Artificial intelligence will bestow influence on a par with nuclear technology to countries able to get ahead now, a top Russian AI executive said, giving them superiority this century.

Axar.az, citing Reuters, reports that Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy CEO of Sberbank, which is evolving from a major lender into an AI-focused technology conglomerate, said that it was an achievement that Russia ranks among seven countries with home-grown AI.

"AI is like a nuclear project. A new 'nuclear club' is emerging globally, where either you have your own national large language model (LLM) or you don't," Vedyakhin said in an interview at Russia's annual AI Journey event.

Russia must have at least two or three original AI models, not "retrained foreign models", for use in sensitive areas such as online public services, healthcare and education, he said.

President Vladimir Putin said last week home-grown AI models were vital to preserving Russian sovereignty. Sberbank and tech firm Yandex are leading efforts to catch up with U.S. and Chinese rivals.