The Government Commission on Digital Development approved “Artificial Intelligence” federal project.

 
 The passport of the project was approved within the framework of the “Digital Economy” program. 36.6 billion rubles will be allocated for the implementation of the project (22.5 billion - from the funds of the state program, 6.91 billion - from state program “Development of the electronic and radio-electronic industry”, 6.9 billion - from extra-budgetary sources).

 
 Several agencies including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Rosselkhoznadzor (Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance) refused to approve the project, since it does not include budgetary funding for their activities. In particular, funding for the following projects has not yet been approved:

<ul>
 <li>AI implementation in medical facilities;</li>
 <li>introduction of AI to control the intended use of lands and forecast crop yields;</li>
 <li>AI-assisted interpretation of images from space to reduce the number of violations of land laws.</li>
</ul>

 
 The reduction of the budget of “Artificial Intelligence” federal project was <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/developers-of-artificial-intelligence-federal-project-reduced-its-budget/">announced</a> in the middle of August. It was also announced that the funds will be used to support the demand for AI solutions, training and data availability.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/utverzhden-federalnyi-proekt-iskusstvennyi-intellekt/">Original (in Russian)</a>

“Artificial Intelligence” federal project was approved

The Russian authorities are going to increase the level of citizens’ trust in AI technologies. It is proposed to launch a popularization campaign in the media and social networks and create a national online portal about AI, ‘The Future of Russia. National Projects’ portal reports with reference to the draft passport of the “Artificial Intelligence” federal project.

 
 A trust index will be evaluated as part of the campaign. It will show the amount of respondents who are ready to use artificial intelligence technologies in everyday life.

 
 In 2021 the first events within the campaign will take place, and by 2024 at least 170 lectures should be held. The campaign is expected to reach up to 33 million people.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/doverie-rossiian-k-ii-planiruiut-povyshat-cherez-smi-i-sotsseti/">Original (in Russian)</a>

futurerussia.gov.ru

Trust in AI will be increased through the media and social networks in Russia

On Tuesday ICT.Moscow <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/specific-features-of-russian-ecosystems/">published </a>a
review of the development areas of three ecosystems: Yandex, Sberbank and Mail.ru Group. The monitoring includes the analysis
of 242 publications from November 2019 to August 2020. One of the conclusions
of the review was the fact that the areas for development of such business
model are defined by the specialization of the parent company, around which the
ecosystem is built.

 
 There was a significant number of publications dedicated to the use
of artificial intelligence, as well as on voice assistants, robotics and
unmanned vehicles. Sberbank has about 32 mentions of different AI technologies
out of 86 publications included in the monitoring, Yandex - 25 out of 81,
Mail.ru Group - 18 out of 75.

 
 The most common areas of AI use include voice assistants and other
speech processing and synthesis systems, unmanned vehicles, and biometric
systems.

<h2>
 Sberbank: joint development of AI
</h2>

 
 Sberbank was mentioned for joint work with other companies: either
within the framework of the joint venture (Cognitive Pilot, Mail.ru Group), or
in the context of the companies included in its ecosystem (MDG, VisionLabs).
However, Sberbank began to develop its own practices for working with AI. This
is also due to the launch of the Christophari supercomputer: in March its AI
Cloud platform was certified to work with personal data.

 
 During the pandemic, Sberbank was on the agenda more frequently:
from March to July inclusive, 11 publications related to coronavirus were
found. Artificial intelligence was mentioned in 5 cases. The company also&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/sberbank-has-launched-a-free-service-for-recognizing-ct-images/">developed</a> its own AI model for diagnosing COVID-19 and provided the regions
with free access to it.

 
 Currently, voice assistants are the main segment of AI, which is
practically not covered by Sberbank (as demonstrated by the materials found).
The ecosystem of the bank includes Speech Technology Center (STC), which is
developing solutions in the field of natural language processing (NLP), but
Sberbank still does not have its own analogue of Alice or Marusya.

 
 But the company is actively developing self-driving vehicles, working
in two areas at once. One is <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/cognitive-pilot/">Cognitive Pilot,</a> a joint venture with Cognitive
Technologies, which was announced in November. It took the companies only six
months to begin the industrial implementation of unmanned systems in
agricultural machinery. The second direction of work is the company’s own
development, and nothing is known about it yet, only the fact that the company
carries out the corresponding development activities.

<h2>
 Yandex: working in all directions
</h2>

 
 Yandex, on the other hand, develops its own AI projects, rarely
getting involved in joint ventures. In 2020, the company <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/yandex-announced-the-division-of-assets-with-sberbank/">concluded</a> partnership
with Sberbank and reorganized Yandex.Money and Yandex.Market services. However,
there are exceptions: Yandex and NVIDIA announced joint support for AI startups
in their acceleration programs.

 
 In general, the company strives to scale its developments and
services independently. For example, Yandex <a target="_blank" href="https://www.world-today-news.com/yandex-cloud-launched-a-service-for-developers-in-the-field-of-machine-learning-yandex-datasphere-editorial-material/">launched</a>&nbsp;a cloud-based framework
for developing machine learning models last year. It was is aimed at involving
third-party developers in their own ecosystem, a significant part of which is
built on artificial intelligence technologies.

 
 Today Yandex carries out development work in every area of AI. There
were not many noticeable news items about the voice assistant “Alice” - two
publications were selected as part of the monitoring. In November 2019, the
assistant first learned to speak a foreign language - Turkish. And at the
beginning of the year, the developer integrated Alice even deeper into its own
ecosystem and added the ability to call Yandex.Taxi with its help.

 
 However,&nbsp; the main area of work, according to the head
of the company Arkady Volozh, is driverless vehicles. From November 2019 to
August 2020, there were at least 9 important news items for the company in two
areas of drones development. The first was self-driving cars (the fourth
generation was introduced, and the company’s cars entered the world top-3 in
terms of mileage). The second was the robotic courier Yandex.Rover, which was
announced to be tested in November, and in April it was already put into
commercial operation at Skolkovo.

