In 2020 the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation will allocate
$92.2 million for grants for developers of Russian digital solutions. Both
developers of IT products and companies involved in the implementation of
solutions will be able to apply for the grants. Startups will be able to
receive up to $260 thousand,&nbsp; and $3,8 million will be allocated for large initiatives.

 
 The
contests will be held by the Skolkovo Foundation, the Russian Fund for the
Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT), and the Innovation Promotion
Fund.

<ul>
 <li>Within the Innovation Promotion Fund program, IT startups in artificial
intelligence, the Internet of things, blockchain, new production technologies
and other areas will be able to receive grants (up to 20 million rubles).</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>RFRIT will hold a
competition among projects which are “in more mature stages” and are involved
in software development, including telecommuting services, platforms for online
education and healthcare. Such projects can receive
up to 300 million rubles.</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>The Skolkovo Foundation will offer grants of up to 80 million rubles to companies
for the pilot implementation of domestic digital products, services and
platforms based on artificial intelligence, VR/AR, robotics and sensorics, etc.</li>
</ul>

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ит-гранты.рф/">Read more about the grants&nbsp;(in Russian)</a>

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/mintsifry-napravit-7-1-mlrd-rub-na-granty-dlia-it-proektov/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation

The Ministry of Digital Development will allocate $92.2 million for grants for IT projects

Moscow taxi and car-sharing companies will receive over $3,9 million in subsidies from Moscow authorities to pay off loan
and lease payments. This is reported by the telegram channel of the Moscow Department
of Transport after the interdepartmental meeting with representatives of all
city agencies.

 
 “This year we will pay taxi and car-sharing
companies over 300 million rubles in subsidies to pay off loan and lease
payments, &nbsp;now we focus on this issue.
Subsidies help maintain the youngest taxi fleet in Europe in Moscow”, - the report
says.

 
 It is also reported
that after the pandemic the structure of car-sharing operators in the market has
remained almost unchanged. 45% of the
market is occupied by <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/yandeks-drayv/">Yandex.Drive</a>, 37% - by <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/delimobil/">Delimobil</a>, 14.5% - by BELKA.car, 2% - by <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/youdrive-pool/">YouDrive</a> and less than 1% - by Rentmee and <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/lifcar/">LifCar</a>.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/moskva-vydelit-taksomotornym-i-karsheringovym-kompaniiam-bolee-300-mln-rublei-subsidii/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Department of Transportation of Moscow

Moscow taxi and car-sharing companies will receive over $3,9 million in subsidies from Moscow authorities

Moscow Department of Transport and Yandex plan to test self-driving trams in Moscow. This was <a target="_blank" href="https://t.me/DtRoad/4357">announced</a> by the head of the Moscow Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development Maxim Liksutov during a visit to the Yandex office on Saturday. He noted that such transport can be used almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is also reported that the use of unmanned vehicles should improve traffic safety on the roads, because 70% of accidents are caused by drivers.

 
 According to the press service of the self-driving vehicles division of Yandex, the aim is to develop a universal unmanned control system that can be applied to any transport platform - cars, trucks, buses or even delivery robots.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/deptrans-moskvy-i-iandeks-planiruiut-ispytanie-bespilotnykh-tramvaev-v-moskve/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Moscow Department of Transport

Moscow Department of Transport and Yandex plan to test self-driving trams in Moscow

Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation plans to create and maintain a new state register with information on the activities of IT startups, Kommersant reports with reference to the draft amendments to the law “On Science and State Scientific and Technical Policy” developed by the department.

 
 The register will become the basis of a digital platform for state support for startups and will unite disparate data about companies from information systems of government agencies and organizations. With the permission of the startup, all interested organizations and development institutions will have access to its “digital footprint”, which should accelerate the application process and obtaining state support, Deputy Minister Oksana Tarasenko explained.

 
 Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state intends to increase the number of grants issued to the IT industry. For example, until 2024, it is planned to distribute around $607 million among the developers of “cross-cutting technologies” - big data, the Internet of things, etc., including in the form of grants.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/minekonomiki-planiruet-sozdat-i-vesti-gosreestr-it-startapov/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Kommersant

The Ministry of Economic Development plans to create and maintain a state register of IT startups

As follows from the explanatory note to the draft budget for 2021-2023, Russia will spend almost $218 million in three years. for the federal project "Artificial Intelligence".

