MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Sber annually invests about $1 bln in the development of artificial intelligence and the return reaches $3 bln, CEO of Sberbank Herman Gref said on Wednesday.
"Every year we invest around $1 bln in artificial intelligence technologies and get back around $3 per year," he said.
Gref also said he hopes that artificial intelligence would not replace him as CEO. "I hope not in my lifetime, but everything is heading in that direction," he said.
In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that "All efforts aimed at achieving specific goals in this area, of course, must be supported."
AI technologies are no less vital now than nuclear or rocket initiatives in the USSR - they are the future, Putin noted. "We are well aware that this (AI technologies - TASS) is the future," he said. "In terms of its significance for the country - for any country - this is no less significant than the Soviet Union's nuclear or rocket project, which was carried out in the mid-1940s and 1950s," Putin added.