Kazakh creatives and researchers are struggling with Western AI models that fail to represent Kazakh features and culture due to limited local data online. To address this, teams in Kazakhstan are developing their own AI tools using Kazakh-language data.

Astana

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

Kazakhstan is taking steps to address the lack of local representation in artificial intelligence by developing its own AI models. Western AI systems, widely used in the country, often fail to accurately generate Kazakh facial features or reflect local perspectives due to limited Kazakh content online. Researchers at Nazarbayev University have created text and image-generating models using Kazakh data, which have quickly gained popularity despite hardware limitations. The government is working to expand digital infrastructure, including the launch of Kazakhstan's first supercomputer, to support the growth of these local technologies. This approach may serve as a model for other nations seeking to assert their digital identity.

Kazakhstan builds local AI to overcome Western bias

Inju Allenbeck runs the marketing department at a video production company in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city. Her team uses artificial intelligence models like Midjourney, Craya and OpenAI to speed up production and enhance visuals. But importing Western technology means importing Western biases. Western AI models are not trained to generate Kazakh facial features. They generate the Asian ones but they are not the same with our Kazakh features. AI generates output, having been trained on archived samples. It scrapes the internet for information and its answers are based on material most commonly read. All of these models, Chinese, American, European, are trained on the data in the internet. And when you look at the internet, you realise that more than 50% is in English language. And it just mainly has North American and European viewpoints. Because Kazakh content makes up just 0.03% of global online content, the country's voices, perspectives and faces are largely absent from the digital world. This leaves limited Kazakh data for AI models to train on. Which means the content produced isn't readily relatable to a Kazakh audience. But local researchers are building alternatives. At Nazarbayev University in the capital Astana, teams have developed text and image-generating models built on data from a Kazakh context. It's so successful that they are already struggling to match the demand for their product. We are running them on limited hardware and we observe that during a working day they are reaching their maximum capacity. So a high number of users are using them. But in order to scale this you need to find more servers. We are hoping that in Kazakhstan there will be cloud computing services provided. The government is working to expand digital capacity. In July, Kazakhstan unveiled its first supercomputer. A leap that could transform the country's ability to process data at speed. But Inju's production company will have to wait a while longer to reap the benefits. What Kazakhstan is doing with AI may be local. But it could offer a digital template for other nations, showing that with the right investment, even smaller nations can shape their digital future on their own terms. Joe Barnes, TRT World, Astana.

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Kazakhstan builds local AI to overcome Western bias

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