Russia introduces GigaChat, its answer to ChatGPT

 Amid heightened geopolitical tensions with the West, Russia is planning to develop its own generative artificial intelligence to compete with ChatGPT.

The news: Russian bank Sberbank has announced the upcoming launch of its chatbot called GigaChat, reports .

• For now, the Russian answer to is still in the testing phase and can be accessed by invitation only.

The details: what sets GigaChat apart from OpenAI's generative AI - and all other chatbots - is its ability to communicate at a high level in Russian, according to the Russian banking major.

• Sberbank is Russia's largest bank, both financially and historically.
• The bank manages "almost one-third of all bank assets in Russia," , an expert on economic sanctions at the University of Birmingham.
• Although Sberbank was privatized in 1991, its main shareholder is the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. So the bank is quite close to political power in the Kremlin.

Gigachat is mostly a symbolic announcement

Unfortunately, extremely little is currently known about GigaChat and its AI capabilities.

• But by announcing such a project, the country's largest banking institution shows that Russia is capable of great things technologically, and that Moscow can function without outside help. In addition, it is an opportunity for Russia to raise its international profile, now that all eyes are on artificial intelligence.
• In doing so, Russia is following the example of one of its allies, , which is also working hard on its own chatbot.

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