She uses Russian company Wildberries, which she says delivers to collection points in two days even though Samara is more than 860 km (534 miles) from its Moscow headquarters. Virtual Event Series: Healthcare of Tomorrow », Healthcare of Tomorrow » A U.S. News virtual event series where industry leaders will discuss common priorities, shared challenges and perspectives on the future of healthcare. The e-commerce boom is a welcome development for economists who say Russia is too reliant on oil and gas revenues, especially as retail sales, a gauge of consumer demand, plunged as lockdown measures kept people at home at the start of the pandemic - which has killed more than 34,000 people in Russia. Marks: Do I get the sense from you, Sam, that Russia is turning the corner and starting to embrace free enterprise and capitalism, at least in an indirect sense? Tech investment analysts strategize how to deal with China today. Last update: 09:55 GMT 27.11.2020 Democrats were outraged by the move to protect a former associate who pleaded guilty to lying about contacts with Russian operatives, calling it ‘crooked’ and an abuse of power. Scientists from NUST MISIS have improved the technology of 3D printing from aluminum, having achieved an increase in the hardness of products … Analysts from market research firm Euromonitor expect annual online sales in Russia to grow by more than 40% this year to around 2.5 trillion roubles and by 10-15% a year over the next five years. "It's very convenient," said Alina Lunina, an English language teacher from the city of Samara who now buys clothes, books, make-up and sometimes groceries online. Scientists from NUST MISIS have improved the technology of 3D printing from aluminum, having achieved an increase in the hardness of products … In April-May, Ozon recorded an 84% increase in new active buyers year-on-year, and regions outside Moscow account for over 55% of its gross merchandise value, company data showed. Where are some other shining examples of Russian entrepreneurship? Amazon has not entered Russia, where the country's size - it has 11 time zones - and its competitive IT market pose challenges. Marks: You mentioned Ntech. Are Computers That Win at Chess Smarter Than Geniuses? NtechLab, a Russian facial recognition company best known for the FindFace app once labelled the harbinger for the end of online privacy, says it’s currently testing ‘aggression detection’ tech with plans for a full rollout to its surveillance partners and customers in 2021.” – Thomas Brewster, “This Russian Facial Recognition Startup Plans To Take Its ‘Aggression Detection’ Tech Global With $15 Million Backing From Sovereign Wealth Funds.”, Also: “A Russian court ruled Tuesday that facial recognition technology does not violate the privacy rights of its citizens.” (March 2, 2020) but “In the case of Roman Zakharov v. Russia, the European Court ruled that Russia’s legislation on surveillance ‘does not provide for adequate and effective guarantees against arbitrariness and the risk of abuse.’” (October 2, 2020). Marks: Is there ever going to be a case where, and is this allowable, where a company becomes so successful that they’re allowed to seed other businesses? Again, a lot of them are coming out of universities and a lot of them are also coming from state bank entities… But speech and image recognition is something that the Russians are getting better and better at. The country is also reporting record high numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units. It may be a difficult mental sort of challenge right now for a lot of Russian government officials and institutions because of the overwhelming role of the state in country’s life for the past several decades, and obviously stretching all the way back to The Cold War…. Russia doesn’t want people to leave the country and basically use their talent to the benefit of let’s say, United States and the Silicon Valley or other countries. It wants those young people to stay in Russia. But this high tech entrepreneur, this private sector success story basically said, look, government has to act like a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, support the ideas. But they are actually turning the corner when it comes to certain parts of private sector or even government sector development, and specifically talking about high tech development. "There are many pick-up points in my area. Can Blockchain Help Ensure Fraud Free Voting? Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis, https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-103-Samuel-Bendett.mp3, Russian hackers hunt hi-tech secrets, exploiting US weakness, Center for Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence (CAAI), Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Artificial Intelligence In Russia Newsletter, Apocalypticism, Dystopia, and the Singularity, Applied Intelligence, Problem Solving, and Innovation, Bingecast: Enrique Blair on Quantum Computing, George Gilder on Blockchain and Carbon Computing, Artificial Intelligence Gaming the Stock Market. Ozon operates a network of drop-off boxes for clients to pick up packages. But in things which are not military. Picture taken April 12, 2020. The Russian market is also very fragmented. What the government has recognized is that there are a lot of interesting ideas in the civilian sector that are not necessarily used by the state. They couldn’t get the same level of funding, investment, they couldn’t get the same level of support. Privately owned Wildberries leads with 15% of the market, according to Data Insight, and Ozon, which has filed for an initial public offering in the United States, has 7%. Reality would be very different as more and more NTI efforts are rolled out across the country. Does the Slow Pace of Evolution Mean That ET Life Is Rare? So the NtechLab founder basically argued against the concern over the brain drain by saying, “Give people the money, give them the support.” So his company received backing and for three months, the founder and his colleagues were basically just locked away in their basement, tinkering away with a program and they were left alone. China’s assertions of power in recent years have left many uncertain about the future of business relationships. And most importantly, take risks. E-commerce penetration in Russia has increased from 7% of total retail sales in 2019 to about 11% in 2020 though that is still less than in the United States, where penetration is … E-commerce accounted for just 1.4% of Russia's economy in 2019, according to research firm Data Insight, compared with 2.6% in the United States and 5.1% in China. You mentioned facial recognition. It turns out to be mainly a cultural struggle, as historic institutions must adapt to an environment where market dominance is more important than military dominance. So there are multiple projects and multiple organizations that are now supposed to convince a lot of Russians that they can in fact, get the same level of support and backing in Russia proper, that they could potentially get overseas if they chose to leave. Sbermarket expects the e-grocery sector to keep growing fast in Russia in years to come, its chief financial officer Michael Loyko said. Robert J. I don’t know if Russia has a private sector. Wildberries, which said it attracted over 12 million new customers to its website in the first nine months of 2020 has enjoyed spectacular growth. Wildberries said April-October orders also soared by 385% in Ingushetia in the North Caucasus, and by 239% in Buryatia, a region in eastern Siberia. President Vladimir Putin has not taken the vaccine yet. In fact, my CNA Russia team is compiling news and information on Russian AI development every two weeks. Rostec is also engaged in artificial intelligence development for the military and for the civilian. Robert J. Yandex last year launched a service, Yandex.Lavka, for grocery delivery in 15 minutes. Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections was a matter of concern at the highest level of national security within the United States government, in addition to the computer and social media industries. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report.