Inside Kazakhstan’s push to become a regional AI centre

A young woman in a sleek bun and a jacket with Kazakh patterns smiles from the screen at a directors’ meeting of Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. But SKAI (or Samruk-Kazyna Artificial Intelligence) is not the first woman to join the all-male board: She is the first artificial intelligence programme with voting rights to support the company’s push for greater transparency and better governance. In Kazakhstan, AI is the new talk of the town, and part of its new branding and modernisation agenda to improve public services, attract investment and diversify the economy beyond reliance on raw materials.