Valdai Club

This report is the fruit of an intellectual collaboration among a group of young authors from Russia and China, brought together by their shared participation in the Valdai Discussion Club—Next Generation programme in 2024–2025. It seeks to offer the most comprehensive picture of artificial intelligence (AI) as a contemporary international phenomenon—simultaneously pervasive and yet not fully understood.

Digital connectivity between Russia and Uzbekistan could be significantly strengthened through thoughtful and systematic coordination between government agencies, technology companies, the scientific community, universities, and representatives of those industries in which the artificial intelligence is already being applied, writes Anna Sytnik.

As BRICS expands and strengthens, it is becoming a centre of attraction for an increasing number of countries whose goal is not to win the technological race at any cost, but to participate in defining its rules. However, progress remains fragmented and under-institutionalised, writes Anna Sytnik.

We are moving from control to co-dependency, where machines no longer simply execute commands, but generate solutions — something that has historically never been the task of technology. Anna Sytnik, Associate Professor of the St. Petersburg State University, Managing Director of the INPO “Kolaboratorija”, writes about the risks of dependence on artificial intelligence and the prospects of technological redistribution of influence in the world. The article was prepared specially for the Valdai roundtable on the topic “Homo Perplexus: How to Stop Fearing and Learn to Love Change”.

Will Eurasia (not including the EU) become a single digital ecosystem? The sanctions policy of the “Collective West” is already leading to geoeconomic fragmentation, dividing the Eurasian space. One of the answers to this challenge could be the conjugation of the “Digital Silk Road” with the digital projects of the EAEU in order to increase the technological sustainability of Eurasia, writes Anna Sytnik. The article was prepared specially for the Russian-Chinese Conference “Space of Joint Development: Global and Eurasian Dimensions”.

Alternative social platforms are a new phenomenon in the global digital environment, giving some hope that the global information and communication space can escape the complete control of Western giants, whose actions are arbitrary and depend solely on their own domestic politics. New digital ecosystems are actively developing around the world for exchanging audio, photo and video content, and in some cases, carrying out online financial transactions and other special functions. They are created and tailored for certain regions, countries or language groups, writes Anna Sytnik.

The desire to win the AI ​​race on the global stage as well as lobbying by tech investors and developers will push legislators to create conditions favourable to the development of innovation, while maintaining control over the big players. Antitrust legislation on AI in both the US and other countries should be monitored, as it will affect the global balance of power in the tech race, writes Anna Sytnik. The author is a participant of the Valdai - New Generation project.