I’m very excited to share our new @CSETGeorgetown report on Russia’s AI research: https://live-cset-georgetown.pantheonsite.io/research/russian-ai-research-2010-2018/

We analyzed 7,059 scientific papers published in English, with authors linked to 249 institutions in Russia. Here is some of what we found: 1/10

- Big picture: Between 2010-2018, we found a significant increase in AI-related English-language pubs by Russian scientists. Particularly notable is growth in research related to ML, algorithms, speech recognition, and robotics, where output has increased more than 6 times. 2/10

- Areas of focus: Nearly half of the English-language research papers published by Russian scientists between 2010 and 2018 are in 6 fields: computer vision, pattern recognition, linguistics, NLP, algorithms, and robotics. 3/10

- Comparatively speaking: Russia’s AI-related scientific research output in English lags behind that of the US and China. This is partly b/c of lower public & esp. private investment, trouble attracting & retaining talent, & barriers to publication in international journals. 4/10

What is interesting, however, are the differences is the fields researchers from Russia, US, and China each focus on. 5/10

Also worth noting that focus & growth in scholarly research on robotics fits with Russia’s military work on robotics & unmanned vehicles. The scientific focus on speech recognition, NLP, computer vision fits with commercial advances in facial &speech recognition tech. 6/10

- We also looked into the Russian institutions at the forefront of the country’s AI research. Public fundings is the main sources of $ for science in Russia, and most of these are top universities & research institutions that benefit from multiple sources of public support. 7/10

- Now, let’s talk implications. Overall, we know that the Russian government considers research output in international journals as a metric for progress toward its goals in AI. But there are still major barriers Russian scientists face to publishing internationally. 8/10

Russia is behind the US and China in AI. But there is progress esp in research areas that could allow the Russian government to enforce tighter control over access to internet & information at home, export these tools abroad, & gain battlefield advantage. 9/10

For more of our findings, the report is on @CSETGeorgetown’s website: https://live-cset-georgetown.pantheonsite.io/research/russian-ai-research-2010-2018/ 10/10