'Desperate' Putin left reeling as his top AI developers leave Russia for US to escape Kremlin's 'vile regime'

He announced that he would be ramping up AI efforts in his country, with a Russian strategy for developing AI further to be announced shortly.

The market is currently dominated by China and the United States, but Moscow is hoping to be at the forefront of a technology that many believe will transform the world.

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Speaking at the Artificial Intelligence Journey conference in Moscow on Friday, Putin unveiled his plans.

“Our domestic models of artificial intelligence must reflect the entire wealth and diversity of world culture, the heritage, knowledge, and wisdom of all civilizations,” Putin said.

However, Professor Anthony Glees, from the University of Buckingham, told GB News that Putin’s attempts are likely futile.

“Putin is being delusional and desperate. This is a pathetic attempt to hide the fact that because of his disastrous policies his Russia has been left out in the cold,” the intelligence and defence expert said.

“For one thing, many of Russia's top IT engineers have left Russia for the West, for the freedom of research & expression which is key to the development of AI tools; inquiring minds, they know, are anathema to Putin's vile regime.

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“Sanctions are hitting Russia hugely especially in the technical sphere. For another, Putin's demand that search engines (massive Googles, in effect) give Russian research & websites equal traction to ours is moonshine.”

The country’s tech sector has been hit by an exodus of Russian software engineers since the war in Ukraine began.

Russia’s government estimates that 100,000 IT workers — or 10 per cent of the nation’s tech workforce — left the country in 2022.

Officials say 80,000 of them continue to work for Russian companies from abroad.

Experts say Russia’s war against Ukraine, pushed the country’s biggest tech companies into isolation, according to MIT Technology Review.

The war in Ukraine alongside Western sanctions has also hindered the country’s ability to keep up with the AI market.

Russia’s isolation from the West has resulted in international cooperation with the AI powerhouses being cut.

The president admitted that trying to ban the technology was futile, so instead wanted to Russia to up its AI ambitions.

He said: “You cannot ban something - if we ban it then it will develop somewhere else and we will fall behind.”

Putin however noted that it was “imperative to use Russian solutions in the field of creating reliable and transparent artificial intelligence systems that are also safe for humans”.

“Our traditional values, the richness and beauty of the Russian languages and languages of other peoples of Russia must form the basis of our developments,” helping create “reliable, transparent and secure AI systems.”

Glees mentioned Russia’s admission that it was lagging behind: “Putin admits Russia does not yet have the supercomputers it would need to even begin to enter the race.”

The intelligence and defence author also blasted the president’s focus on “Russian values”.

“No less ridiculous is his demand that the AI of the future takes full account of what he calls 'Russian values'. What these 'values' are can be seen only too clearly in the brutal war of invasion he's fighting against free Ukraine or in the endless nightly terror rocket & drone attacks on its civilians.”