<h2>
 Mail.ru
Group: AI
through social networks
</h2>

 
 In terms of developing its own
services, Mail.ru Group combines the approaches of both Sberbank and Yandex.
But from the point of view of AI integration, the company’s model of work
resembles Yandex more. Mail.ru Group has recently been actively working in the
field of voice assistants:&nbsp; the smart
speaker "Capsule" was presented at the end of 2019, and in April 2020
this speaker equipped with “Marusya” voice assistant went on sale.

 
 The main difference between Mail.ru
Group and its competitors is that the company puts social networks at the
center of its ecosystem (as <a target="_blank" href="https://corp.imgsmail.ru/media/files/strategy2020-22.pdf">stated</a> in its development strategy). So it is not
surprising that the company begins to actively use artificial intelligence in
this area as well. Thus, it is planned to integrate VKontakte voice calls and
several other services with Capsule. And in Odnoklassniki (both social networks
are owned by Mail.ru Group) in March, a profile recovery function using face
recognition technology was launched.

 
 Like Yandex, Mail.ru
Group develops
all areas of artificial intelligence, but with one major exception. Driverless
vehicles are not on the Mail.ru Group agenda yet, and the plans of the company
for the development of this area are still unknown.

 
 <a></a>* * *

 
 It should also be noted that all the
three companies are expected to develop the area of scientific and technical
activities. In December, they signed a code of ethics for working with big
data, and a month before that they had announced plans to create an alliance
for the development of artificial intelligence. Companies also invest in
education in this area, entering into partnerships for the training of
specialists: for example, Sberbank and NUST MISIS or Yandex and ITMO
University.

 
 In general, the role of artificial
intelligence in Russian ecosystems corresponds to the general trends of the IT
market. At the beginning of the year, ICT.Moscow found out that most of the
world’s major analytical companies (including Gartner, IDC and KPMG) named AI
as one of the leading trends. Today, the active use of AI by Sberbank, Yandex
and Mail.ru Group shows that analysts were right: services using AI are
embedded in the life of businesses and end consumers.

 
 You can study the overview of the
development of Russian ecosystems from November 2019 to August 2020 in <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/specific-features-of-russian-ecosystems/">this</a>&nbsp;article.

ICT.Moscow

Role of AI in the development of the largest ecosystems

Russia
developed a national standard for AI in clinical medicine. The document was
prepared by the experts of Diagnostics and Telemedicine Center together with “Artificial
Intelligence in Healthcare” subcommittee, which is a part of technical
committee 164 “Artificial Intelligence”. 

 
 The first of
the seven parts of the standard has already been edited. It regulates the
methodological basis of the clinical trials process, the procedures for
conducting clinical trials, accuracy indicators, auditing and quality control
of medical intelligent systems.

<div class="incut-block ">
 
 Intelligent systems are aimed at optimizing the work of diagnosticians, automating routine work, providing information support and introducing other options that help doctors. Without unified regulatory and technical standards approved by the professional community on a consensus basis, the practical implementation of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector is impossible.
 
 <div class="quote-owner">
 <div>
 
 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/smorozov.md" target="_blank">
 Sergey Morozov
 </a>
 
 Chairman of the profile subcommittee, Director of Diagnostics and Telemedicine Center
 </div>
 </div>
</div>
 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/razrabotan-natsionalnyi-standart-po-ii-v-klinicheskoi-meditsine/" target="_blank">Original (in Russian)</a>

RVC JSC (Russian Venture Company)

National AI standard in clinical medicine was developed in Russia

Analysis of the differences between the largest digital ecosystems in Russia based on their actions over the past six months

Specific features of Russian ecosystems

Medical AI systems will be allowed to collect and analyze patient data in Russia. This was stated in the complementary law accompanying the previously adopted law “on experimental legal regimes” prepared by ANO Digital Economy. During the period of three years, medical universities and startups will be able to create and test AI systems using medical images, test results and patient complaints. 

 
 The draft law has already been supported by the working group “Statutory regulation of the digital environment”. The Ministry of Economic Development will soon submit the accompanying law for consideration to the government. If the draft bill is approved, it will be sent to the State Duma.

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/v-rossii-razreshat-sobirat-i-analizirovat-dannye-patsientov-dlia-meditsinskikh-ai-sistem/" target="_blank">Original (in Russian)</a>

Izvestia

Medical AI systems will be allowed to collect and analyze patient data in Russia

Rosstandart
has approved a series of preliminary national standards in the field of the
Internet of Things, sensor networks and the Industrial Internet of Things. The
documents were developed by the Cyber-Physical Systems Technical Committee (TC) on
the basis of RVC with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

 
 Representatives
of Skoltech, Rostelecom, Kaspersky Lab, MegaFon and other companies
participated in the development of the standard.

<div class="incut-block ">
 
 To the already developed and those that are being developed standards that directly define the IoT protocols, we add fundamental documents that are no less important for the development of the market. Thus, the market receives a universal basic toolkit: common semantic approaches, equal opportunities for the formation of the solution architectures, a dialogue to ensure the exchange of data and achieving compatibility of solutions. All this should contribute to the entry of alternative solutions to the market, the development of sustainable digital platforms and the formation of the ecosystems.
 
