Winners of the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence in Astana may receive prizes from Telegram totaling more than $106.5 thousand. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The company's co-founder Pavel Durov, who has been placed on an international wanted list in Russia, said on social media that he is looking for a way to safely transfer the award.
"The Russian team took first place in the team standings, and Artem Gorokhov from my hometown won the individual competition. Great! I am also happy for the host country, Kazakhstan, whose representative, Dauzhan Beketov, was noted with the second result in the individual standings. We are contacting the organizers to safely transfer prizes from Telegram (more than $106,500) to the winners next month," the message on Durov's official Telegram channel reads.
The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence IOAI 2026 took place in Astana from August 2 to 8. It brought together about 500 schoolchildren, mentors, and jury members from 106 countries. For the first time, competitions of this level were held in Central Asia.
In the individual standings, Artem Gorokhov from Russia took first place, Dauzhan Beketov from Kazakhstan took second, and Shao Zixi from China took third. In the team standings, the Russian team won.
Following the Team Challenge, special nominations were awarded to teams.
In Russia, the Telegram co-founder has been charged with aiding terrorist activities and placed on an international wanted list. According to the Russian FSB, the charges are linked to the dating chatbot "Daivinchik" on Telegram. Roskomnadzor stated that it had previously sent the messenger's team more than 150 thousand demands to remove prohibited content, but they were not fulfilled, after which Durov was added to the list of terrorists and extremists.