 
 In 2021, $54 million are provided for the project, in 2022 - $86 million , in 2023 - $78 million.

 
 The project should ensure the demand for Russian developments in artificial intelligence, support staff and increase the availability of data necessary for the development of AI technologies.

 
 On August 31, 2020, the Government Commission on Digital Development <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/artificial-intelligence-federal-project-was-approved/">approved</a> the federal project "Artificial Intelligence".

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/za-tri-goda-na-federalnyi-proekt-iskusstvennyi-intellekt-budet-potracheno-pochti-16-5-mlrd-rub/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Gazeta.ru

Almost $218 million will be spent on the federal project "Artificial Intelligence" in 3 years

Sberbank changed the brand of the Yandex.Money service, which is now 100% owned by the bank after the <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/yandex-announced-the-division-of-assets-with-sberbank/">split</a> of the joint venture with Yandex. From December 2020, the electronic payment service will be called YuMoney.

 
 At the same time, the payment solution for business Yandex.Kassa will change its name to YuKassa, according to the bank's press release.

 
 YuMoney will improve existing products and services that the company has launched under the Yandex.Money and Yandex.Kassa brands. YuMoney will grow as a part of the Sberbank ecosystem and will add to the existing services the capabilities and payment methods that are already available to a number of ecosystem companies - Sberbank ID, SberPay, Pay QR, etc.

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 Contacts:&nbsp;
 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/ivan.glazachev.71">Ivan Glazachev</a>, General Director of YuMoney
 </div>

Sberbank

Sberbank renamed Yandex.Money to YuMoney

Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation (Mintsifry) proposed to empower itself to harmonize the digital strategies of state-owned companies. This was stated in the instructional guidelines on digital transformation developed by the department and sent for approval, in particular, to the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Agency for State Property Management. In the previous version of the guidelines there was a provision for the annual monitoring of the implementation of such strategies.

 
 The methodical guidelines should coordinate the digital transformation of the priority sectors of economy. They were developed as part of the implementation of the “Digital Economy” national program and will be submitted to the presidium of the government commission for digital development until September 25.

 
 The state-owned companies will develop strategies for a period of at least five years in accordance with the recommendations, Mintsifry noted. The guidelines describe the indicators for the assessment of the implementation of the digital transformation strategy.

 
 As was explained by Sergey Vikharev, the director of technological practice at KPMG in Russia and the CIS, the urgent need to agree on the final document, on the one hand, is caused by dissatisfaction with the quality of previous transformation strategies, and on the other, by the fact that the digitalization of state-owned companies will have to be linked with import substitution programs.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/mintsifry-khochet-poluchit-polnomochiia-po-soglasovaniiu-tsifrovykh-strategii-goskompanii/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Vedomosti

Ministry of Digital Development wants to be authorized to coordinate digital strategies of state-owned companies

The organizers and
partners of the “Factory of Tourism Products and Services” accelerator will help 10
winners bring their IT projects to the market. In particular, the winner teams will receive support to
test marketing strategies, improve business plan, attract investments and
launch products.

 
 The “Factory of Tourism
Products and Services” is a project of the Moscow Tourism Committee created to support startups and develop new technological
solutions for the industry; it is a part of the Moscow Travel Hub program. On the day of reporting, more than 30 finalist
teams presented their projects to the experts of the tourism market.

 
 The panel of judges included Dmitry
Yakovlev, head of Yandex.Travel service, Eugene Lisovskiy, CEO of Maps.me, Stanislav
Andreev, CEO of SberMarketing, Egor Yakovlev, development director of izi.travel
platform, and Eugenia Strizhkina, head of the Russpass travel
platform.

 
 Among the most notable
projects, the jury mentioned the online service for organizing family trips, a bot for
planning a trip budget, a city walks service with virtual tour guides, a business
process automation system for travel agencies and the software that allows to
create applications for hotel guests.

