A Commission on AI Ethics has been established in Russia

A single body for the development of ethical regulation of artificial intelligence technologies has appeared in Russia – the Commission on Ethics in the AI field. It was created at the general meeting of Commissioners of ethics in the AI field and signatories of the Code on 30th of May, 2022.

The Commission is the coordinating body that ensures that the signatories of the Code work together to implement it. Among them are more than four dozen of the largest Russian developers in the AI field, leading scientific and educational institutions, representatives of development institutes, non-profit organizations and civil society. The Commission will also become a platform for exchanging experience on issues related to the ethics of artificial intelligence.

The people that were elected to the Commission on Ethics in AI are as follows: Alexander Krainov Director for Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies at Yandex, Elena Suragina, Head of MTS Regulatory Support Group, Alexander Tormasov, Rector of Innopolis University, Sergey Izrailit Vice President for Development and Planning at Skolkovo Foundation, Alexander Malakhov Head of Digital Development at Center for Strategic Research Foundation, Anna Abramova Director of the AI Centre MGIMO, Yuri Tsvetkov Expert on international regulation of artificial intelligence and end-to-end technologies at Skoltech, Daria Chirva Head of ITMO University’s Thinking educational module, Vladimir Nelyub DSc Tech, Professor, Director for the AI Technologies Research and Education Center of Bauman University.

Head of the working group “Normative Regulation” of the Alliance, Managing Director of the Sberbank AI Regulation Center Andrey Neznamov was elected Chairman of the Commission.

Three working groups have been set up within the Commission, which will include representatives of the business community, science, government agencies and other stakeholders. The groups will develop a methodology to assess the risks and humanitarian impact of AI systems, collect best practices for dealing with ethical issues in the use of artificial intelligence, and develop criteria by which the Commission will assess signatories’ compliance with the Code. All applications to join the Code of Ethics will be reviewed by the Commission. The AI Alliance will assume the role of its secretariat.

The Code was developed and is being improved at the AI Alliance, together with representatives of the academic community and with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development and the Analytical Center for the Government. Among the first to sign the document were Sber, Yandex, MTS, VK, Gazprom Neft and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, as well as other leading companies and institutions.

“As machine learning penetrates more and more areas of technology, it has a growing impact on people’s lives,” notes Andrey Neznamov, “Market participants and the government need to find quickly modern approaches to regulating artificial intelligence from an ethical perspective to ensure its impartial and fair application to the end user. And we are pleased that Russia has succeeded in becoming one of the leaders in the field of so-called ‘soft law’ by developing not only the Code, but also the tools to monitor compliance with it.”

“Applied products based on deep learning and artificial intelligence technologies are spreading more widely and have already become an integral part of business and everyday life. This imposes responsibilities on solution developers who started with purely basic scientific research or toy prototyping. In terms of the industrial exploitation of technologies, ethics issues also come to the fore,” says Alexander Tormasov, Rector of Innopolis University. “Compliance of artificial intelligence market participants with the Code of Ethics when exploiting technology will preserve human autonomy and freedom of will, ensure that the solutions implemented are non-discriminatory and comply with legislation, and simplify risk management and assessment of the humanitarian impact of artificial intelligence technologies”.

The Artificial Intelligence Alliance unites leading tech companies for joint development of their competences and accelerated implementation of AI in education, research and business practices. The Alliance member companies are Sber, Gazprom Neft, Yandex, VK, MTS and RDIF. The Alliance’s mission is to be the center of AI development in Russia and provide technological leadership for our country and the Alliance companies in the global technology market.