⚖️ Businesses May Be Forced to Use Sovereign AI
The Government of the Russian Federation is considering a draft decree that would oblige businesses and state entities to use exclusively sovereign artificial intelligence models.
According to available information, the key condition will be a price threshold: companies will be required to choose domestic sovereign solutions provided their cost does not exceed the price of foreign equivalents or open-source-based national models by more than 1.5 times. The initiative was discussed in detail in late August during a meeting of the relevant working group on AI regulation.
The regulatory act is expected to affect a wide range of sectors—spanning strategic planning, public administration, customs, and taxation to healthcare, education, and critical information infrastructure (CII) facilities. Meanwhile, the legal definition of a sovereign model sets stringent requirements: development must be conducted entirely by a Russian legal entity at every stage, and the system itself must run exclusively on domestic infrastructure. Currently, only solutions from Sber fully comply with these criteria, whereas other major players (such as Yandex) rely heavily on open-source components, falling into the category of “national” models.
Market participants and developers are expressing serious concerns about potential restrictions on competition. Yandex noted that preemptively narrowing the scope of permissible models is premature, emphasizing that the tech market needs a level playing field and the freedom to choose the right tools for specific tasks. MWS AI warned of economic and technological risks: mandating a single model could lead to a deficit of adequately performing solutions for niche tasks. Furthermore, experts point out that the real cost for businesses includes not just token prices, but also the high expense of integrating these algorithms into existing business workflows.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media confirmed that discussions regarding the list of key AI application domains are indeed underway. However, it stressed that the ministry’s final position has not yet been formed, and consultations with the industry community are ongoing.
Source: Kommersant