 <div class="quote-owner">
 <div>
 
 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nikita.utkin.5" target="_blank">
 Nikita Utkin
 </a>
 
 Head of RVC Programs, Chairman of Cyber-Physical Systems Committee
 </div>
 </div>
</div>
 
 As ComNews
clarifies, this is the third group of preliminary national standards in the
field of digital technologies, which have been developed by Cyber-Physical
Systems. According to Mikhail Smirnov, director of the InfoWatch expert and
analytical center, they plan to publish the remaining standards soon — in the
field of artificial intelligence terminology and basic standards of
cyber-physical systems.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://mosmed.ai/documents/72/1-%D1%8F_%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%93%D0%9E%D0%A1%D0%A2_%D0%A0_%D0%98%D0%A1%D0%9E_%D0%A1%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BC%D1%8B_%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE_%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%B2_%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B5.pdf">Read the document (in Russian)</a>

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/rosstandart-utverdil-standarty-interneta-veshchei/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Rosstandart has approved national standards in the field of the Internet of Things

It was
announced by Mikhail Mishustin at a government meeting.

<div class="incut-block ">
 
 The concept lays down the principles on the basis of which regulations will be improved to create favorable conditions for the development of artificial intelligence and robotics and remove barriers in various spheres, from medicine to space. (…) All innovations introduced taking into account the fact that all artificial intelligence and robotics technologies must be safe for the people and improve human welfare
 
 <div class="quote-owner">
 <div>
 
 Mikhail Mishustin
 
 Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
 </div>
 </div>
</div>
 
 In the future, it is planned to strengthen the measures to support developers in this field. Financial incentives are created and public-private partnership will be further developed.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/utverzhdena-kontseptsiia-regulirovaniia-iskusstvennogo-intellekta-i-robototekhniki-do-2024-goda/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Concept for the regulation of Artificial Intelligence and robotics until 2024 has been approved

Yandex
launched Toloka Laboratory to automatically solve data processing tasks. The processes
of interface creation, setting up the project and searching for task performer
are automated in the service.

 
 The customer
will need to provide data and form a request what has to be done with this
data. The minimum amount of data for processing is 500 texts or images.

 
 The laboratory
performs three types of data labeling: images classification, text
classification and object detection in images.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/iandeks-zapustil-laboratoriiu-toloki-dlia-avtomaticheskogo-resheniia-zadach-po-obrabotke-dannykh/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Yandex

Yandex launched Toloka Laboratory to automatically solve data processing tasks

The test of
unmanned vehicles without drivers in the cabin will be postponed until the
first half of 2021. This is reported by Vedomosti with reference to the
adjusted roadmap of self-driving vehicles implementation on public roads. The
document has already been finalized by the relevant ministries&nbsp;&nbsp; — the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of
Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of
Economic Development, and the discussion of the document in the government will
begin soon.

 
 In the first
half of 2021 companies will receive permission to test unmanned vehicles in
several regions of the country. Currently these tests can only be conducted in
closed test areas.

 
 ***

 
 Also today it
was announced that starting from next year several types of unmanned vehicles
be allowed to drive on dedicated lanes for public transport.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/ispytaniia-bespilotnykh-avtomobilei-bez-voditelei-otlozheny-do-2021-goda/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Vedomosti

Self-driving car testing in Russia is postponed until 2021

The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to oblige companies with state participation over 50% and their subsidiaries to purchase goods from the register of Russian and Eurasian industrial products in accordance with the time plan developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. This information is reported by Kommersant with reference to the projects of three draft decrees of the government.

 
 On August 8, the documents were sent for approval to the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Federal Treasury.

 
 According to Sergei Sukhman, President of Zelix, who is familiar with the process of documents development, purchases based on quotas will be carried out in several key areas: telecommunications equipment, computation tools and data storage systems.

 
 The interviewed participants of the market say that the decisions will have a big impact on large corporations, such as Rostelecom and Rostec, which will have to rebuild the infrastructure.

 
 Russian companies are facing difficulties with entering government procurement markets, and the quotas will be an effective measure to support the domestic manufacturers, Rostec representatives explain.

 
 According to Ivan Pokrovsky, Executive Director of Electronics Developers and Manufacturers Association, the quotas are still being established. They may probably be set at 30-50% of the purchase volume.

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/minpromtorg-predlozhil-vvesti-kvoty-na-zakupku-goskompaniiami-rossiiskogo-telekom-oborudovaniia-i-skhd/" target="_blank">Original (in Russian)</a>

Kommersant

The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to introduce quotas for the purchase of the Russian telecom software and data storage systems by state-owned companies

Yandex
announced the launch of a unified application for city life - Yandex Go. It
combines taxi, “Drive” car sharing , delivery from “Food” restaurants, “Lavka” express
delivery, courier delivery and ground transport timetables, and from August 19
will replace another application of Yandex - Yandex.Taxi.

 
 The
representatives of the company explain that all applications - Yandex.Drive,
Food and Lavka - will be available both in Go and as separate applications.
Moreover, the company claims that third-party services can also appear in Go,
VC.ru reports.

 
 To switch to
Yandex Go, Yandex.Taxi users will have to update the application to the latest
version. Download Yandex Go from <a target="_blank" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.yandex.taxi">Google Play</a> or <a target="_blank" href="https://apps.apple.com/app/id472650686?mt=8">AppStore</a>.

 
 ***

 
 A super-app
based on&nbsp; VKontakte is being developed by
Mail.ru
Group, and at the beginning of 2019 Tinkoff announced the
launch of a super application based on the mobile bank.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/iandeks-zapustil-superprilozhenie-dlia-goroda-na-baze-iandeks-taksi/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Yandex has launched a super-app for the city based on Yandex.Taxi

At least 77% of Russian residents aged 18-65 are ready to use unmanned taxi, reports NTI Autonet (results of the survey <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GMwOH0LSiBnKSqzGFovrBQQrnyJfMemCHtVMlQyT4pY/edit?usp=sharing">available</a> on ICT.Moscow). In one year this indicator has increased - in 2019 a similar survey showed that over 60% of residents were ready to use autonomous cars.

