Kazakhstan has set its sights on artificial intelligence as a means to reform its economy and bolster internal security. While the country has not yet defined a comprehensive national AI strategy, the government laid out an AI and smart technologies agenda in 2017 as part of its "Digital Kazakhstan" programme.
Key goals include creating new tech-driven industries, boosting productivity through automation and AI, attracting foreign investment to reduce dependence on natural resources, and strengthening social governance and welfare.
However, Kazakhstan faces significant hurdles in realising these ambitions. The country scored just 45.78 out of 100 in the Government AI Readiness Index, with its weakest area being the technology sector. A shortage of qualified IT specialists and low R&D spending (just 0.13% of GDP in 2021) are major barriers to innovation.
Prime Minister Askar Mamin has acknowledged that Kazakhstan "simply does not have such financial means to develop its own AI technologies." The country is looking to foreign investors and international partners to help bridge this gap.
Kazakhstan has taken initial steps to regulate AI, with a 2021 presidential decree addressing AI accountability. The decree calls for determining responsibility for harm caused by AI systems and resolving intellectual property rights for AI-created works.
In 2022, the government issued an action plan setting out tasks to develop the concept of artificial intelligence, including its use, status and legal consequences. Proposals for codifying rules on AI, data processing and related technologies are due by the end of 2023.
On data protection, Kazakhstan amended its personal data law in 2020 to mostly align with the EU's GDPR following major data breaches. However, unlike the GDPR, Kazakhstan's law does not include the right to not be subject to automated decision-making or require data protection training.
Facial recognition and smart city technologies are becoming increasingly widespread in Kazakhstan, sparking concerns about privacy and surveillance overreach. These developments include installation of facial recognition systems on buses in 2019, launch of the "Smart Aqkol" city with AI-powered video surveillance, plans to spend $23 million on facial recognition in Almaty, and use of facial recognition to enforce COVID-19 quarantines.
Many of these systems rely on technology from Chinese firms like Hikvision, which is under U.S. sanctions. Activists worry this could enable a "totalitarian surveillance state."
Kazakhstan has increased engagement with international bodies on AI governance. The country endorsed UNESCO's AI ethics recommendation and participated in its drafting. Kazakhstan also joined 70 other nations in calling for an international framework on autonomous weapons systems at the UN.
However, Freedom House rates Kazakhstan as "not free", citing restrictions on political rights and civil liberties. Corruption also remains a serious concern across public and private sectors.
Kazakhstan sees AI as key to economic diversification and modernisation, but faces major hurdles in funding and expertise.
This country report is our interpretation and summary of the "CAIDP Artificial Intelligence & Democratic Values Index 2023". The full report can be found here - https://www.caidp.org/reports/aidv-2023/