Kyivstar and the WINWIN AI Center of Excellence under the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine have selected Google's Gemma as the base model for training the large language model (LLM). Gemma, Google's next-generation open AI model, has been proven effective in both international and domestic projects. Kyivstar is the Ukrainian Government's strategic partner and operational lead for developing the national LLM.
The company invests heavily in technological innovation and digital services, including integrating AI solutions into its long-term technology transformation strategy. The Ukrainian LLM will serve as the foundation for building digital AI-powered public and business services, improving service quality and organizational efficiency. The selected model will be adapted for the Ukrainian language, with plans to: Improve the Ukrainian tokenizer, which will enhance the model's performance in Ukrainian, reduce errors in generating Ukrainian-language text, and optimize computational costs; further train the model on unique Ukrainian texts currently being collected by experts; and create benchmark tests to fine-tune the model for future applications.
Key advantages of this model include: Optimal balance between performance and resources -- Gemma delivers high quality with reasonable infrastructure requirements, making it one of the best open models in terms of its size-to-quality ratio. Together with VEON, Kyivstar intends to invest USD 1 billion in Ukraine between 2023-2027, through social investments in infrastructure and technological development, charitable donations and strategic acquisitions.