<div class="incut-block ">
 
 This survey confirms that the readiness for using new technologies in everyday life is directly connected with the their experience and interaction with technology. We are glad that the number of people ready to use unmanned cars grows together with the development of technologies.
 
 <div class="quote-owner">
 <div>
 
 NTI Autonet
 
 press service
 </div>
 </div>
</div>
 
 Moscow’s result was higher
than the average result in the country - 79%. The number of autonomous cars
tested in Moscow is the largest in the country.

<div>
 <img alt="" data-openpopup="0"
 src="https://ict.moscow/static/1200x/6d2ade39-cd03-5585-80ef-3301d8b298ad.png">
</div>

 
 Source: NTI Autonet, 2020 (data <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GMwOH0LSiBnKSqzGFovrBQQrnyJfMemCHtVMlQyT4pY/edit?usp=sharing">available</a> on ICT.Moscow)

 
 10.5 thousand people aged
18-65 took part in the survey. Younger residents aged 25-34 more positively
perceive autonomous taxi: 83.3% of them are ready to use such means of
transport. 73% of people over 45 also said they could use autonomous taxi, even
though this age group is considered to be more conservative. According to NTI
Autonet, such results indicate the possibility of self-driving taxi rapidly
becoming a part of everyday life.

<h2>
 Other evaluation of autonomous vehicles perception in Russia<a class="ce-block__copy-anchor-btn"></a>
</h2>

 
 Other surveys also show that
Russian residents are ready for using unmanned transport. For example, this
indicator was monitored by KPMG analysts while compiling the Global report
entitled “<a target="_blank" href="https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2019/02/2019-autonomous-vehicles-readiness-index.html">Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index 2019</a>”. To evaluate the readiness of customers to embrace the technology,
Branded Research company conducted a focus group survey in 25 countries. People
in India, Mexico, UAE and Russia reportedly have
the most optimistic perception of autonomous transport.

<div>
 <img alt="" data-openpopup="0"
 src="https://ict.moscow/static/1200x/964ea9b0-b73f-57cc-ab0f-977e654d9395.png">
</div>

 
 Source: <a target="_blank" href="https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2019/02/2019-autonomous-vehicles-readiness-index.html">KPMG</a>, 2019

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 In 2020 KPMG analysts haven’t conducted public opinion polls regarding unmanned transport perception. Instead, in the “<a target="_blank" href="https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2020/06/autonomous-vehicles-readiness-index.html">Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index 2020</a>” report other factors were taken into account, for example, the number of people living near autonomous vehicles testing areas. Nevertheless, this indicator cannot be considered objective for Russia, as KPMG took into consideration only the test sites <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.org/program/government-innovation/bloomberg-aspen-initiative-cities-autonomous-vehicles/">included</a> in the Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute project. Neither Moscow, nor Kazan are included there.
 </div>
<h3>
 USA
readiness for autonomous vehicles<a class="ce-block__copy-anchor-btn"></a>
</h3>

 
 Google’s project Waymo is the
leader in terms of the distance covered by autonomous vehicles. By the
beginning of the year, its cars drove 20 million miles (for comparison - Yandex
cars drove 4 million miles or 6.4 million km). Nevertheless, studies show that
Americans are not so enthusiastic about the technology.

 
 A survey conducted at the
beginning of 2020 in the USA by Partners
for Automated Vehicle Education<a target="_blank" href="https://pavecampaign.org/pave-poll-americans-wary-of-avs-but-say-education-and-experience-with-technology-can-build-trust/"> showed </a>that 48% of Americans “will never get” in an
autonomous taxi. Around three fourths of Americans say the unmanned transport
technology is not ready yet.

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 <a target="_blank" href="https://pavecampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/PAVE-Poll_Fact-Sheet.pdf">Partners for Automated Vehicle Education poll (pdf)</a>
 </div>
 
 The respondents of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and World Economic Forum
(WEF) <a target="_blank" href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Press%20release.pdf">survey</a> also say that the technology is still immature. However, they say
that it is of primary importance to change the culture and the perception of
this means of transport.

<h3>
 Autonomous
vehicles testing<a class="ce-block__copy-anchor-btn"></a>
</h3>

 
 Currently, the testing of automated vehicles in
Russia is carried out in accordance with the Russian government decree No.1415 &nbsp;“On Conducting an Experiment in
Testing the Use of Highly Automated Vehicles on Public Roads”.
Unmanned vehicles can drive on public roads in 13 regions.

 
 The current version of the
decree does not imply the use of unmanned transport in commercial services and
also requires a driver in the car, NTI Autonet notes.

 
 The regulation in the field of
autonomous transport is currently being developed. It will allow to switch from
autonomous car testing to their full use in services. In May, the Ministry of
Economic Development supported the draft plan for staged implementation of
unmanned vehicles until 2023.

 
 In July, Yandex Self Driving Cars team (the company is involved in the
development of the document)&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/an-interview-with-yandex-self-driving-dars-on-the-prospects-of-driverless-future/">told</a> ICT.Moscow that the plan was being finalized
and by the end of August it would be presented to the Russian president.

An overview of various research studies on the perception of autonomous vehicles in Russia

Self-driving taxis are more expected in Russia than in the USA

Since October 1 Russia will change the procedure for
including software products in the Unified Register of software of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of
the Russian Federation. This information was reported by CNews with reference to the minutes
of the meeting of the Expert Council on software of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation dated July 17.

 
 According to the
document,&nbsp; software products - candidates
for being included in the register - will be professionally examined for
compliance with the requirements defined by paragraph 5 of the government
decree dated November 16, 2015 No. 1236 “On establishing a ban on the admission
of the software originating from foreign states for the purpose of&nbsp; procurement to meet state and municipal
needs”.

