Russia plans chatbot platform for teenagers’ ‘moral and spiritual development,’ experts say it won’t work

Russia’s Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, known as Rosmolodezh, has put out a tender to build a unified platform for guiding young people through “life situations” and ensuring the “comprehensive moral and spiritual development” of teenagers, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reports.

The agency plans to spend 95.6 million rubles on the service. Under the project specifications, the contractor must build a system to receive and process incoming messages via email, personal messages through Rosmolodezh’s chatbot — including through the messaging app Max — project groups on VK, and a voice support line.

The system is intended for participants and graduates of Rosmolodezh programs. Through email, social media, and chatbots, teenagers are to receive “stable, personalized, and empathetic support.”

In the agency’s vision, the unified system is meant to draw young people into politics and enable communication with citizens on matters related to “preserving and strengthening traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.”

The platform will also collect and analyze young people’s “current requests, thematic trends, and behavioral patterns” and identify the most common problematic life situations they face.

Political scientists polled by Vedomosti said the agency was unlikely to effectively promote traditional values or engage young people through a chatbot, noting that such work requires qualified human psychologists.