russia — AI Digest

7 июл Sber Releases GigaChat 3.5 Ultra: 432B Open-Source MoE Flagship Sber models-llm
26 авг Sber and Yandex cut LLM token prices — GigaChat down 67%, YandexGPT Pro down 33% (Nodul research) Sber / Yandex industry
30 апр Yandex Commerce Protocol: first retailers launch sales via Alice AI Yandex industry
2 мая Yandex launches YandexGPT-based AI assistants for schools and EdTech Yandex tools
24 июн Yandex Self-Driving Truck Completes First Fully Autonomous 700km Moscow–Saint Petersburg Run Yandex industry
26 июн Yandex Releases Major Alice AI Update: Cross-Session Memory, Personalization, and Live Accessibility Mode Yandex models-llm
2 июл Yandex Launches AI Agent Platform for Alice AI Yandex tools
4 июл Sber Open-Sources GFusion, Russia's First Diffusion Language Model Sber models-llm
18 авг Sber and Sinara Group run GigaChat industrial hackathon at Sber Technohub Yekaterinburg, producing 40+ GenAI initiatives Sber tools
26 авг GigaChat 3.5 Ultra passes professional-retraining information security exam, scoring 14% above pass threshold Sber research
27 авг Yandex NeuroLawyer add-in lands inside Microsoft Word Yandex tools
27 авг Yandex builds first federal AI course for 250,000 Russian teachers Yandex industry
11 сен Sber releases GigaChat 3.5 Reasoning, first Russian open-weights reasoning model Sber models-llm
12 сен Yandex open-sources Alice AI Search Pretrain, the base model behind AI answers in Search Yandex models-llm
16 сен Yandex's Alice AI now picks the intelligence level for each request, with free Expert mode Yandex models-llm
8 мая GigaChat Passes Engineering Certification at Moscow Power Engineering Institute Sber industry
16 мая Sber Closes First GigaChat Enterprise Hardware Leasing Deal Sber industry
20 мая Yandex Improves Alice AI ART: Russian Text in Generated Images 3x More Accurate Yandex image
6 июн Sber Launches GigaChat-Powered Multi-Agent Business Assistant for Corporate Banking at SPIEF 2026 Sber industry
10 июн Yandex Launches Drops: First AI Wearable Earbuds with Alice AI Yandex tools
15 июн Yandex Drops — First Russian AI Wearable with Alice AI — Enters Retail Stores Yandex industry
18 июн Yandex Open-Sources YaFF Data Format, Saving Up to 20% Server Capacity Yandex tools
24 июн Yandex Alice AI Gains Agentic Booking for Restaurants and Beauty Salons Across Russia Yandex tools
2 июл VK Rolls Out Discovery AI Neural Search Across VK Video, Mail Media, and Dzen VK AI tools
16 июл Sber Launches GigaCode Desktop: Multi-Agent Dev-Lifecycle Platform Sber tools
17 июл Yandex's Alice AI model family receives ISO/IEC 42001 certification Yandex industry
27 июл Putin signs law establishing legal framework for large foundational AI models in Russia industry
12 авг VK Unifies User Data Across Services into a Single AI Neuro-Profile for Recommendations VK industry
13 авг Yandex launches Lumena AI companion feature in Yandex Books Yandex tools
13 авг Yandex AI assistant helps pediatric rheumatologists remotely monitor juvenile arthritis patients Yandex tools
25 авг Yandex opens medical AI assistant to all Russian doctors Yandex industry
29 авг Sber launches SberBum 2.0 smart speaker with GigaChat and offline voice control Sber tools
1 сен Sber and Skoltech unveil TOHA, a cheap attention-topology method for detecting RAG hallucinations (ACL 2026) Sber/Skoltech (LARSS joint lab) research
1 сен Selectel ships aish, an AI sysadmin agent embedded in its SelectOS server OS Selectel tools
17 сен Sber's Kandinsky team open-sources Time Adapter for temporally consistent video generation Sber video