 
 Until the amendments to this
decree are made, ANO Competence Center
for Import Substitution in the Field of ICT, which is headed by Ilya
Massukh, one of the council members and former deputy head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass
Communications, will be responsible for conducting the preliminary examination.

 
 All necessary documents and
the application for the inclusion of information about the software will be
submitted to the the Ministry of Telecom
and Mass Communications in electronic form on the website of the Register, as
it was done before.

 
 After that, Competence Center for Import Substitution in the Field
of ICT
will verify the application and the documents within two days from the moment
when the application was received. According to the results of the checking,
the Ministry of Telecom and Mass
Communications either registers the application or rejects it. 

 
 If the application is
registered, Competence Center for Import
Substitution in the Field of ICT will prepare a draft expert report which will be
later available on the website of the Register. Only the members of the Expert
Council on software of the the Ministry
of Telecom and Mass Communications will have access to the expert report.

 
 If the responsible members of the Expert Council do not have any
comments on the draft report, a report is generated on the website and signed
by a qualified electronic signature. Based on the unanimous decision of the
responsible members of the Council, the software is included in the register.
If at least one responsible member of the Council does not agree with the
conclusion provided by Competence Center
for Import Substitution in the Field of ICT, the decision is submitted for consideration by the entire
council, which makes the final decision by majority vote.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/s-oktiabria-v-rossii-izmenitsia-poriadok-vkliucheniia-programmnykh-produktov-v-edinyi-reestr-rossiiskogo-po/">Original (in Russian)</a>

CNews

Since October Russia will change the procedure for including software products in the Unified Register of Russian software

The budget of
the federal project entitled “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) was significantly reduced,
reports Kommersant with reference to the letter of Deputy Minister of Ministry
of Telecom and Mass Communications to the federal executive authorities dated
August 13.

 
 At the
beginning of the year, it was proposed to allocate about 90 billion rubles from
budget funds for the project (out of 125 billion in total), but now 22.4
billion will be allocated.

 
 It is reported
that it is not about cutting the budget, but about “changing the approach to
budgeting”: 22.4 billion will become “the central part”, which will be
allocated to cover expenses related to development. The other budget items will
be funded from digitization budgets of other federal authorities.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/razrabotchiki-federalnogo-proekta-iskusstvennyi-intellekt-sokratili-ego-biudzhet/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Developers of “Artificial Intelligence” federal project reduced its budget

The obligation of technological communication networks owners to store traffic for three years for provision to intelligence services will impose significant costs and risks for enterprises. This information was reported by TASS with reference to the review of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) of the corresponding draft law of Minkomsvyaz (the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications). 

 
 According to the RSPP, due to the fact that technological networks are used in many industries (communications, IT, transport, power industry, mechanical engineering, scientific activities, etc.), the implementation of the law will impose significant costs on the owners of such networks and will create risks of disrupting technological processes of enterprises and reduction of the safety of these processes.

 
 In addition, the RSPP considers it unacceptable to extend the requirements for the operators of public communications networks to the owners of technological networks, as the networks have different architectures and can use special means and technologies of communication that are required for production processes. Also, the enterprises currently do not have information systems which must be implemented to meet the requirements for storing traffic, RSPP notes.

 
 The draft law developed by Minkomsvyaz, which amends the federal law “On communications”, implies that the owners of technological networks must store “information about the reception, transmission, delivery and (or) processing of voice data, text messages, images, sounds, video or other messages of communication services users” for three years in the territory of the Russian Federation, and provide intelligence agencies with this information if necessary.

 
 Technological networks include communication networks developed to support the production activities of organizations and enterprises.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/rspp-ne-podderzhal-proekt-minkomsviazi-o-trekhletnem-khranenii-trafika-tekhnologicheskikh-setei/">Original (in Russian)</a>

TASS

Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) did not support the draft of Minkomsvyaz on the three-year traffic storage

At the end of July, IT company Yandex <a target="_blank" href="https://yandex.ru/company/researches/2020/ai-news">published</a> a research report titled “Artificial intelligence in news headlines”. It included all materials of Yandex.News since 2010 the headlines of which included such combinations of words such as “artificial intelligence”, “machine learning” and “neural network”, as well as “AI” acronym.

 
 The authors focused on the context where artificial intelligence (AI) was mentioned in the news: what it created, determined and forecast. After the study had been published in the media, the news with reference to Yandex PR team about the places that different cities took based on the number of AI mentions (Saint Petersburg - second place, Perm - fourth place, and Kazan entered top-7 cities) came out.

 
 ICT.Moscow requested data from Yandex and tried to figure out how the number of AI mentions has changed in the context about cities and in general over the past 10 years and what topics the media focused on.

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 The initial data was provided by Yandex, around 61.5 thousand publications featured by Yandex.News were collected in total. Data analysis and interpretation were carried out by ICT.Moscow.
 </div>
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 Out of the 61.5 thousand materials, 84% are from 2017-2020. In 2017 the number of publications exceeded 11 thousand, and over the past three and a half years AI was mentioned in the headlines of 51.5 thousand pieces of news.

 
 Despite the fact that 2020 is not over yet, negative dynamics can be currently seen (for the first time since 2010). If the average number of publications per month is considered, the year 2020 is at the level of 2017 - about 950 materials per month. 

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 In relation to the total number of publications in Yandex.News from 2010 through July 2020 (about 282 million), the number of news items mentioning AI in the headlines was 0.02%. This indicator has increased over nine years - from 0.0013% in 2010 to 0.0532% in 2019.
 </div>
 
 The technology was mentioned most often in 2019 (over 17.5 thousand times, 1.5 thousand times per month on average). It can be compared to the total number of AI references in media publications (not only in headlines, but in the texts also) which ICT.Moscow monitors within IT media trends monitoring. These dynamics also indicates a slight decline in the media’s interest in artificial intelligence compared to the previous year. 

