AI in National Languages and Workforce Training: Highlights From Day Three of the Global Digital Forum
Testing artificial intelligence in national languages, assessing the quality of urban services, and training specialists for the digital economy were the key themes on the third day of the 2nd Global Digital Forum, held in Moscow from October 8 to 10.
The GDF-2026 brought together thousands of participants from 120 countries. Representatives of government agencies, IT companies, universities, and the media took part in debates and sessions. Experts discussed how to adapt technologies to the needs of different markets and move from exploring new solutions to working together. Key topics included training engineers and management professionals, joint research, the development and regulation of artificial intelligence, and international media projects.
AI Must Understand Its Users’ Languages
At the session “Practical Workshop. Language. Culture. Data: AI for Low-Resource Languages,” participants examined the limitations of neural networks when working with languages for which little digital data is available. Firlie Hanggodo Ganinduto, head of the Digital Ecosystem Agency at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN Indonesia), believes AI quality and safety must be tested in the language in which it is actually used, taking cultural context into account. Relying exclusively on English cannot be considered an objective approach.
The differences stem primarily from the amount of material available to train and test generative models. Developers have access to large collections of text for widely used languages, but not for many others.
This means that translating an AI model’s interface into different languages is not enough to prepare it for international markets. Developers need to determine how accurately the model understands local queries, context, and regional cultural nuances while maintaining safety requirements. Many countries use AI in education and public administration, but far from all have the computing resources needed to build their own national AI models. Many also lack datasets in their native languages. For these countries, language-specific testing is a key concern.
The discussion highlighted another dimension of digital inequality: access to a technology does not guarantee the same quality of performance for everyone. Adapting models, creating language resources, and testing results are therefore becoming part of cooperation between developers and users in other countries. However, the proposal to test AI in national languages remains an expert recommendation. Participants did not announce the adoption of a mandatory international standard.
Smart Cities: From Project Counts to Quality of Life
The session “Panel Discussion. Smart City KPIs: New Standard of Quality” was included in the program on October 10. Its central question was how to assess the impact of technology on urban residents’ lives. Moscow presented its experience with large-scale deployment of digital solutions. The mos.ru portal offers more than 460 services, while over 130 projects use artificial intelligence. Eighty-three percent of Muscovites rate the impact of technology on their daily lives positively. These figures could inform discussions about cooperation with other major cities.
Central African Republic: Infrastructure Needs Skilled Professionals
One practical area of cooperation discussed at the forum involved HSE University and the Central African Republic. The partnership is developing under a knowledge-exchange program on digitalization and public administration for African countries. A signed agreement provides for workforce training and joint research.
Andrey Maslov, director of HSE University’s Center for African Studies, explained that the work began before the agreement was formalized. Mid-level managers and department heads from the Central African Republic had already completed training at the university and received diplomas in professional retraining. Experts also prepared a digital profile of the country, an analytical study now under review by the minister of digital economy and his team.
The agreement is expected to expand the involvement of Russian professionals in developing strategic digitalization initiatives for the Central African Republic. Research will help assess the feasibility of projects, including investment projects, and the conditions under which investments could be recouped. The university will provide the analytical groundwork, while decisions on launching specific projects will remain with their operators.
Roger Andjalangji, the Central African Republic’s minister of digital economy, posts and telecommunications, identified the shortage of qualified personnel as the main obstacle to developing the sector. The country has equipment and fiber-optic infrastructure, but engineers and technical staff are needed to put them to use. The Central African Republic hopes to train specialists in Russia so they can eventually work in their home country.
IT Education and International Partnerships
Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics (MTUCI) is also expanding its work with international partners. Agreements provide for training specialists in information security and telecommunications, as well as developing artificial intelligence and other information technologies. MTUCI Rector Sergey Erokhin sees this cooperation as part of Russia’s effort to export IT education. The university plans to finalize the technical details by the end of the year, with the first results expected in 2027.
The third day of GDF-2026 connected international discussions with the practical conditions for deploying technology. For AI, these include language adaptation and safety testing; for urban platforms, assessing service quality; and for educational projects, training qualified professionals. The longer-term results of this cooperation will depend on how these priorities are pursued after the forum through training programs, research, and implementation projects with agreed timelines and clearly assigned responsibilities.
