likely that, based off of what resulted from Skolkovo, this plan will not succeed. Security concerns in addition to the continuing corruption in the country are among many factors that will cause leading talent in the Russian artificial intelligence fields to look towards other countries to take their expertise to so they can better achieve their goals.

If Russia can't fix its political system and overt corruption problem, then it seems as if the country will never have the breakthroughs they wish to find in the artificial intelligence fields. It will never be up to par with other countries if it doesn't fix these problems and as a result, will continue to fall behind in this field as well as other advanced technologies.

You can read more about this here: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/06/russias-quest-lead-world-ai-doomed/157663/

An Overview of Robotics in Russia

              (Russian service robot attending school, sick child watches its feed from home)

Russia is one of the more technologically advanced countries in the world, it should come as no surprise that they are also leaders in the field of robotics. Recently, Russia has been focusing more so on the service sector of robotics. The education sector, for example, has becoming the largest adopter of service robots in the country. Nearly 31% of service robots have been sold to the education sector in Russia. The main technologies that are being pushed out in this sector include "Lego constructors and Russian variants, educational kits with neuro-interfaces; drones for pilot training skills; mobile platforms for testing algorithms for unmanned motion and industrial robots for teaching students at universities and technical colleges" (Konuikhovskaia, 2019).

Speaking of the education sector, the Russian education system has began to implement robotics courses into their schools for children. This is huge, being exposed to this field at a young age will not only spark the children's interest in the subject but learning this material as a kid is going to give these students a head start down the road with future careers in robotics. Similar to what occurred in the mid 80s' with Russian computer science courses, it is highly likely, with these robotics courses, that big name companies in the IT industry emerge once this generation becomes of age.

Service oriented robots are the primary type of robots manufactured in Russia, they aren't really putting out many robots with industrial focuses. With over 100 companies pushing out service robots in the country, these companies are doubling their revenues every year. 65% of these revenues come from exports to 33 different countries.


If you want to learn more about the latest robotics trends in Russia, check out this link: https://ifr.org/post/five-trends-in-russian-robotics