In a significant move to shape the future of artificial intelligence, Russia’s leading technology corporations, including Sber, Yandex, and MTS, have collaboratively released a “White Paper on AI Ethics.” This document provides a rare and comprehensive look into how a major global power is formally addressing the complex moral questions raised by AI, offering a framework for governance that will be closely watched by international policymakers and competitors alike.
The paper confronts the most dramatic ethical scenarios head-on. On the issue of autonomous vehicles facing unavoidable accidents—the modern-day “trolley problem”—the consensus is that such life-or-death logic cannot be delegated to a machine. Instead, it calls for broad public discussion to establish ethical principles that humans must program into these systems. Similarly, it tackles the creation of “digital twins,” asserting that resurrecting individuals as digital avatars is only permissible with explicit, informed consent, or with profound respect for the memory and rights of heirs for the deceased.
Transparency emerges as a core principle throughout the document. Acknowledging the “black box” nature of many complex AI models, the paper stresses the need to develop methods for explaining how an AI reaches its conclusions, especially in high-stakes fields like medicine and law where decisions profoundly affect human lives. This extends to interactions, proposing a clear rule: a person must always be made aware when they are communicating with an AI, not a human, to preserve trust and informed consent.
The document also addresses the profound societal impacts of AI. It frames the technology not simply as a job destroyer but as a force for labor market transformation, placing a shared responsibility on the state and businesses to facilitate reskilling and ensure a just transition. Crucially, the paper openly admits that AI can inherit and amplify human biases related to gender, race, or social status from its training data. The proposed solution is a two-fold responsibility: developers must rigorously curate data and audit algorithms for fairness, while users must apply the technology ethically and report observed biases.
When AI inevitably causes harm, the question of liability becomes paramount. The white paper places primary responsibility on the human operator—the doctor, for instance, using an AI diagnostic tool—but recognizes that accountability extends across the entire development and deployment chain. This logic is applied to the justice system, where the paper firmly rejects the notion of an AI judge. While AI can serve as a powerful analytical assistant, it is deemed incapable of the nuanced, humane, and context-aware judgment that is the exclusive domain of human justice.
Perhaps most tellingly for an international audience, the paper draws a firm line against the use of AI for social scoring. It voices strong opposition to systems that rank citizens based on their perceived reliability or behavior, warning that such technologies lead directly to discrimination, social segregation, and the erosion of fundamental rights. This stance signals a clear divergence from models of algorithmic social control, emphasizing that technology must never be allowed to subvert the principles of equality and human dignity.
Ultimately, the Russian AI White Paper is presented not as a final set of rules but as an invitation to an ongoing dialogue. It frames ethics as the essential foundation for technological progress, not an afterthought. For the rest of the world, this document serves as a crucial declaration of intent, outlining how Russia’s tech sector aims to build trustworthy AI and assert its voice in the critical global conversation on an innovation that will define the 21st century.