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 Contacts:
 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007094198473">Dmitry Yakovlev</a>, head of Yandex.Travel
 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/eugene.lisovskiy">Eugene Lisovskiy</a>, CEO of Maps.me
 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/egor.yakovlev.75">Egor Yakovlev</a>, development director of izi.TRAVEL platform&nbsp;
 </div>
 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/pobediteli-akseleratsionnoi-programmy-dlia-turotrasli-poluchat-pomoshch-dlia-vyvoda-svoikh-it-reshenii-na-rynok-moskvy/">Original (in Russian)</a>

TASS

The winners of the acceleration program in travel industry will receive assistance in bringing their IT solutions to the Moscow market

The budget of the “Digital Economy” national program until 2024 will be increased from $21.2 billion up to almost $26.5 billion using extra-budgetary sources. This was revealed in the new version of the program passport.

 
 In particular, funding of projects in the field of digital technologies (IoT, big data, quanta, etc.) from extra-budgetary sources will be increased from $5.9 billion up to $11.3 billion. At the same time, funding for information security will be cut by almost half, to $227 million.

 
 The “Digital Technologies” project is to ensure the technological independence of Russia from foreign IT products by 2024. The program is also aimed at stimulating the development of Russian IT companies. State corporations Rosatom and Rostec are among the main participants of the national program.

 
 Earlier, the Ministry for Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media proposed to include the costs for artificial intelligence into this project. However, the business, including Sberbank, responsible for this area, opposed it - they insisted on creating a separate federal project with a budget of almost&nbsp;$1.1 billion.

The budget of the “Digital Economy” national program will be increased to almost $26.5 billion by 2024

The Russian Book Union appealed to the management of Internet companies Yandex and Mail.ru Group with a request to organize the process of removing pirated links from search results extrajudicially, as well as to introduce technology for recognizing illegal copies of books by digital footprints. Copies of the appeal were also sent to Roskomnadzor and the The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS).

 
 Vkontakte social network (owned by Mail.ru Group) has a positive experience of using this technology. Recognition of illegal content by digital fingerprint has been used there since 2017. Electronic books posted by users are automatically compared with legal copies, and pirated content is blocked. In September 2019, Vkontakte started applying this technology to audiobooks as well.

 
 In November 2018, Yandex and Mail.ru Group <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/internet-kompanii-i-pravoobladateli-podpisali-antipiratskiy-memorandum/">signed</a> an anti-piracy memorandum with media companies, producers and legal video services to remove pirated content from search results. At the end of 2018, Roskomnadzor <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/roskomnadzor-predlozhil-knigoizdatelyam-sozdat-novyy-antipiratskiy-memorandum/">proposed</a> creating a new anti-piracy memorandum that would regulate relations between book publishers and Internet search engines. It was planned that the memoranda would then be replaced by an anti-piracy bill, but its development has stalled due to a government reshuffle and a pandemic. Now work on the document has resumed.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/knigoizdateli-poprosili-iandeks-i-mail-ru-group-ispolzovat-tsifrovoi-otpechatok/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Book publishers asked Yandex and Mail.ru Group to use digital fingerprint to combat content piracy

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (FAS) proposed amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO): a company fined for violating antimonopoly laws and receiving a corresponding order (to stop violations of antimonopoly laws, rules of non-discriminatory access to goods, services or works, and to restore competition) , but not fulfilling it, can be fined again in the amount of twice the first fine. The amount of the new fine may not be less than $1,3 thousand&nbsp; and more than one fiftieth of the proceeds of the offending company in the year preceding the violation.

 
 Such an initiative is contained in the new version of the Fifth Antimonopoly Package, which FAS sent for approval to specialized departments and several specialized associations. The document is aimed at combating digital monopolies, owners of large infrastructure and Internet platforms, if they dominate the market.

 
 In addition, in the new version of the Fifth Antimonopoly Package, the meaning of the term "network effect" is corrected - the dependence of the consumer value of a product on the number of consumers; the institute of experts is introduced, the opinion of which the FAS intends to take into account when considering petitions and antitrust cases.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/fas-predstavila-novuiu-versiiu-zakona-dlia-borby-s-tsifrovymi-monopoliiami/">Original (in Russian)</a>

The Federal Antimonopoly Service presented a new version of the law to combat digital monopolies

Dmitry Polishchuk, head of Yandex Self-Driving Cars and CEO of Yandex SDG, was included in the list of “100 people who transformed business”. The list was compiled by Business Insider.