 
 After Yandex’s data was processed, a ranking of top-20 cities which were most frequently mentioned in the AI news headlines was compiled.

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 The ranking cannot be considered absolute, as the number of mentions can vary upon the counting methods.

<h2>
 Moscow is the leader of the ranking
</h2>

 
 Moscow is leading by a significant margin: over one thousand mentions about the capital were found. Over half of all references in the context of artificial intelligence over ten years are from 2020, which is not over yet. The sharp increase in the number of mentions of Moscow happened against the background of overall decline in the number of references of this technology in the headlines.

 
 The main newsworthy event was the launch of experimental legal regulation in the field of AI: in different variations it was mentioned over 200 times. The other relatively frequently mentioned topics were:

<ul>
 <li>fighting COVID-19, first of all - diagnostics using AI in Moscow medical facilities;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.openculture.com/2020/03/watch-scenes-from-czarist-moscow-vividly-restored-with-artificial-intelligence-may-1896.html">video</a> of Moscow shot in 1896 and restored using a neural network</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>launch of a <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/projects/ai/">knowledge base</a> on artificial intelligence</li>
</ul>

<h2>
 Notable issues in other cities
</h2>

 
 Other Russian cities are less often but still quite frequently mentioned in the headlines of the news about AI. Saint Petersburg is the second most frequently mentioned city after Moscow, and over half of the mentions within the context of artificial intelligence are from 2019. The announcement about the opening of the national center for industrial artificial intelligence can be called the “news of the year” in the northern capital. The coffee shop where AI will be used to determine customer tastes was also mentioned quite often, as well as the establishment of Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

 
 The high position of Perm in the ranking was ensured by 2018 FIFA World Cup. When the event was being held, the news frequently featured predictions about the finalists and the winner of the competition. One of predictive AI models was developed in Perm University. As a result, the city was mentioned most frequently in the AI news headlines in 2018. However, a similar solution was presented by Perm scientists in 2013, in the lead-up to the Sochi Olympics (nevertheless, the city was not mentioned in the title of the publication). 

 
 Kazan, where digital technologies are being actively developed and implemented, was ranked 7th and was mentioned in several dozen more publications than Tyumen, which was ranked 8th. It should be noted that Innopolis which is located near Kazan was counted separately, it was also included in top-20 and was ranked 12th. Like in the case of Moscow, the largest number of Innopolis mentions occurred in 2020. The main newsbreaks were a web series about AI called “The last program” shot in Innopolis, and (also like in Moscow) - the development of neural networks for COVID-19 diagnostics.

 
 Skolkovo Innovation Center, which is not a city but can be considered an independent significant toponym, was mentioned 77 times over the past ten years. It was firstly mentioned in 2010, when it was founded. Then ABBYY received Skolkovo grant for development in the field of artificial intelligence. Since 2014, the Center was mentioned almost every year (except 2015), initially within the context about AI conferences, and later - in connection with the establishment of the Center for artificial intelligence development and other practical developments (for fighting cancer, for instance).

<h2>
 Perception of the technology
</h2>

 
 The study of the materials about artificial intelligence which was most often spoken about only in the last three-four years (see the graph with the total number of AI mentions in headlines by year) made it possible to assess how the perception of the technology has changed over time. In the beginning of 2010s, “artificial intelligence” was not perceived as an IT tool, but as a description of the behavior of computer game programmed characters. From 2014-2015 such interpretation became less common.

 
 In 2010, the media audiences were not used to seeing artificial intelligence as a standard IT tool. It is evident from the publications in the major media sources where AI self learning was interpreted as an evolution of artificial intelligence by analogy with living organisms. The concept of self-driving transport also was not formed: such developments (of Google, for example) were called “vehicles with artificial intelligence”. Nevertheless, already in 2010 Sergey Sobyanin, the Mayor of Moscow, spoke about the prospects of implementing intelligent systems in the urban environment. In particular, the Mayor proposed to implement them in the traffic management systems in order to reduce traffic jams.

 
 2013 can be called a turning point in the mass perception of artificial intelligence. In that year there was a more than two-fold increase in the number of publications about this technology. After that the dynamic of mentioning increased until 2018, when the growth decreased slightly.

 
 In 2013, artificial intelligence was practically no longer associated in the media with something fantastic, and was seen as a tool for fulfilling specific tasks, such as predicting the behavior of people at public events, recognition and processing of accounting documents, monitoring information from aircraft sensors, etc.

 
 Also, in 2013 people started talking about implementing AI in medicine: one of the most significant newsbreaks was the IBM Watson supercomputer, the artificial intelligence of which was used for treating cancer. At the same time, the publications about self-learning algorithms forecasting the emergence of dangerous strains which can cause a pandemic also appeared. 

<h2>
 Hype and corporations
</h2>

 
 Over the past 10 years, artificial intelligence technology has often been mentioned in the context of “hype” topics. It is well illustrated by the case of major sports events. The examples of neural networks developed in Perm were mentioned above in the text, but they are by no means the only ones. For example, during the 2018 World Cup, the artificial intelligence of Microsoft was also actively making forecasts.

 
 The AI references in headlines experienced the most rapid growth in 2016-2018, when the number of publications increased by 3-6 thousand per year (see graph). Just at this time, major players of the IT market were frequently mentioned in the news: Google (more than 600 publications in 2016 compared to around 250 in 2015), Sberbank (about 200 mentions in 2017), and Yandex itself (over 200 references in 2017).

 
 Thus, an increase in the number of references of the technology in news headlines is accompanied by an increase in the number of references of major IT players. Quite often the companies themselves created media hyping statements: a rock album recorded using a neural network for example, or the prospect of replacing thousands of Sberbank employees with artificial intelligence.

