Putin orders Russian government and Sberbank to develop AI cooperation with China, TASS says

MOSCOW, Jan 1 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia's government and the country's biggest bank, Sberbank SBER.MM, to develop cooperation with China in artificial intelligence, state news agency TASS said on Wednesday.

Western sanctions intended to restrict Russia's access to the technologies it needs to sustain its war against Ukraine have resulted in the world's major producers of microchips halting exports to Russia, severely limiting its AI ambitions.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Andrew Heavens)