 
 Polishchuk is called a veteran of Yandex, where he started to work 12 years ago. During this time, he was also engaged in Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Browser.

 
 In 2016, he proposed to the idea of ​​developing self-driving vehicles to the company’s management team.

 
 According to Polishchuk, he hopes to see Yandex’s self-driving cars safely roam the streets of Moscow in rush hour within 3-5 years.

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 Contacts:
 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dpolishuk" target="_blank">Dmitry Polishchuk</a>, CEO of Yandex SDG
 </div>
 
 In September 2020, Yandex <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/yandex-creates-a-separate-company-for-the-self-driving-vehicles-and-invests-150-mln/" target="_blank">announced</a> its plans to invest $150 million in self-driving cars and create a separate company in this area - Yandex Self-Driving Group.

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/rukovoditel-bespilotnikov-iandeksa-voshel-v-spisok-business-insider-100-liudei-kotorye-transformirovali-biznes/" target="_blank">Original (in Russian)</a>

Business Insider

The head of Yandex Self-driving Cars was included in the Business Insider list of “100 people transforming business”

The Russian government changed the official abbreviated name of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media from “Minkomsvyaz” to “Mintsifry”. Corresponding changes were made to the regulation on the ministry.

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 <a target="_blank" href="http://static.government.ru/media/files/xoY3WTs2HrtMPvOeBdNlA1FusPd0hAd6.pdf">Decree of September 9, 2020 No. 1389</a>
 </div>
 
 The government also vests the Mintsifry with authority in the field of state
regulation of the work of certification centers, trusted third parties and
verification of their compliance with the requirements of the law “On electronic
signature”.
The ministry acquired such powers after the adjustment of the federal legislation.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/minkomsviaz-ofitsialno-pereimenovana-v-mintsifry/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Minkomsvyaz (the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media) was officially renamed into Mintsifry

The use of the Russian technological platform will allow Huawei to quickly adapt the <a target="_blank" href="https://consumer.huawei.com/en/emui/celia/">Celia</a> voice assistant to the peculiarities of the Russian language. For Yandex this is an opportunity to expand its audience with the help of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/canalys-global-smartphone-market-declines-q2-2020">leader</a>&nbsp;in the smartphone market.

 
 The companies already have experience of cooperation in this area: “Alice” is pre-installed on smartphones of Huawei’s subsidiary brand - Honor 30 Pro+.

Huawei will use Alice’s platform to develop its voice assistant in Russia

Experts on the peculiarities of the development and consumption of IT solutions in the field of culture and tourism

ICT.Moscow

Technologies in tourism and culture: prospects of the platforms and the impact of COVID-19

The State Atomic
Energy Corporation Rosatom proposed to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Chernyshenko to consolidate federal funding for the development of smart cities
within the framework of a single program. According to the newspaper, the
proposal was voiced by the general director of Rusatom Infrastructure Solutions
(RIR, part of Rosatom) Ksenia Sukhotina during a closed meeting on August 29 in
Sarov.

 
 The RIR company
does not claim to be the only supplier for such a project, the newspaper notes,
while it is ready to introduce a digital platform based on the Internet of
Things in cities.

 
 Other large structures are also involved in the digitalization of cities and the development of IoT in them. Earlier it was announced that Rostelecom plans to become the operator of the new Digital City project (its implementation was estimated at $1,3 billion). Rostelecom is also a partner of the Ministry of Construction in the Digital Region project (estimated at $1,8 billion).

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/rosatom-predlozhil-konsolidirovat-finansirovanie-razvitiia-umnykh-gorodov-v-ramkakh-edinoi-programmy/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Rosatom proposed to consolidate financing for the development of smart cities within the framework of a single program

Yandex plans to release a set-top box with support for its own media platform. This was reported by the Kommersant newspaper with reference to its own sources in the telecommunications market. 

 
 The company also registered a new version of the Yandex.Station smart speaker with a voice assistant, which can run on Android and Linux operating systems (OS). Yandex did not comment on its plans.

 
 In May 2019, Yandex released a media player with the ability to connect to TVs - Yandex.Module, which had voice control via Alice. According to the company, the produced batch of the device was sold out.

