The development of artificial intelligence in Armenia should go hand in hand with the creation of its own scientific environment and take into account the country's cultural characteristics. This conclusion was reached by participants in the FAST discussion “From Classrooms to Innovation: Building Armenia’s AI Future,” held on September 10 in Cambridge.
Boston College Professor Chris Glass noted that Armenia has advantages due to its large diaspora, the ability to develop computing infrastructure, and attract specialists. At the same time, modern computing resources are not only equipment and data centers, but also specialists capable of using them to create new knowledge.
Separately, experts discussed the cultural sovereignty of small countries. According to Glass, global AI models are trained on large datasets, which could potentially lead to the formation of a peculiar cultural monoculture. One solution he proposed was the creation or additional training of models taking into account the national context.
MIT Media Lab researcher Harry Glorikian also noted the influence of global AI systems on children's perception of the world. FAST Executive Director Suzanna Shamakhyan emphasized that Armenia needs specialists capable of working with computing resources within the country and simultaneously competing at the global level. According to her, about 1.5 thousand students are already participating in the FAST Generation AI program.