Artificial intelligence - The Times Of Central Asia

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Artificial intelligence

Kazakhstan Prepares for China Investment Forum While Pursuing U.S. AI Ties

Kazakhstan will host a major investment forum with China in Almaty on September 25, with artificial intelligence expected to feature prominently among potential new agreements. The meeting comes as Astana deepens technology cooperation with Beijing while remaining part of the U.S.-backed Pax Silica initiative. Tokayev confirmed his participation in the forum in an interview with China’s Xinhua News Agency. “This forum is intended to serve as a platform for launching new concrete economic and investment cooperation projects,” the president said. In the same interview, Tokayev outlined potential cooperation with China in AI and digital technologies, ranging from industry, mining, and energy to transport, healthcare, satellite technology, and data centers. Some projects in these areas are already being discussed with Chinese businesses. During Tokayev’s July visit to Shanghai, Kazakhstan and Chinese companies signed more than 70 commercial agreements with a stated value exceeding $15 billion. They included projects involving Huawei, robotics development, AI in the automotive industry, and the Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz, where a complex with capacity of up to 1 GW is planned. Two International Initiatives in Three Weeks On June 25, Kazakhstan became the first country in Central Asia to join Pax Silica, a U.S.-backed initiative aimed at developing trusted supply chains for the AI economy. It covers areas including semiconductors, critical minerals, computing infrastructure, energy, and advanced manufacturing. Kazakhstan also signed a joint statement with the United States on an AI Opportunity Partnership. On July 16, Kazakhstan joined 28 other countries in Shanghai in signing an agreement to establish the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO). The organization, headquartered in Shanghai, says its goals include expanding international cooperation and developing approaches to global AI governance. Its other founding participants include Brazil, China, Indonesia, Russia, and the four other Central Asian states: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Beijing is promoting wider access to AI technologies and open models, workforce development, and greater participation by developing countries in setting international rules. China is also seeking to reduce its technology sector’s dependence on U.S. components. Kazakhstan, meanwhile, has remained part of Pax Silica. Washington Raises the Question of Choosing Sides On August 14, Reuters reported that the U.S. State Department had drafted a letter for countries partnering with Washington on AI. Countries participating in both Pax Silica and the China-backed initiative could be asked to choose between the two frameworks. A U.S. official told Reuters that Washington wanted a clearer separation between the American and Chinese technology ecosystems. The report specifically identified Kazakhstan as a participant in both initiatives and said its dual participation had raised concerns in Washington. At the time, the document remained a draft. There is no public evidence that Kazakhstan has received such a demand or that Washington has formally required Astana to choose between the two initiatives. Several weeks later, Tokayev argued in his Xinhua interview against dividing technology along geopolitical lines. “AI should not become the privilege of a narrow circle of the most technologically advanced states, much less turn into a new...

