Hardware Basis for Russian AI: Present and Future

Date: January 25, 2024
Edition: IT ChannelNews
Author: Maxim Belous

IT Channel News interviewed IT industry experts and published an article in three parts called "Hardware Basis for Russian AI: Present and Future". The speakers interviewed included Evgeny Chuverin, Head of the Software and Corporate Systems Group of the Merlion Marketing Department.

The growing popularity of generative artificial intelligence is largely keeping the global server market from recession; the shares of the main developers and manufacturers of chips for solving AI problems, such as Nvidia, AMD, and TSMC, are steadily growing. At the same time, Russian customers wishing to deploy such systems on-premises or in the clouds (both local and public) risk being cut off from the most advanced hardware platforms for generative AI due to external restrictions. According to recent surveys by Avito Rabota and Tochka Bank, 24% of employees in Russian companies already use artificial intelligence technologies in their professional activities, although 85% of commercial enterprises are not ready to interact with generative AI in the cloud.

"If you believe the results of the survey," says°Evgeny Chuverin, Head of the Software and Corporate Systems Group of the Merlion Marketing Department, "business representatives most often solve the problems of working with customers, collect analytics, plan processes, process requests, and write texts with the help of AI. All these tasks, except, perhaps, the last point, are difficult to do outside employment. Cloud solutions of large providers trained on a huge array of data are better suited for some tasks. If you need to solve specific problems, training on client data is preferable. The problem is to understand what your task is and choose relevant data”.

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The focus of the present-day computing system on AI is mainly determined by the presence of a sufficiently powerful graphics adapter with extensive video memory, which is much better optimized for calculating complex neural networks than the "CPU + classic RAM subsystem" combination. Do the existing import channels to Russia manage to ensure sufficient volumes of such components to meet the existing demand?

Evgeny Chuverin, Head of the Software and Corporate Systems Group of the Merlion Marketing Department, reminds that"ARM is the same proprietary architecture as x86: as soon as something effective is done on this platform, it can also become sanctioned."

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How much more difficult is it today to produce an AI server or AI PC in Russia compared to the classic configuration of such computers? After all, the main problem is not even in the hardware. It is not the hardware itself that is important for the customer seeking to use AI on-premises but the ready-made platform along with a ready-to-use generative model - a kind of AI-oriented PAK.

“If there is a demand for mass PCs and servers with built-in AI in Russia,” believes Evgeny Chuverin, Head of the Software and Corporate Systems Group of the Merlion Marketing Department, “such PCs and servers will certainly be manufactured in the required quantity and in the shortest possible time. As for software, there are 174 lines with a tick "Software belongs to the field of artificial intelligence" in the Register of domestic software now. And the developers of many non-AI solutions are thinking about how to integrate artificial intelligence into their products, so we will not be left without artificial intelligence-based programs, either. It should also be borne in mind that the state stimulates the demand for artificial intelligence. Thus, the Ministry of Economic Development stated in October that the introduction of developments in the field of AI will be one of the conditions for obtaining 13 measures of state support for medium and large businesses. We will see the results in the coming year. According to the National Center for AI Development under the government, the AI market "organically" grew by 18% in 2022. Similar data for 2024 and subsequent years will clearly demonstrate how stimulating measures work.”

Judging by the forecasts given by IDC and Canalys for the PC segments and servers of the global IT market for 2024 and beyond, the share of AI-enabled computers will grow steadily in the total volume of deliveries. Is this observation true when applied to the Russian market?

Evgeny Chuverin is convinced that the share and demand will increase: "This is true both for Russia and for the whole world. I would like to add that the PC market has been in decline for two years after the "early COVID" boom, so our manufacturers need good news. " The claim that AI will become one of the market drivers is no worse than the forecasts about delayed demand stimulating the growth in computer sales. The recipes for promotion are trivial: developers need to create a working product, demonstrate its capabilities to partners, and help them finalize the product for the needs of customers. There is no "royal path" here. As for distributors, while AI solutions are usually not "boxed" products, our specialists from the Merlion demo center who have experience with a wide variety of software can help partners integrate AI solutions into the customer's corporate landscape."