SEVASTOPOL, May 31. /TASS/. Russia’s Defense Ministry will set up an Artificial Intelligence Department with its own budget by the end of this year, Mikhail Osyko, a member of the government’s Military-Industrial Commission, said on Monday.

"I can say that the Defense Ministry has made a decision to set up an Artificial Intelligence Department… All these measures should be completed by December 1 this year. Correspondingly, a customer for artificial intelligence will begin functioning in the Defense Ministry from next year," Osyko said at a conference on artificial intelligence being held as part of the International Industrial Forum in Sevastopol.

The Artificial Intelligence Department will have its own spending and deal with the tasks similar to the competencies of the Defense Ministry’s Department for Advanced Inter-Discipline Research, he noted.

"I believe that this will be a tremendous breakthrough we should take advantage of if we manage to launch this effort, carry out work and introduce results. The Defense Ministry will be a good engine in this process, especially from the viewpoint of practical application, something that is missing today," the expert added.