Russia to Release Its Flagship Artificial Intelligence Models as Open Source
Sberbank is preparing to publish its most advanced AI models under open‑source licenses, marking the largest initiative of its kind in Europe and signaling Russia’s ambitions in the global AI race.
Europe’s Largest Open‑Source AI Release
Sberbank of Russia will soon make publicly available several of its most advanced flagship AI models. The decision, announced by Sber CEO German Gref at the AI Journey international conference, positions the initiative as the largest open‑source AI project in Europe. Some of the models will be released under licenses that allow commercial use.
The package will include models such as GigaChat Ultra Preview, GigaChat Lightning, the next‑generation speech recognition system GigaAM v3, and the Kandinsky and Kandinsky 5.0 models for image and video generation.
A Strategic Step in the Global Technological Race
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the AI Journey conference, where he interacted with GigaChat, learned about Sber’s AI‑driven services in health, science, and sports, and was introduced to Green — the first anthropomorphic robot developed by Sber.
The President was particularly impressed by GigaChat’s voice‑interaction capabilities: the model can converse almost like a human and recognize emotional cues. During his speech, Putin outlined an expansive national plan to create and deploy domestic AI technologies, emphasizing their importance for the country’s technological and values‑based sovereignty.
Sberbank’s decision to open‑source its flagship models highlights the readiness of Russian businesses for collaboration and signals the country’s intent to play an active role in the global AI competition.
