- Title: Putin asks Sberbank CEO when he will be replaced by AI
- Date: 19th July 2023
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JULY 19, 2023) (RUSSIAN POOL) MEETING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "Herman Oskarovich (Gref), will artificial intelligence replace you as Sberbank CEO?" (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SBERBANK CEO, HERMAN GREF, SAYING: "Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin, I hope not in my lifetime but everything is going that way." (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "With people like him, progress is impossible. He will be slowing (OVER YOUNG AI ENGINEER LAUGHING) down everything now." MEETING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SBERBANK CEO, HERMAN GREF, SAYING: "Every year we invest a sum equal to $1 billion in AI technologies. And we earn from AI every year about $3 billion." (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "A serious scale. That’s why all efforts that are put into reaching (OVER YOUNG AI ENGINEER LISTENING) targets set in this sphere must be supported." VARIOUS OF MEETING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "This is the future (AI) - we understand this completely. This is absolutely the future. If we talk about the importance for the country, for any country, it is on par with atomic or missile projects of the Soviet Union back in the day, in the mid-1940s and 1950s." MEETING IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 2nd August 2023 15:13
- Keywords: AI ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE GREF PUTIN RUSSIA SBERBANK
- Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- City: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- Country: Russia
- Topics: Europe,Information Technologies / Computer Sciences,Science
- Reuters ID: LVA001828919072023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Russia's dominant lender Sberbank is making around $3 billion each year from artificial intelligence, a return on investment of about 200%, CEO German Gref told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
Advances in generative AI by firms such as startup OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, are stimulating excitement about the potential benefits for business and society.
Russia, shunned and sanctioned by the West, is having to develop the technology largely alone.
"The scale is serious," Putin said. "This is absolutely the future. If we talk about the importance for the country, for any country, it is on par with atomic or missile projects of the Soviet Union in the mid-1940s and 1950s."
Putin also jokingly asked Gref whether he thought AI would replace him as Sberbank CEO, to which Gref responded that he hoped it wouldn’t "in his lifetime" but that "everything is going that way."
During his time at Sberbank's helm, Gref has overseen investments in artificial intelligence, cloud services, big data and smart devices, transforming the former Soviet savings bank's image.
He didn't specify which business lines within the AI segment were generating revenue.
Sberbank discloses little about its burgeoning tech business, but the lender has become a crucial player in helping Russia navigate Western sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine. - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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