Will Russia Rule the World Through AI? Assessing Putin's Rhetoric Against Russia's Reality

In this article, Keith Dear reviews the current state and future prospects of artificial intelligence (AI) research, development and application in Russia. He shows that the available socio-economic indicators suggest that, contrary to the Kremlin's aspirations, neither Russia's limited commercial software base, nor its not-dominant state-controlled tech R&D sectors are likely to be able to support Russia's AI ambitions. Across a range of measures - from its start-up ecosystem, supercomputing installations, electronics industry, once-great educational system, industrial base and business climate - the fundamentals on which AI R&D success would be built are weak and weakening in Russia.