23 сен YooKassa ships an MCP server letting AI agents accept payments Sber (YooKassa) tools
23 окт Russia and China sign communiqué pledging AI governance cooperation industry
23 окт Yandex Cloud restores access to 90.47% of customer data after data-center strikes Yandex industry
29 апр Sber unveils Kandinsky 6.0 Image — flagship image generation model Sber image
1 сен Russia's first framework AI law takes effect September 1: sovereign models, output-rights disclosure, AI-content labeling industry
9 сен Russian government draft would force business onto sovereign AI models, currently only GigaChat industry
12 сен T-Bank opens brokerage trading to external AI agents via MCP T-Bank tools
7 мая VK Video AI Character Recognition Boosts Watch Time 9% via Cascade Face Detection VK AI tools
10 июл Yandex Smart Camera Gains Visual Q&A via Alice AI VLM Yandex tools
26 авг OpenAI disrupts a new covert Russian influence operation using ChatGPT OpenAI industry
29 апр Yandex announces results of the Yandex AI Startup Lab accelerator Yandex industry
10 мая Yandex Launches Alice AI Agent to Search WW2 Veteran Records in Russian Archives Yandex tools
12 мая Yandex Maps Adds AI-Generated Landmark-Based Voice Guidance Across Russia Yandex tools
14 мая Sber GigaChat Adds Yakut Language Support Sber models-llm
20 мая Sber Opens Testing of GigaCowork: No-Code AI Agent Management Platform for Enterprises Sber tools
22 июн Yandex Adds 30 AI Characters with Distinct Personalities to Alice AI Chat Yandex tools
30 июн Yandex Launches Developer Platform for Building AI Agents Inside Alice AI Yandex tools
2 июл VKontakte Deploys LLM and VLM Models for In-Feed Product Recommendations VK AI tools
3 июл Yandex Consolidates AI Teams Under Alice AI with New Leadership Appointments Yandex industry
3 июл Sberbank Integrates GigaChat AI Analyst into SberBiznes for Marketplace Sellers Sber tools
16 июл MWS AI Releases Cotype Pro 3 (27B) and Light 3 (9B) for Enterprise AI Agents MWS AI models-llm
18 июл Sberbank's Gref claims Yandex merely fine-tunes Alibaba's Qwen; Yandex denies it Yandex industry
22 июл Yandex disputes Sber CEO's claim it relies on Alibaba's Qwen for AI Yandex industry
31 июл Sber publishes updated public threat model for AI systems covering 37 threats and 51 attack methods Sber industry
16 авг Rutube launches proprietary multimodal ML model for video categorization under IAB taxonomy industry
29 авг Yandex launches Yandex Sim mobile operator with call-transcribing AI assistant Yandex tools
30 авг Russian AI Alliance asks Duma to allow training on publicly available works; Mincifry rejects retroactive payments industry
17 сен Yandex-built AI course for school teachers opens enrollment on Gosuslugi Yandex industry
25 сен Sber presents GenAI agent lineup and GigaChat 3.5 Reasoning at GigaKonf 2026 Sber industry
10 июл Yandex Maps AI Chat Expands to Cultural and Outdoor Leisure Recommendations Yandex tools
16 июл Yandex Extends ISO/IEC 42001 AI Safety Certification to Full Alice AI Model Family Yandex industry
17 сен BotHub ships desktop app for its multi-model AI aggregator on Windows, macOS and Linux BotHub tools
14 мая Sber GigaChat Launches Healthy Lifestyle Thematic Space Sber tools
16 мая Yandex Deploys Alice AI NFC Pendants at Night at the Museum Event Yandex industry
12 июн Sber Launches Giga-Art AI Art Festival Using Kandinsky 6.0 Sber industry
12 июн VK Tech Reduces VK Data Platform Infrastructure Requirements 2.5× for AI Deployments VK AI tools
18 июн VK Publishes Russian AI Software Market Forecast: 95 Billion Rubles by 2030 VK AI industry