Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced the opening of a new AI lab in Astana at Kazakhstan’s Digital Bridge forum, marking a significant expansion of the messaging platform’s AI capabilities. The lab will focus on developing decentralized AI technology that combines artificial intelligence with blockchain, potentially serving Telegram’s billion-plus users while positioning Kazakhstan as a central hub for East-West technological collaboration.
The big picture: The Digital Bridge forum showcased Kazakhstan’s emergence as a major AI development center, with world leaders and tech executives emphasizing the country’s strategic position to bridge Eastern and Western innovation.
• Hungary’s President Tamás Sulyok highlighted how Kazakhstan has become “one of the hubs of technological development,” noting the importance of innovation flowing from multiple directions rather than just one.
• The forum brought together over 67,000 participants from more than 100 countries since its inception, with 500 startups and nearly 500 investors participating in business programs.
Key details: Telegram’s AI lab will be housed at the Alem AI International Center and will initially collaborate with Kazakhstan’s supercomputer cluster launched by the Ministry of AI.
• Durov revealed Telegram has been “quietly” working on technology at the intersection of AI and blockchain for several months.
• The new technology will allow “more than a billion people to use AI features powered by a decentralized computing network in a private, transparent, and efficient manner.”
• Telegram will serve as both the first consumer and major supplier of computing power for this network, built on principles of transparency, efficiency, and privacy.
What they’re saying: Tech leaders emphasized AI’s transformative potential while calling for strategic approaches to its development.
• “After spending countless hours talking with business leaders, government officials, and students here in Kazakhstan, I can say with confidence that this country chose hope, optimism, and excitement,” Durov said about Kazakhstan’s AI approach.
• Kai-Fu Lee, CEO of Sinovation Ventures, described AI as “the most significant technology humanity has ever developed,” comparing it to “a system that increases its IQ by 30 points every year, while reducing its cost tenfold each year.”
• Stanford professor Ilya Strebulaev challenged the audience: “Seven out of the top ten companies today in the world did not exist 50 years ago. Based on my research, my provocative prediction is that five of ten companies that will be the largest 20 years down the road either don’t exist today or are very small VC-backed startups.”
International partnerships: Several major collaborations were highlighted as examples of Kazakhstan’s growing tech ecosystem.
• G42 International, an Abu Dhabi-based AI development company, has partnered with Kazakhstan to launch Central Asia’s first supercomputer and build a smart city in Astana.
• The company is scaling AI across Kazakhstan’s strategic industries through a joint venture with Samruk Kazyna, the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
• These partnerships represent “architects of a shared future together,” according to G42’s CEO Mansoor Al Mansoori.
The venture mindset: Experts emphasized the need for countries to adopt entrepreneurial approaches to capture AI’s economic potential.
• Strebulaev noted that seven of the top ten U.S. companies by market capitalization were venture-backed, constituting 86% of their combined market value.
• He projected that unicorn creation time has accelerated from seven years fifteen years ago to less than four years today.
• The venture mindset involves “principles that great venture capitalists and visionary leaders use to transform disruptive innovation into opportunity.”
Educational transformation: Google’s Peter Norvig highlighted AI’s potential to democratize high-quality education globally.
• AI tutoring could “level the playing field and allow students from disadvantaged backgrounds to compete with anyone, and allow smaller countries to match the biggest ones.”
• He cautioned that “technology should support human interactions and bonds, but not replace them,” applying to both workforce and educational contexts.
• Governments should focus on creating innovation centers like Alem AI while ensuring privacy, security, and cross-border data flows.
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