Education

Kazakhstan Tests AI After Finding 700 Errors in School Textbooks

Kazakhstan is testing artificial intelligence (AI) as part of an overhaul of school textbooks after the Education Ministry identified around 700 errors in existing educational materials. A pilot digital textbook platform is already being used in 40 schools while the authorities consider how AI could improve future editions. One of the more striking errors is in an 11th-grade history textbook, which still refers to the capital as Nur-Sultan, even though the name Astana was restored in September 2022. Education Minister Zhuldyz Suleimenova confirmed on September 8 that the textbook, last updated in 2024, will be reissued next year. Suleimenova referred to the pilot as AI-oqulyq, a name combining AI with oqulyq, the Kazakh word for textbook. It brings school textbooks together on a single platform and incorporates AI tools for working with their content. The ministry’s review covered educational materials from different publishers across 16 subjects. The problems identified include outdated information and factual inaccuracies. Publishers are required to correct and reissue problematic books at their own expense. The ministry has also referred the matter to the Department of Economic Investigations, part of the Financial Monitoring Agency, because some of the same errors remained despite an earlier allocation of public funds. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev publicly raised the issue of textbook quality in August. He was particularly critical of history materials containing unreliable information and accounts of supposed heroes and events that, he said, never existed. Tokayev argued that patriotic education should not be based on falsified history. AI is also becoming part of Kazakhstan’s school curriculum. Digital Literacy in grades 1–4 is being expanded to include artificial intelligence, while Computer Science in grades 5–11 is becoming Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. In grades 10–11, students are expected to study machine learning and neural networks and learn how to analyze data. Separately, Kazakhstan has begun piloting a national AI-powered education platform intended to personalize learning by adapting assignments to students’ abilities and identifying gaps in their knowledge. The first stage began in September in 10 small rural schools, with further expansion planned. At university level, Qazaq AI Research University in Astana is admitting around 600 students in its first intake for the 2026–27 academic year. Kazakhstan is moving relatively quickly to introduce the technology into schools, while education systems elsewhere continue to debate how generative AI should be used. UNESCO recommends a human-centered approach, with teacher training and safeguards to protect children and their personal data. Using the technology to check textbooks carries its own risk because generative AI can produce convincing text containing false information or incorrect dates. AI may help identify inconsistencies across large amounts of material, but expert review remains necessary before textbooks are published. For the Education Ministry, however, the more immediate challenge is correcting the hundreds of errors already found in school materials. The AI-oqulyq pilot will test whether the technology can help prevent similar mistakes from reaching classrooms.

Artificial intelligence

Kyrgyzstan’s NineNineSix Takes On Global AI Voice Market

In February, Kani TTS 2, a text-to-speech (TTS) model developed by Kyrgyzstani startup NineNineSix, ranked among Hugging Face’s top three trending TTS models, according to Kyrgyzstan’s High Technology Park. Hugging Face is sometimes described as the “GitHub for AI.” At $5 per million characters, NineNineSix’s listed price is lower than several paid TTS offerings from ElevenLabs and OpenAI, while Google’s range includes both cheaper and more expensive models. The company illustrates how rapid advances in AI are creating opportunities for entrepreneurs from Central Asia. NineNineSix, whose name refers to the Kyrgyz Republic’s international calling code, +996, grew out of a problem its founders encountered when using third-party pre-trained models at their previous startup. Using its own data, the team fine-tuned those models but remained dissatisfied with the results. Those models sounded robotic and were too resource-intensive and slow, creating a bottleneck. The team concluded that building its own model was the only way to achieve the quality it needed. [caption id="attachment_54711" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Founders Ulan Abdurazakov, Nursultan Bakashov and Denis Pavlov[/caption] Not the First Try NineNineSix co-founder Nursultan Bakashov tells The Times of Central Asia: “Building our own models felt like the natural next chapter of the story we’d already started writing. In the age of AI, the only real choice is to do AI.” Bakashov founded the company in 2025 with Ulan Abdurazakov and Denis Pavlov. He and Abdurazakov had previously worked together, co-founding Makers Bootcamp with a third partner in 2019 to train people for careers in technology. Three years later, they left Makers Bootcamp to focus on AI. They became active in the Kyrgyz Republic’s AI community, organizing events and training for several years. The community now has more than 1,800 members. Their work there led to The Cramer Project, which they launched with Timur Turatali, formerly of EY and Citibank, and Pavlov, who had moved from Russia to the Kyrgyz Republic. The company developed AkylAI, which it describes as Kyrgyzstan’s first AI-powered smart speaker. The name refers to Akylai, a common female name in Kyrgyz; the element “ai” means “moon” and often appears in Kyrgyz names. In October 2023, AkylAI was named a winner in the Unicorn from KG program, run by the High Technology Park of the Kyrgyz Republic. It also took part in Draper University’s Hero Training incubation program in Silicon Valley. The following year, AkylAI was selected for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s first Star Venture cohort in the Kyrgyz Republic. It was also presented at KIT Forum 2024, Bishkek’s flagship annual technology event. That year, The Cramer Project also tested CorePod, a smart speaker designed to support mental health and sleep. CorePod was intended as a global product, beginning with the United States market. The team says the company became the first Kyrgyzstani startup admitted to the LAUNCH incubator in May 2024. CorePod was later pitched to Jason Calacanis, a Silicon Valley angel investor, and featured on his This Week in Startups podcast. An upgraded version of AkylAI was presented...

