«We Need to Check That»: AI Minister Flustered in Front of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev questioned officials’ claims about Kazakhstan’s digital progress during an expanded government meeting, Orda.kz reports. 

Zhaslan Madiyev, the minister for AI and digital development, told the president that more than 600,000 people use domestic AI-models. Tokayev said the figures should be verified.

A short exchange between the president and the minister went as follows:

Tokayev: «How many people currently use Kazakh LLMs?»
Madiyev: «According to our data, more than 600,000 people.»
Tokayev: «And ChatGPT?»
Madiyev: «ChatGPT is used by hundreds of millions worldwide.»
Tokayev: «In Kazakhstan?»
Madiyev (after a short pause): «About 13% of users.»
Tokayev: «That needs to be clarified. And how many people use the domestic messenger Aitu?»
Madiyev: «As of today, around 700,000 users — almost a million.»
Tokayev: «We need to check that. Sit down.»

In the same briefing, Madiyev also reported plans to connect 1,900 villages to fiber-optic internet, expand communications infrastructure along all national highways, provide internet access on key passenger routes operated by Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, and introduce onboard internet for a domestic airline for the first time. 

Kazakhstan is actively developing its own artificial intelligence ecosystem aimed at supporting the state language and addressing local needs.

Key large language models (LLMs) in Kazakhstan

• KazLLM (ISSAI KAZ-LLM): Kazakhstan’s first national large language model, developed by the ISSAI Institute at Nazarbayev University in partnership with Beeline and QazCode. It was trained on 148 billion tokens in Kazakh, Russian, English and Turkish.
• Tilqazyna: A model specifically designed to support learning and preservation of the Kazakh language.

Original author: Ilya Astakhov