The Far East’s potential is the foundation for successful AI integration into key processes — Maxim Oreshkin

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Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a tool for boosting productivity and overcoming logistical constraints, while the Far East, with its demand for workers and new infrastructure projects, could become one of the most important regions for AI adoption and the scaling of autonomous solutions. The Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office of Russia, Maxim Oreshkin, discussed this with international experts during the session "Asia-Pacific: A Testing Ground for Technology", held at the National Centre RUSSIA branch in the Primorye Territory as part of the Open Dialogue "The Future of the World. A New Platform for Global Growth". The event was held with the support of the Centre for Cross-Industry Expertise "The Third Rome". The livestream is available on the National Centre RUSSIA website.

The discussion focused on the transition from pilot AI projects to widespread technology adoption, regulation, the development of embodied AI and autonomous systems, technological sovereignty, and the role of humans in the new technological environment. Participants explored practical questions: how to regulate cutting-edge technologies without slowing their adoption, where AI is already delivering measurable economic benefits, and what technological sovereignty means in practice. The keynote speaker was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office of Russia, Maxim Oreshkin. The discussion also featured Shaoshan Liu (China), Director of the Embodied Artificial Intelligence Center at the Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society (AIRS); Sam Majid, First Head of Malaysia's National Artificial Intelligence Office (NAIO, 2024–2026); and Ankush Sabharwal (India), Founder and CEO of CoRover.ai and Head of BharatGPT. 

Maxim Oreshkin emphasised that people must remain at the heart of technological transformation and that the impact of AI adoption should be assessed by its practical benefits for people and the economy. The future is not about choosing between humans and artificial intelligence: only humans can understand context, make decisions and take responsibility for their choices.

"When we talk about artificial intelligence, the most important thing is the human being. Where AI is being adopted most actively, the benefits are already measurable. Modern digital tools help programmers write code faster, researchers work with datasets that would previously have taken months to process, and the creative industries automate routine tasks and free up time for ideas themselves. In medicine, AI helps doctors notice things they might otherwise miss, and this translates into lives actually being saved. Russia is taking a practical approach here: not declarations, but services that work. The question of whether or not to use AI is no longer being asked — practice has already answered it. But speed must not come at the expense of quality. No algorithm can replace a person, their experience, responsibility or understanding of why all of this is being done. People set the goal, and they remain responsible for the outcome. The state's task is to create conditions in which adoption genuinely delivers benefits, remove barriers and bring technology through to practical and meaningful use," Maxim Oreshkin said. 

The first part of the session focused on the conditions under which regulation can support, rather than impede, the development of new technologies and help move them from experimentation to practical adoption. Sam Majid, First Head of Malaysia's National Artificial Intelligence Office (NAIO, 2024–2026), shared practical experience of shaping national AI policy and the institutional architecture for its implementation.

"Innovation develops particularly successfully when citizens are involved in the development of artificial intelligence. People should always remain at the centre of the regulatory framework and make the final decisions. This is the principle that guides us at Malaysia's National Artificial Intelligence Office," Sam Majid noted.  

The discussion then turned to the areas in which voluntary commitments are sufficient and those in which clear requirements and oversight are necessary, as well as the criteria for successfully moving beyond the pilot stage and how the state can create conditions for the adoption of AI technologies without taking the place of the market.

In the second track of the session, experts examined the conditions required to scale intelligent solutions successfully. The focus was not only on algorithms and models, but also on the industrial base, energy, communications, equipment, system maintenance, workforce training and accumulated experience of working with real-world data. Particular attention was paid to an open modular stack and standards that can reduce integration costs, make components easier to replace and create a market for interoperable solutions. 

Shaoshan Liu, Director of the Embodied Artificial Intelligence Center at the Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society (AIRS), focused on the development of embodied AI, robotics and autonomous systems, linking the prospects for this field to the development of an industrial and component base.

"Twenty years ago, China channelled significant resources into a new sector — electric vehicles. At the time, many criticised those investments as a waste of money, but today Chinese cars dominate the market. What is interesting here is not only the development of this sector of the economy: robotics today uses around 70% of the same components or the same supply chain," Shaoshan Liu noted.

According to him, the development of intelligent systems will become one of the key drivers of the global economy in the coming years, while labour, capital and technology — the traditional foundations of economic development — remain just as relevant and continue to underpin this process.

A significant part of the discussion focused on the practical meaning of technological sovereignty. Maxim Oreshkin identified three components: infrastructure and models, data, and platforms and services.

"We have three important pillars of sovereignty. The first is infrastructure and models: the technological, fundamental level. The second is data: where it is stored, because any data contains far more information than it may appear to, and if it is located outside the country, the question is how and for what purpose it may be used. And the third is the level of platforms and services into which artificial intelligence solutions are integrated. You can have foundation models, energy and computing capacity, but it is important to retain control and understand how all of this is interconnected. Otherwise, sovereignty will have to be built again from scratch," Maxim Oreshkin noted. 

The final track of the Open Dialogue at the National Centre RUSSIA branch in Vladivostok focused on the use of data and international cooperation in intelligent technologies. Ankush Sabharwal, Founder and CEO of CoRover.ai and Head of BharatGPT, presented sovereign AI as an architecture of products and infrastructure in which not only the origin of the technology, but also the ability to control it, is of fundamental importance.

"Sovereign AI is not simply about creating technology within a country. For me, five elements are fundamental: domestic deployment, control over the system, training on national data, local hosting of applications and inference, and cultural alignment of the model," Ankush Sabharwal said. 

At the same time, international cooperation was viewed not as an alternative to technological sovereignty, but as an opportunity for countries to develop their own capabilities and retain control over critical technological infrastructure while using compatible standards and the opportunities offered by international technology partnerships. This approach is particularly important for the Far East: the region is a major testing ground for new technologies and is also closely connected to Asia-Pacific markets. In these circumstances, technological sovereignty does not mean isolation, but the ability to control critical data and infrastructure, ensuring system resilience while preserving freedom of technological choice.

As the event concluded, participants agreed on the key role of humans in technological transformation. AI can increase productivity, automate physical and intellectual tasks and expand the capabilities of professionals, but goal-setting, responsibility and final decision-making remain with people.

The international expert project Open Dialogue "The Future of the World. A New Platform for Global Growth" is implemented by the National Centre RUSSIA in partnership with the Centre for Cross-Industry Expertise "The Third Rome". The expert session was held in Vladivostok for the second time, continuing the international discussion on the future of the global economy and new models of global development. Since its launch, the project has brought together more than 3,000 essay authors and experts from over 120 countries, who have presented their ideas, projects and proposals.