 
 Sberbank already has its own TV set-top box with voice control. It was presented by the subsidiary company SberDevices in February 2020.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/iandeks-sobiraetsia-vypustit-sobstvennuiu-tv-pristavku-s-golosovym-pomoshchnikom-alisa/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Yandex will release its own TV set-top box with Alice voice assistant

According to the plan,
the equipment will not be purchased from foreign companies. The technologies will be developed at the facilities of Rostec subsidiaries.

 
 The
document states that investments should help to increase the export value of Russian next-generation microelectronics to&nbsp;$263 million by 2024, and to $683 million by 2030. The
domestic market for solutions based on new generations of microelectronics by
2024 should amount to $6 billion.

 
 This
will require an investment of $8 billion from public funds and&nbsp; $1.3 billion from extra-budgetary funds
(Rostec is ready to invest $394 million). According to the document,
Rostec together with Rosatom will be
responsible for the implementation of the program.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/rostekh-razrabotal-dorozhnuiu-kartu-razvitiia-otrasli-mikroelektroniki-trebuiushchuiu-pochti-800-mlrd-rublei/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Rostec prepared a roadmap for the development of the microelectronics that requires almost $10.5 billion

Anton Gorelkin, a member
of the Russian State Duma Committee on Information Policy, made a request to the Federal Antimonopoly Service to conduct a
check of the situation with hindered access of Russian application developers to the Apple operating environment in terms
of abuse of monopoly position in the Russian market.

 
 The deputy claims that
Russian developers have contacted him several times with complaints that they cannot register a developer account in the
Apple system, without which applications cannot appear on the App Store. To confirm the identity, Apple asks
for the billing address from the bank through which the developer will pay for the account, but the data format
provided by Russian banks does not meet the corporation’s requirements, and there is no
connection to the system. As a
result, Russian developers have to
purchase accounts registered in the United States and China on the black
market.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/posle-zhalob-rossiiskikh-razrabotchikov-deputat-gosdumy-prosit-fas-proverit-diskriminatsionnost-dostupa-k-app-store/">Original (in Russian)</a>

After receiving complaints from Russian developers, a State Duma deputy asks the FAS to check the discriminatory nature of access to the App Store

Yandex is restructuring the Yandex.Taxi group: it separates the direction of self-driving vehicles from it into a separate company Yandex Self-Driving Group, in which it will receive 73% shares, and Uber - 19%. The rest of the shares will go to a motivation program for employees.

 
 At the same time, a car-sharing business will join Yandex.Taxi, as a result, Yandex's share in the group will grow from 58.2% to 61.7%. The company will invest another $150 million in self-driving, where Yandex has already invested $65 million in three years.

 
 In August, it became known that the tests of cars without a driver were&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/self-driving-car-testing-is-postponed-until-2021/">postponed</a> from the end of 2020 to 2021.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/iandeks-vydeliaet-napravlenie-bespilotnykh-avtomobilei-v-otdelnuiu-kompaniiu/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Yandex creates a separate company for the self-driving vehicles and invests $150 mln

The most notable events in
AI regulation, accessibility and security of personal data, slowdown of unmanned
vehicles development and other topics of the issue - ICT.Moscow has collected
the most important news about artificial intelligence in August from the
<a target="_blank" href="https://t.me/ict_moscow_ai">@ict_moscow_ai</a> telegram feed in one digest.

<hr />
<h2>
 The Federal project and
the Concept of regulation were approved
</h2>

 
 AI regulation was
mentioned most often in the news items in August. Vladimir Putin’s order to finalize
the federal project “Artificial Intelligence” until the end of summer was
fulfilled - at the end of August, the passport of the project was <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/artificial-intelligence-federal-project-was-approved/">approved</a>.

 
 The work on the Concept of
the regulation of AI and robotics until 2024 was <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/concept-for-the-regulation-of-artificial-intelligence-and-robotics-until-2024-has-been-approved/">completed</a>. It determines the
main areas in the domestic regulation, which require improvement in the next
four years.

 
 Work is underway to
regulate the field of personal data. In particular, it was announced that the
relevant law could be amended to provide for a data anonymization mechanism. A
companion law to the law “on experimental legal regimes” has also been
developed. It will allow to collect and analyze data in order to create and
implement medical AI systems. The systems will be developed in accordance with
the national standard, the first version of which was also presented in August.