Transport Digitalization

Kazakhstan Rolls Out AI Tools Across Its Transport Networks

Kazakhstan is turning to artificial intelligence to help decide where its airlines should fly and which roads need repair, while other systems aim to move freight across its borders faster. The projects are part of a series of government digital systems intended to increase the country’s role as a regional transport hub. Air One of the most prominent projects is Echelon Alpha. The platform analyzes passenger demand and competition between aviation hubs to assess the economics of individual routes. It has already identified around 30 promising routes that could generate additional direct or transit passenger traffic for Kazakhstan. The full list has not been made public, although its developers have cited a potential Hyderabad–Astana–Moscow connection as an example of a route modeled by the system. Kazakhstan’s favorable location between China and Europe does not automatically turn Astana and Almaty into international aviation hubs. They have to compete for transit traffic with airports in Baku and Istanbul, as well as those in the Gulf states. According to Kazakhstan’s Transport Ministry, the model processed data covering around 200 million flights over the past five years, along with approximately 170 airline reports. It also combines geomarketing data with information from open and commercial sources. Its claimed forecasting accuracy is up to 90%. “Echelon Alpha uses artificial intelligence to analyze market dynamics in real time and provide a basis for fast, accurate solutions,” said Echelon Alpha founder Rakhman Asambayev in an interview with Forbes Kazakhstan. The system assesses the commercial viability of new routes and their potential effect on the economy. Its developers estimate that the proposed network could have an annual economic impact of around $153 million, although the figure has not been independently verified. Kazakhstan is also introducing biometric Q-Gate terminals at its airports. They verify passport data against facial biometrics in 15 to 50 seconds, four to five times faster than standard checks, according to government estimates. Road Launched around two months ago, e-Joldar uses AI to track road conditions and repair spending, while also collecting data on the quality of construction materials. More than 25,000 miles of national roads have already been digitized. By the end of the year, monitoring is expected to cover the country’s entire road network of around 115,000 miles. Smart Cargo may have a more immediate effect on international freight operators. The platform combines data from 58 information systems in a single digital portal. Authorities say operators can access cargo information through a QR code. AI checks documentation and identifies the necessary permits, while the platform helps determine routes and tracks shipments. The government says Smart Cargo has increased border-crossing speeds by 30% and cut carrier waiting times by a factor of 10. These figures are based on government estimates. Rail On the rail network, digitalization is being paired with major capacity expansion as Kazakhstan pursues its transit ambitions, including through the Middle Corridor. KinetiX performs contactless diagnostics of rolling stock. Government figures indicate that it has reduced technical inspection times by 30% and manual measurements...

