Artificial intelligence: Russia launches its own conversational robot

Sber, one of the Russian leaders in new technologies, announced on Monday that it was launching its own conversational robot, joining the global race for these tools created from artificial intelligence (AI), such as the American star ChatGPT.

Sber "

" of a conversational robot, called "

", "

" in Russia, welcomed the public group in a press release published on its site, specifying that the computer tool would be in a first time "

" only.

According to Sber, GigaChat can "

", but also "

" and "

".

According to its CEO, German Gref, who has pushed for the group's digital shift in recent years, the launch of this chatbot "

".

For several years – and especially since the introduction of heavy sanctions against Moscow for its offensive in Ukraine – Russia has been seeking to strengthen its digital sovereignty and has at the same time beefed up its legislative arsenal governing the Internet, against a backdrop of political hardening.

The Kremlin has thus demanded in recent months the blocking of sites and social networks, a means of censoring any dissident publication about its military offensive in Ukraine.

Read alsoNicolas Baverez: “The ChatGPT revolution”

Important fears

The launch of GigaChat comes a few months after the sensational irruption last November of ChatGPT, a chatbot financed by the American computer giant Microsoft, which was quickly taken by storm by users impressed by its ability to answer clearly in a few seconds. to difficult questions, to write sonnets or computer code.

The arrival of GigaChat can thus be seen as a new episode in the technological competition between Washington and Moscow, exacerbated since the conflict in Ukraine.

However, AI has significant concerns about its use and the exploitation of personal data.

Many countries have already announced that they want to regulate ChatGPT-type tools.

The latter was thus blocked shortly after its release in several schools or universities around the world, after fears of cheating in exams, and companies advised their employees not to use the application.

In recent weeks, many Chinese tech companies such as Baidu, Alibaba or ByteDance (parent company of TikTok) have said they are working on their own model of conversational robot.