 
 By the way, the news about Sberbank dates back to 2016. In recent years, the company has recorded the fastest growth rate in terms of references in the context of artificial intelligence. In 2019, the bank overtook IT corporations on this indicator: it appeared in the headlines more than 500 times, whereas Google, which is usually leading, was mentioned only 350 times.

<hr />
 
 The analysis of news in the sphere of artificial intelligence over the past 10 years showed how much the perception of technology has changed during that time. Previously it was perceived as something fantastic, then it gradually became associated with an IT tool that can solve very specific tasks. And the understanding of AI as an analogue to the human mind started to be mentioned with the subscript “strong” (once in 2013 in a specialized IT publication, starting from 2016 - also in other sources).

 
 The dynamics convincingly demonstrates that various AI solutions in Russia have become firmly associated not only with hype topics, but also with cities. Most often - with Moscow, especially when it was announced that a legal experiment in the field of artificial intelligence was being launched locally. But other cities also make themselves known, regularly appearing in the headlines of the news about AI. It is not always about development: often about piloting, implementation, and practical use. The media usually covers these topics, meaning their target audience is interested in such issues.

An overview of AI mentions in news headlines in Russia since 2010.

Research: the most notable in AI news headlines in Russia over the past 10 years

Yandex launched Yandex.Pro, a unified platform and an application for self-employed individuals. It helps people to find a part-time job, keep track of their income and pay taxes, VC.ru reports.

 
 Both private individuals and self-employed entrepreneurs can connect to the service. The platform is based on Yandex.Taximeter.

 
 Application users can find and fulfill orders in various spheres in the services of Yandex. You can register as a self-employed person in the application. The users can synchronize Yandex.pro with “Moi nalog” (“My tax”) app of the tax service, so that all necessary payments and tax payments are transferred automatically.

 
 Drivers and car couriers of Yandex.Taxi are already connected to Yandex.Pro. The company plans to connect Yandex.Eats and Yandex.Lavka couriers and the Yandex.Uslugi (Yandex.Services) masters and Yandex.Toloka’s task performers to the service.

 
 Download Yandex.Pro in <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.yandex.taximeter" target="_blank">Google Play</a> and <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1496904594" target="_blank">App Store</a>.

 
 According to the Federal Tax Service, as of August 1, there are approximately 900 thousand self-employed individuals in Russia.

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/iandeks-zapustil-edinuiu-platformu-i-prilozhenie-dlia-samozaniatykh/" target="_blank">Original (in Russian)</a>

VC.ru

Yandex launched a unified platform and an application for self-employed 

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation endorsed six projects within the framework of the special regulatory regimes that can be implemented. This information was reported by TASS with reference to Ivan Zimin, Director of the Department of Financial Technologies of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. “We have received more than 60 applications within the sandbox, the piloting of 11 projects has already been completed, 6 projects have been endorsed, and decisions on 5 projects have already been made”, - said Zimin. 

 
 The Central Bank of the Russian Federation launched the regulatory sandbox in 2018. It is a testbed with no customers and operations where the prototype is being tested, and all risks are assessed together with government authorities and the business community. When the testing and piloting of the project are completed, the Central Bank either endorses it and develops legal regulation, or does not endorse the project for reasons related to economic risks and operational and information security risks.

 
 According to Zimin, the projects that were received by the Central Bank are mostly focused on digital rights, distributed ledger technology, biometric technologies and data analytics.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/tsb-odobril-shest-proektov-reguliatornoi-pesochnitsy/">Original (in Russian)</a>

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation endorsed six projects of the regulatory sandbox

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with Andrey Lipov, head of Roskomnadzor. They discussed the agency’s efforts to protect personal data.

 
 In particular, Lipov explained that there were a lot of problems in the field of processing personal data of the citizens. The agency estimates that there are about 5 million private companies processing personal data in Russia.

 
 Lipov proposed to extend the statute of limitations for cyber crimes to 1 year, to provide the legitimate authority to inspect the chain of data transmission from one processor to the next, to develop instrumental control over the processing of this data.

 
 In addition, according to Lipov, the state has the right to determine other countries that improperly process the personal data of citizens. He also offered "to think about clearer regulation" in the area of processing biometric data.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/glava-roskomnadzora-predlozhil-riad-mer-dlia-regulirovaniia-personalnykh-dannykh/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Head of Roskomnadzor proposed a number of measures for the regulation of personal data

The Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko noted that a special cloud solution was being created to organize interaction with IT companies. It will be used as the main platform for working out measures of state support for the industry. This was reported by Kommersant with reference to information from an online meeting of the Deputy Prime Minister with representatives of IT industry.

 
 According to the sources mentioned in the publication, Bitrix24 company is developing the solution. The company did not confirm this information.

 
 During the meeting, industry representatives presented proposals for state support measures. They discussed subsidizing up to 50% of the cost of supplementary education in the field of digital competencies on commercial online platforms, as well as establishing an online support platform for schools based on public-private partnerships.

 
 Dmitry Chernyshenko gave the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and the relevant federal authorities a task to form a “road map” for the implementation of the proposed initiatives. 

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/v-rossii-sozdadut-oblachnoe-reshenie-dlia-vzaimodeistviia-s-it-otrasliu/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Russia will create a cloud solution for interactions with IT-industry

Leadership of Russia according to Coursera and Mirosoft estimates,
commercial prospects of self-driving vehicles and other topics of the month - ICT.Moscow collected the most significant AI-related news of July in one digest.

<hr />
 
 Success of the Russian AI

 
 In July, Coursera <a target="_blank" href="https://www.coursera.org/gsi?ranMID=40328&amp;ranEAID=a1LgFw09t88&amp;ranSiteID=a1LgFw09t88-k7TyLSf8XEZbOeXVWZ9ZFA&amp;siteID=a1LgFw09t88-k7TyLSf8XEZbOeXVWZ9ZFA">published</a>&nbsp;a ranking of countries by the level of
training of IT specialists in different spheres. Russia was ranked first in two
out of three categories - “Technologies” and “Data Science”. Analysts named
Russia the country with the most highly-qualified specialists in software
development and working with data.

