The “AI race” is often positioned in the media as one between the United States and China.
But it turns out Russia is involved in that competition as well, and that its capabilities may have been derailed by attacks this week by Ukraine.
Buk-M2E Air Defense from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
According to an Associated Press story on Friday, some of the key data centers that are central to Russia’s AI hopes have been struck by Ukraine’s drones.
This month, the report says Ukraine has hit three data centers belonging to the Russian tech giant Yandex, plus one belonging to the social media platform VKontakte and another belonging to the Russian bank Sberbank.
These attacks have hit Russia’s cloud services sector, causing outages nationwide.
Various sectors of the Russian economy have been affected, including “banking, e-commerce, geolocation and ride-hailing services,” as well as the courts, which have had to delay proceedings in some areas. “Multimodal AI chatbots” have also been affected, depriving Russians of an equivalent to ChatGPT.
The AP reported that the damage could take “months, if not years,” to repair, and could set Russia far behind in the AI race. That’s according to Mikhail Klimarev, of the Internet Protection Society, a Russian group that advocates for an open Internet.
Iskander-M. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Russia’s Internet architecture is unique because of a “digital sovereignty” policy that requires all data to be stored within Russia’s borders. By contrast, Ukraine hosts some data in Europe. Experts quoted by the AP speculated that Russia could rethink that policy in light of the recent attacks.
Ukraine’s Centers Have Been Hit, Too
The AP reported that Ukraine’s own data centers have been frequently hit during the war, along with various other types of infrastructure that Russian missiles and drones have struck
The story noted that data centers are particularly vulnerable to drone attacks, and heavy explosives aren’t needed to disrupt them. They consist of “massive buildings packed with servers and supporting power and cooling infrastructure.”
“The problem in Russia is that they’ve got to cover a big country with air defense and they don’t have enough,” Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group, told the AP.
That’s been the case in the Iran War as well, with Iran striking Amazon Web Services’ data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
How Russia Plans to Use AI
According to a January report by the Global Institute for National Capability, Russia has developed a multi-pronged “National AI Strategy,” not necessarily to take the lead worldwide, but to “engineer an AI system it can control, sustain, and deploy under pressure.”
Like many things in Russia, the government directs the strategy, aiming to “prioritize domestic control over data, compute, and core platforms while scaling indigenous models and infrastructure.”
The Russian government is using a “champion firm” model, where the Kremlin picks a winner in a particular industry. The idea is also “positioning Russia internationally through standards work and non-Western partnerships,” separate from Western AI frameworks.
Another report describes another recent use of AI by the Russian government.
An Influence Campaign
According to a Politico report earlier this week, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who are the leading Democrats on the two Intelligence Committees, have alleged that Russia is carrying out a “covert online influence campaign,” aimed at opposing politicians of both parties who are supportive of Ukraine.
The two lawmakers cited a classified report on foreign election interference that was sent to the intelligence community.
Warner said Russia is using “artificial intelligence tools” to spread ideas and hurt candidates it sees as hostile.
However, it’s unclear whether the AI used in the campaigns is native to Russia or part of the country’s broader strategy.
They did not name which specific political figures were targeted.
The Global Government Affairs account on X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, announced on October 14 that it removed 13,000 accounts it says were involved in “three suspected foreign influence operations linked to Iran, Russia, and China that targeted US political conversation.” Those are the three countries most commonly associated with interference in U.S. elections.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has written thousands of articles on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
