Toqayev Calls for AI to Be Prioritized as Strategic Priority

The President has called the development of artificial intelligence a strategic priority for Kazakhstan, Orda.kz reports.

At a meeting on AI development, President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev instructed the government to transfer all communications containing citizens’ personal data to a secure national messenger.

He noted that such information is often transmitted via international services, creating risks of data leaks abroad. According to Toqayev, the domestic Aitu app can provide the necessary level of protection.

AI is becoming a key factor in global competition and economic growth. According to UNCTAD forecasts, by 2033 the global AI market will grow to $4.8 trillion, with its share of the tech industry increasing from 7% to 29%, Toqayev said.

He set a goal for Kazakhstan to become a Eurasian digital hub and a fully digital state within five years. To achieve this, the government and the Agency for Strategic Planning must prepare a comprehensive AI and digital transformation program with input from international companies and experts.

He stressed the need to prevent data leaks: over 40 major incidents have been recorded in Kazakhstan since the start of the year, the largest occurring in June.

Toqayev placed particular emphasis on AI in healthcare, where massive datasets are already available. He said digital tools should help doctors with diagnosis and treatment, and that bureaucracy should not hinder the growth of medical startups.

The government has three months to present measures for using AI in public services and processing citizen requests. Kazakhstan also needs its own AI law, Toqayev said — one that draws on international experience but reflects national priorities and attracts investment. 

He highlighted the importance of training: the AI-Sana program should cover both students and teachers, and the innovation ecosystem must attract and retain talented developers. The President ordered key proposals for AI development to be submitted to him within two months.

The development of artificial intelligence is a strategic task directly tied to Kazakhstan’s future. The Ministry of Digital Development must coordinate all participants, including the private sector. Time is short — we cannot sit idly by, he said.

Earlier, we reported that Kazakhstan received its first supercomputer powered by the NVIDIA H200, to be located in Almaty. According to Kazakhtelecom, it can process 6.7 million CUDA cores with a performance of 1,600 petaflops and tens of terabytes of GPU memory.

The new cluster will be available to government agencies, national companies, and businesses for tasks such as modeling man-made risks, analyzing transport flows, assisting doctors with diagnostics, and training proprietary language models independent of foreign servers.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov