MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the West had a “dangerous” monopoly over artificial intelligence and Russia needed to rival “biased” Western chatbots with its own technology.
The race to develop AI has heated up since the breakout launch of the ChatGPT generative chatbot last year, with Russia and China spending billions to rival the United States’ dominance in the field.
“I think you are well aware that some Western search engines, as well as some generative models, often work in a very selective, biased way,” Putin told an AI conference in Moscow.
“They do not take into account Russian culture, and sometimes simply ignore and cancel it... Many modern systems are trained on Western data for the Western market,” he said.
“The monopoliztic domination of such foreign creations in Russia is unacceptable, dangerous and inadmissible,” he said, urging Russia to be “ahead of the curve.”
Russia’s tech industry has reeled from Moscow’s ongoing military offensive in Ukraine.
Thousands of IT workers have fled to avoid military mobilization and Western sanctions have blocked access to computer parts.
Putin has repeatedly called for Moscow to end its dependence on Western technology and in September ordered his government to pour funding into developing supercomputers and AI research.
ChatGPT’s success sparked a rush among other tech firms and venture capitalists, with Google hurrying out its own chatbot and investors throwing cash into all manner of AI projects.
In April, Russia’s largest banking company Sber announced the launch of its own conversational artificial intelligence app called “Gigachat” but in test mode only.
Putin says Russia must rival ‘dangerous’ Western AI
https://arab.news/42gfw
Putin says Russia must rival ‘dangerous’ Western AI
- The race to develop AI has heated up since the breakout launch of the ChatGPT generative chatbot last year
- “I think you are well aware that some Western search engines, as well as some generative models, often work in a very selective, biased way,” Putin told an AI conference
Dozens missing after boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsized off the coast of Gambia
- At least 102 survivors have been rescued and seven bodies recovered from the boat that capsized on New Year’s Eve in northwest Gambia’s North Bank region
BANJUL: Dozens are missing after a boat carrying more than 200 migrants on their way to Europe capsized off the coast of Gambia, the West African nation’s leader said late Friday, setting off a frantic search and rescue operation.
At least 102 survivors have been rescued and seven bodies recovered from the boat that capsized on New Year’s Eve in northwest Gambia’s North Bank region, Gambian President Adama Barrow said in a state broadcast.
The emergency services were joined by local fishermen and other volunteers in searching for the victims, days after Wednesday’s incident near the village of Jinack, he said.
Thousands of Africans desperate for better opportunities in Europe risk their lives traveling on boats along the Atlantic coast, one of the world’s deadliest migrant routes that connects the West African coast across Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania.
Many migrants seeking to reach Spain via the Canary Islands never make it due to high risks of boats capsizing. In August 2025, around 150 people were either dead or missing after their boat that came from Gambia capsized off the coast of Mauritania. A similar incident in July 2024 killed more than a dozen migrants with 150 others declared missing.
It was not clear what led to the latest tragedy. Gambia’s Ministry of Defense said the boat was found “grounded on a sandbank.”
“The national emergency response plan has been activated and the government has deployed adequate resources to intensify efforts and provide assistance to the survivors,” Barrow said.
Some of the 102 survivors were undergoing urgent medical care, the Gambian leader said.
As he condoled with families, Barrow vowed a full investigation and called the accident a “painful reminder of the dangerous and life-threatening nature of irregular migration.”
“The government will strengthen efforts to prevent irregular migration and remains determined to create safer and more dignified opportunities for young people to fulfil their dreams,” he added.