Cybersecurity

Uzbekistan’s Cerberus Wins Road to TechCrunch Regional Final

Uzbek startup Cerberus has won the regional final of Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026, earning a ticket to San Francisco. For Uzbekistan’s young technology industry, the result is another sign of its push beyond the domestic market. For Cerberus, the challenge is now to convince international investors and clients that an AI tool developed in Tashkent to find vulnerabilities can compete in the global cybersecurity market. Cerberus took first place in the regional final on August 12. WeGlobal AI finished second, followed by LOOQ. Twenty-two startups reached the final after being selected from 726 applications from 39 countries. Uzbekistan was represented by six projects. The three winners will represent Central Eurasia at Startup Battlefield 200 in San Francisco. TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will run from October 13 to 15. Twenty of the 200 companies will be selected to pitch on the main stage, with five advancing to the final round to compete for the $100,000 equity-free grand prize and the Disrupt Cup. The three regional winners will share a $100,000 investment pool, with Cerberus receiving $50,000. Competition rules state that each investment will be made on standard market terms in exchange for equity. Astana Hub Ventures and IT Park Ventures are providing the funding in partnership with Silkroad Innovation Hub. According to the organizers, the winners will also receive a combined $100,000 in OpenAI API credits. Cerberus founder and CEO Aziz Akhmedkhodjaev told The Times of Central Asia that two factors were behind the company’s success: the product and the team’s ability to explain the problem it solves. “I would say there are two main things here. The first, of course, is the product. Everyone understood that we had created something the market really needs,” he said. “I think that was the key to winning. I didn’t spend a single second of the pitch on anything other than clearly explaining the problem, how the solution works, and its potential.” Cerberus describes its product as an AI-powered cybersecurity system capable of finding vulnerabilities in corporate applications and IT infrastructure. Demand for such tools is growing alongside the spread of generative AI: companies and individual developers can write software faster, but the volume of code that needs to be checked for errors and potential attack vectors is also increasing. “Literally everyone is writing code with artificial intelligence now. Vulnerabilities, coding errors, and other weaknesses are appearing much faster,” Akhmedkhodjaev said. The company says Cerberus allows users to give its AI agent access to an application or IT infrastructure and task it with finding vulnerabilities. The agent can also test authentication and perform other security checks. According to Akhmedkhodjaev, however, using a general-purpose AI model for such work can itself create risks. “If you give Claude or another AI access to a vulnerability in a real bank, even the smallest mistake can lead to serious financial losses,” he said. The company says Cerberus is designed to restrict what its AI agent can do after identifying a weakness. “In our project, there is a...

AI Content Creation

Kazakhstani AI Creator Alissa Kamorskaya on the Rise of AI Animation

Kazakhstani model and AI content creator Alissa Kamorskaya runs Chudno, a school and agency specializing in AI-generated content. Kamorskaya began publishing AI cartoons in February 2026, and one of her videos has since received more than 30 million views on Instagram. The Times of Central Asia spoke with her about the rise of AI animation and the role of social media algorithms in driving views. TCA: You began creating AI cartoons before the format became widespread in Kazakhstan. Why do you think your most-viewed video attracted such a large audience? Alissa: I think several factors played a role. One was that when I made my most-viewed cartoons, almost no one in the post-Soviet space was using this format. I posted my first one on February 3 this year. I wanted to tell my followers how I met my husband, but I simply didn’t have any video footage to illustrate it, so I decided to turn it into a cartoon. The views quickly took off, my social media audience started growing, and I realized it was a very promising niche. AI cartoons have now become hugely popular. You can see animated videos recommended on social media getting as many as 100 million views. They have spread across social media so quickly that it feels as though AI cartoons have been around for a long time. In reality, broadly speaking, they have only been this widespread for about six months. TCA: Why does animation work so well with a mass audience? Alissa: I think it’s because animation is almost universal. Very often it doesn’t need words at all. A cartoon can be understood by someone of any age, from any country, speaking any language. Someone could be sitting somewhere in Cambodia, see the video, and still understand what is happening. So the potential audience for this kind of content is enormous. TCA: Do you see that in the geographic breakdown of your audience? Alissa: I analyzed the statistics for several videos and noticed that a lot of viewers come from Turkey and Iran. I think that is partly connected to how my characters look. They have dark hair and darker skin, so viewers in those countries may find them more familiar-looking. I often see comments in Turkish under the videos, and I can tell that people recognize themselves in these characters. Visual identification is very important here. It works much like it does in movies, or when we were children and picked a favorite character and said, “I’ll be this one.” We want to recognize ourselves in characters and identify with them. TCA: Before AI animation, you ran a conventional blog for about five years. Why did cartoons change things so dramatically? Alissa: I had been blogging for about five years, constantly filming myself, and my audience barely grew. For several years, my follower count stayed at around 3,000. Everything changed only when I switched from making what I personally liked to what interested a much wider range of people. I used...