 
 As a part of the Global Pilots program for supporting
Russian startups, Microsoft Corporation has chosen the most notable artificial
intelligence projects. Their authors managed to reach an agreement on pilot
projects, establish contacts with international suppliers, start negotiations
with investment funds and receive grants.

<hr />
 
 High efficiency in medicine

 
 At the beginning of July it became known that
artificial intelligence algorithms had had<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/over-150-thousand-radiology-images-were-processed-in-moscow-with-the-help-of-artificial-intelligence/"> processed</a> 150
thousand chest radiological scans in Moscow, mostly for diagnosing COVID-19. So
far, the technology has been available in 48
in-patient clinics and 193 polyclinics. At the beginning of the month it was announced that AI would process not only
CT scans, but also X-ray scans to diagnose other diseases. The service has been
connected to 17 Moscow medical facilities.

 
 Against this background, the level of trust to
the technology among patients is increasing. It is confirmed by studies
<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/50-of-muscovites-positively-rate-the-use-of-ai-in-medicine/">conducted</a> by the Diagnostics and Telemedicine Center of the Moscow Healthcare
Department. The results are as follows:

<ul>
 <li>50% of Moscow residents positively assess the application of
AI in medicine</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>80% of them called the use of the technology reasonable</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>70%&nbsp; claimed that the
quality of medical health had improved.</li>
</ul>

<hr />
 
 AI is becoming more deeply-rooted in call centers

 
 Mango Telecom, Russian business telephony operator expanded the application
of artificial intelligence in call centers and launched a speech analytics
module to control the work of operators and to find out how actively they
promote goods or services.

 
 Neuro.net estimates that
63% of all center workers expect that AI will partially replace people in their
professional sphere. 13% of people are sure that AI will fully replace them.

<hr />
 
 Commercial prospects of self-driving vehicles

 
 At the beginning of July journalists of “RIA Novosti” filmed the
testing of Yandex.Rover, the company's autonomous delivery robot. ICT.Moscow
talked to the team of Yandex Self Driving Cars, and found out that the company uses Rovers in the streets of
Moscow on a regular basis to collect data and train machine learning
algorithms.

 
 In an interview
with ICT.Moscow, a representative of Yandex described where and under what
conditions the first commercial vehicles, both Rovers and
cars, would be introducted. The company noted that a phased plan for the introduction of the unmanned
vehicles in Russia would be further
developed. It will be submitted to the president in
August.

<div class="incut-block incut-block-text-small-size">
 &nbsp; You can read the interview&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/an-interview-with-yandex-self-driving-dars-on-the-prospects-of-driverless-future/">here</a>
 </div>
 
 Other Russian companies are also developing self-driving transport. In mid-July, the unmanned truck “Kamaz” was launched on
the territory of the Innopolis University. In northern Russia, the testing of unmanned trucks continues: the
government of Ugra has signed an agreement with one of the oil-producing
enterprises about another experiment in this field.

 
 Also in July it became known about the plans of
the Russian Ministry of Transport and “Russian Railways” to test computer
vision technologies for unmanned trains at a virtual test site.

Leadership of Russia according to Coursera and Microsoft, continued government support for AI, other topics of the month.

Digest about AI in Russia: top news in July

In spring 2020 Yandex applied to register 17
trademarks in banking, investment and insurance. 

 
 The representatives of the company did not
announce the project launch date and
noted that Yandex “often registers trademarks or patents, but not all of them
will be applied in the future. It is standard practice in big IT companies”,
Vedomosti reports.

 
 According to Vedomosti, Yandex does not aim at
creating its own bank, and the company plans to launch a financial ecosystem.

 
 At the end of June,
Yandex and Sberbank officially announced the separation of joint assets -
Yandex.Market and Yandex.Money. The transaction was completed a month later.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/iandeks-podal-zaiavki-na-tovarnye-znaki-v-bankovskoi-investitsionnoi-i-strakhovoi-sferakh/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Yandex applied to register trademarks in banking, investment and insurance

Yandex today&nbsp;announced&nbsp;it has expanded testing of its self-driving cars to Michigan. A fleet of Yandex’s driverless vehicles recently hit Ann Arbor city streets, including the company’s fourth-generation autonomous&nbsp;Hyundai Sonatas&nbsp;created in partnership with Hyundai Mobis.

 
 This will make Ann Arbor our third urban testing ground in addition to Moscow and Tel Aviv.&nbsp;

 
 Michigan has a very progressive and supportive regulatory environment for the development of self-driving cars. This allows for rapid development and advancement of the fleet in Ann Arbor. Unlike Moscow and Tel Aviv, where self-driving vehicles must always have engineers behind the wheel, in Ann Arbor more autonomy is allowed.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nhqyrze30bk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<div class="incut-block ">
 
 We are trying to use our testing locations to the fullest. For example, Innopolis is the only testing location in Russia that allows self-driving cars to transport passengers without regulations requiring that an engineer be present behind the driver’s wheel. This is where we launched Europe’s first robotaxi service two years ago and, since then, have made thousands of trips without a driver behind the wheel. Ann Arbor, with its bigger size and more progressive regulatory environment, will enable us to take this experience a step further.&nbsp;
 
 <div class="quote-owner">
 <div>
 
 Dmitry Polishchuk
 
 Head of Yandex Self-Driving Cars
 </div>
 </div>
</div>
 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://medium.com/yandex-self-driving-car/yandex-expands-its-self-driving-testing-to-ann-arbor-michigan-e1fdbab17303">Read more →&nbsp;</a>

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