<hr />
<h2>
 Readiness of state-owned
companies to implement AI
</h2>

 
 The participation of the
government in the development of artificial intelligence is not limited to
regulation only. Several state-owned companies have announced their readiness
to use artificial intelligence for solving their problems.

 
 For example, the Federal
Agency on Press and Mass Communications (Rospechat’) proposed to the Ministry
of Telecom and Mass Communications creating a data service based on AI, which
will check the reliability of news. The Federal Service for Supervision of
Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) plans to
use AI to combat prohibited Internet content. The Federal Labor and Employment
Service (Rostrud)<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/rostrud-creates-a-job-placement-system-using-ai/"> plans</a> to create a recommendation service for finding suitable
vacancies based on the “Jobs in Russia” database.

<hr />
<h2>
 Unmanned vehicles slowed
down
</h2>

 
 The issue of unmanned
vehicles regulation should have been clarified by the end of the summer - it
was expected that Vladimir Putin would consider a revised roadmap for the
introduction of this type of transport in Russia. Whether it happened or not is
unknown, but in any case, the previously determined time frames are shifted
again: tests of unmanned cars without drivers in Russia were <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/self-driving-car-testing-is-postponed-until-2021/">postponed</a> until
2021.

 
 Meanwhile, Yandex decided
not to wait until Russian law would allow driving on public roads without a
person driving, and <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/yandex-begins-testing-self-driving-cars-in-michigan/">starte</a>d to test self-driving cars in Michigan. The
legislation of the state allows to use cars without the a driver or engineer at
the wheel.

 
 According to the survey
conducted by NTI “Autonet”, 77% of adult Russians are ready to use unmanned
taxis as soon as they appear on public roads. ICT.Moscow <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/self-driving-taxis-are-more-expected-in-russia-than-in-the-usa/">compared</a> the data with
other studies in this area. The results are as follows:

<ul>
 <li>within one year, the readiness of Russians for
unmanned vehicles has grown significantly - from 60% to 77%;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>readiness for autonomous transport in Russia is
noticeably higher than in several other countries - for example, in the USA.</li>
</ul>

<div>
 <img alt="" data-openpopup="0"
 src="https://ict.moscow/static/1200x/f6c70673-b8f1-50da-8237-f6393cc9b9db.png">
</div>

<hr />
<h2>
 Sberbank ecosystem’s
achievements
</h2>

 
 Self-driving vehicles have
yet to become a significant part of the ecosystems of Russian companies.
However, even without autonomous cars, the area is being developed quite
actively. Against this background, Sberbank could come into the spotlight on
the international arena in August.

 
 Earlier in August,
Sberbank <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/sberbank-was-named-the-best-bank-of-central-and-eastern-europe-for-innovation-in-digital-banking/">was named</a> the best bank in Central and Eastern Europe for digital
banking innovation. One of the projects for which the bank received the award
was its biometric facial recognition system. It is being implemented in the
company’s ATMs.

 
 VisionLabs, a part of the
Sberbank ecosystem that also develops face recognition algorithms, <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/visionlabs-was-ranked-first-in-nist-facial-recognition-algorithm-test/">took</a>&nbsp;first
place in the testing, that was conducted by the US National Institute of
Standards and Technology, for the third time. The purpose of testing was to
determine the most universal algorithms that can work in different application
scenarios.

 
 In August, ICT.Moscow
<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/specific-features-of-russian-ecosystems/">studied</a> the development of the ecosystems of Sberbank and its main competitors,
Yandex and Mail.ru Group, since November 2019, and the role that AI <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/role-of-ai-in-the-development-of-the-largest-ecosystems/">plays</a> in
these ecosystems. Artificial intelligence-related publications about Sberbank were
published most often: 32 out of 86 publications included in the monitoring of
ecosystems were dedicated to this company (while 25 out of 81 materials were
about Yandex, and 18 out of 75 were related to Mail.ru Group).

