Technological World Should Also Be Multipolar

Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing by leaps and bounds and can bring enormous benefits to humanity, but there is also a risk that it can turn into a deadly weapon if used incorrectly. For this reason, people around the world should agree as soon as possible on common principles for governing AI, similar to the rules for non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech to participants in the international conference on artificial intelligence, which was held in Moscow on November 24.

“Humanity has developed certain rules related to the use of nuclear technologies, particularly in the military field, non-proliferation, and came up with rules for the non-proliferation of carriers of nuclear technologies themselves. Humanity was able to come up with this, therefore, in the field of artificial intelligence we can certainly reach common solutions that are acceptable to everyone and are necessary for everyone,” said the Russian President.

The progress made in recent years by researchers working in the field of artificial intelligence dictates to the whole world the urgent need to reach agreements before any threat can arise. According to the Russian leader, we need to act now so as not to be caught by surprise.

“Do you know when this will become possible? When everyone feels threatened. This is no joke. The feeling of a threat coming from uncontrolled spread, uncontrolled work in this area will immediately spark the desire to negotiate. Of course, if we could reach an agreement without understanding what could be used against other countries, it would be best. If only awareness of common threats led to a desire to negotiate.”

For the Russian president, any monopoly in the field of artificial intelligence must be condemned: even when it comes to AI, the world must be multipolar. In this context, Putin called “dangerous and unacceptable” the “monopoly dominance” of Western technological systems in Russia in the field of artificial intelligence.

“It is imperative to use Russian solutions in the field of creating reliable, transparent, and safe artificial intelligence systems for humans,” said Putin, according to whom “the technological world of the future must be multipolar, we must build it together on the basis of trust and mutually beneficial cooperation. This is what we intend to do.”

In Putin’s opinion, “Russian artificial intelligence models should reflect all the richness and diversity of world culture, heritage, knowledge, and wisdom of all civilizations of the world. This way we can only become richer and more competitive.”

Instead, some search engines, as well as “Western” generative models, work selectively and partially, disregard, ignore, or even “erase” Russian culture. Western algorithms, according to Putin, can even tell search engines that Russia, its culture, science, music, literature “simply does not exist.” This is a kind of “cancellation” taking place in the digital space, which threatens to turn Western-style artificial intelligence into “real xenophobia,” Putin emphasized.