France-Kazakhstan’s AI discussions: Insights from the Astana Hub round table
A round table was held at Astana Hub, organized by the French Embassy in collaboration with Astana Hub and with the participation of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, aimed at discussing the outcomes of the “AI Action Summit” held in Paris in early 2025, as well as the prospects for cooperation between Kazakhstan and France in the field of AI, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports from the event.
The event brought together key Kazakh and French AI partners, including First Vice Minister of Digital Development Kanash Tuleushin, Ambassador of France to Kazakhstan Sylvain Guiaugue, and Astana Hub Managing Director Tanat Ukembaev.
Ambassador Guiaugue emphasized the political partnership between the two countries and the importance of legislative cooperation:
“First of all, we have a political partnership, and that was shown by Kazakhstan's participation in the AI Summit in Paris. (...) I think France and Kazakhstan can exchange experiences regarding the drafting of legislation and also the business environment in order to foster the development of companies.”
He also highlighted the importance of academic cooperation and joint projects, including digital connectivity and the smart city concept:
“Expertise France, which is our consulting company in the framework of the AFD Group, our development agency, is starting a digital connectivity project in Central Asia, including Kazakhstan. This is a project that is funded by the European Union in order, first of all, to enhance the digital connectivity all over the region, including in the provinces and in the rural areas, in order to close digital gaps in the region, and also to develop, with the help of the European Investment Bank, low-level satellites and networks all over Central Asia. There is also not only a commitment from France, but also the European Union, by providing grants in order to help Central Asia, Kazakhstan in particular, to develop its digital connectivity.”
Astana Hub Managing Director Tanat Ukembaev presented the AlemAI concept, which includes an AI museum, an educational center for 10,000 schoolchildren, Tomorrow School, an AI campus aimed at launching 100 startups annually, and R&D laboratories.
Ukembaev also stressed the significance of AI education and highlighted the successful Kazakhstani startup Pixel:
“I think this is a great example of how the talented engineers from Kazakhstan like leading this AI race, so especially in the video-generating sector, because you know they have a lot of competitors like OpenAI and Google, and the fact is that only four countries in the world have their own video-generating models, and Kazakhstan is now leading this race.”
Adding to the topic, Ivan Kononov, Director of HubLab.ai, highlighted the challenges Kazakhstani startups face in accessing global markets and emphasized the need for stronger government-backed AI collaboration, particularly with countries like France.
“The main focus nowadays must be on education about artificial intelligence, because nowadays everything changes so quickly, so fast. We need to work on information about AI; nowadays not everyone knows what AI is, what a neural network is, how to use it, what the benefits are, what the risks are, how I can help myself at home, at work, and so on,” he highlighted.
Jérôme Boyer, Director of Alstom for Central Asia, discussed AI applications in Kazakhstan, including fatigue monitoring for train drivers, predictive maintenance for locomotives, AI-powered security enhancements, and procurement optimization.
“I think all this is important for us; it is not to make sure that everything is safe, because what we do is need to interestingly be safe. And also, what is our level of cyber protection, cyber security, because this becomes more and more important for us in making sure that what we do is not exposing the TGS freight, for instance, to anybody? That's also the balance we have on AI today,” he said, stressing the importance of cybersecurity in AI implementation.
Earlier, it was reported that the Kazakh startup CelebraAI, which develops artificial intelligence for stroke diagnostics, had been included in the top 15 best AI companies in the U.S. and Canada.