<hr />
<h2>
 An increase in AI
mentions in the context of ecosystems and cities
</h2>

 
 At the end of July,
Yandex<a target="_blank" href="https://yandex.ru/company/researches/2020/ai-news"> published</a> a study on AI headlines over the past 10 years. ICT.Moscow
<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/research-the-most-notable-in-ai-news-headlines-in-russia-over-the-past-10-years/">studied</a> Yandex data and identified several patterns. These trends are as
follows

<ul>
 <li>&nbsp;the most rapid growth in mentions of AI in headlines was
in 2016-2018. During that period, major players of the IT market, such as Sberbank
and Yandex, started to be actively mentioned in the news items;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>so far, 2020 shows a negative trend in AI mentions in the
news headlines (for the first time in 10 years);</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>however, Moscow is mentioned much more often this year
than before (approximately a half of one thousand news items were from 2020),
and the capital is mentioned more often than other cities.</li>
</ul>

<div>
 <img alt="" data-openpopup="0"
 src="https://ict.moscow/static/1200x/07f66cd5-c898-51e8-b458-38449c101815.jpeg">
</div>

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/ai-digest-august20/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Digest about AI in Russia: top news in August

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin spoke about this during the meeting with scientists and entrepreneurs. The adopted AI development program provides grants that will be allocated for the development of small startups and companies. It is planned to provide support to 1200 startups.

 
 The initiative will be implemented as part of the National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence, which was adopted last year.

 
 At the end of August, “Artificial Intelligence”&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://t.me/ict_moscow_ai/995">federal project</a>&nbsp;and the concept of AI and robotics <a target="_blank" href="https://t.me/ict_moscow_ai/980">regulation</a> were approved.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://t.me/ict_moscow_ai/1006">Original (in Russian)</a>

Interfax

Russian government will allocate $159 mln over the 4-year period to companies and startups in AI

According to Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry
Chernyshenko, “Mobile identifier” for electronic passport has been created and
is currently undergoing certification.&nbsp;

 
 According to him, the application was created
and it remained to solve the issue about certification and encryption of keys
of electronic signatures.

 
 The Ministry of Communications suggested
conducting an experiment from July 1, 2020 until the end of 2021 for citizens
to receive public, municipal and other services using the specialized mobile
app “Mobile identifier” instead of the passport. By August 31, the Ministry
suggested creating the mobile application and infrastructure for its work. It
will be possible to use the app starting from December 1, 2020.

 
 Citizens will not
only be allowed to provide a QR code generated in the application instead of a
passport, but also to apply a smartphone to a reader using NFC technology.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/v-rossii-razrabotali-prilozhenie-dlia-elektronnogo-pasporta/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Application for electronic passport was developed in Russia

The government is considering the possibility to ease some requirements for IT and telecom companies. In particular, according to RBC, the draft Plan for achieving the national development goals of Russia until 2024 and for the planning period until 2030 proposes:

<ul>
 <li>Postponing the introduction of the requirements on the mandatory transfer of servers that store personal data of Russians into the territory of the country until October 30, 2022;</li>
 <li>suspending until September 2022 the requirement of the Yarovaya Law to increase the capacity of technical means for storing Internet traffic by 15% annually, to abandon the requirement to store heavy content / video traffic;</li>
 <li>providing holidays in 2020 for paying for the rent of state real estate objects for deploying communications infrastructure;</li>
 <li>&nbsp;ensuring that communications operators and data processing centers enter the wholesale power market.</li>
</ul>

 
 At the moment, the document is still being developed, the newspaper reports.

 
 According to the amendments to the Federal Law “On personal data” that came into effect on September 1, 2015, the information about Russian users must be stored in the territory of the Russian Federation.

 
 According to the Yarovaya Law, telecom operators and organizers of information distribution on the Internet (e-mail services, instant messengers and other services that allow exchanging messages on the Internet) are obliged to store audio recordings of calls, the content of messages of users from July 1, 2018 for a period of six months, and from October 1 of the same year they have to store all Internet traffic for 30 days, annually increasing the storage capacity by 15%.

 
 In April 2020 the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and proposed postponing the introduction of the requirement to increase the storage capacity and exclude video services from capacity calculation.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/pravitelstvo-mozhet-snizit-dlia-kompanii-trebovaniia-po-khraneniiu-dannykh-rossiian/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Market in Brief