Ukraine prepares homegrown AI, debuting in December
Photo: Ukraine is developing its own artificial intelligence (Getty Images)
Ukraine is developing its own large language model (LLM) based on artificial intelligence, which will serve as the foundation for chatbots, analytical systems, and automation tools, Volodymyr Kulinich, head of the AI Lab at the Kyiv School of Economics, told RBC-Ukraine.
Currently, aside from the US and China, few countries have the full capabilities to develop artificial intelligence. Ukraine is steadily claiming its place.
The country has specialists who are already capable of implementing AI technologies. Ukraine is negotiating to import advanced chips from American companies.
Given the electricity shortage, developing its own data centers is obviously not a priority. But where feasible, there has been progress.
“We are moving toward becoming the third country in the world in terms of AI implementation in the public sector. Overall, we are moving toward agent-based governance. The Ministry of Digital Transformation is working to provide more services and to test open AI models that already exist in partnership with Google and Meta, retraining them on Ukrainian data,” Kulinich said.
According to him, Ukraine is currently developing its own large language model, which will serve as the basis for creating AI-based products:
- Chatbots,
- Analytical systems,
- Document workflow automation tools,
- Voice assistants.
Kyivstar, in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the WINWIN AI Center, is currently working on this without budgetary funding.
The model is planned to be presented as early as December. Having its own LLM is critically important for national security across many sectors, unlike previous cases where Ukraine simply imported foreign developments without creating its own versions.
“It's different from using operating systems like Windows, where no sensitive data is transferred, and it's relatively safe. With LLM models and AI technologies, the risks are much higher,” Kulinich noted.
For instance, in the energy sector, foreign AI systems for predicting loads on the power grid can collect confidential data on vulnerabilities of facilities, which poses sabotage risks in a hybrid war context.
In medicine, imported diagnostic models may contain biases formed on data from other regions, leading to treatment errors or even leaks of citizens’ medical data.
Read more on how the US and China are leading the technological AI race, and whether there is space for Ukraine in the RBC-Ukraine article.
How Ukraine is already using AI
Previously, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, explained how Ukrainian intelligence uses AI in its work. AI technologies in the intelligence service are most often applied to processing large datasets.
An AI-based assistant may appear in the Diia app (for government services), allowing Ukrainians to resolve various issues more quickly and easily.
Moreover, Ukraine has already launched the Telegram chatbot Digital Mykhailo Fedorov, which communicates with citizens on behalf of the Minister of Digital Transformation and First Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
