Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — On 1 July, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed plans for the development of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and telecommunications. As part of the country’s strategic course toward technological modernization, it was announced that $50 million will be allocated to create the infrastructure necessary for AI implementation.

According to Sherzod Shermatov, Minister of Digital Technologies, in an interview with the Oʻzbekiston 24 TV channel, a program of 100 priority projects aimed at integrating artificial intelligence into the activities of government institutions was presented to the president. Some of these initiatives have already received presidential approval.

The minister also reported the launch of a small GPU cluster based on NVIDIA chips, which will initially be used to implement AI in healthcare. Simultaneously, work is underway to build a large computing center — a major cluster that will form the backbone of a large-scale AI infrastructure in the country.

Special attention is being given to workforce training and improving digital literacy among the population. Following the president’s directive, educational initiatives have begun, including the creation of the online platform aistudy.ai, which offers free AI courses provided by the United Arab Emirates. In the future, the platform will host training programs developed in cooperation with other countries.

As previously noted by Oleg Pekos, First Deputy Minister of Digital Technologies, by the end of 2024 a powerful GPU cluster based on the latest NVIDIA Blackwell B200 processors is planned to be installed. This resource will be used both for testing AI projects in sandbox environments and for training domestic AI models.

A differentiated access system to computing power is planned: socially-oriented projects will be able to use resources free of charge, while commercial products will pay for access. In addition, domestic startups will receive access to the necessary data for training models, creating a favorable environment for growth and experimentation in artificial intelligence.

Experts believe that developing domestic computing capacity and working with national data is key to accelerating technological progress, especially given the limitations on using foreign infrastructure. This new approach is expected to lay a solid foundation for the large-scale adoption of AI in Uzbekistan.