President Armen Sarkissian made a statement at the scientific seminar in the National Academy of Sciences: Armenia may become competitive in the area of artificial intelligence

Today, at the RA Academy of Sciences President Armen Sarkissian participated at the scientific seminar organized in the framework of the visit to Armenia of the delegation of Italy’s National Research Council.

Welcoming the guests, President Sarkissian expressed hope that Armenia and Italy will be able to cooperate closely in different areas. It should be noted that the visit of the delegation of Italy’s National Research Center is organized under the auspices of the Presidents of Armenia and Italy.

The President noted that the idea of the Italian delegation’s visit had been circulated months ago when he visited Italy and met with the President of Italy’s National Research Center, Professor Massimo Inguscio. “We both, as physicists, have many similar ideas, especially about the world, about the 21st century, and the role of science. We both are certain that in the 21st century the science will have a huge impact not only by moving one step forward our scientific mind. Science will become the locomotive which will move forward the industrial revolution,” President Sarkissian said.

The President of Italy’s National Research Center, Professor Massimo Inguscio in his remarks spoke with satisfaction about the fact that the Armenian-Italian scientific ties are expanding. “In Italy, not only we, the physicists, but also people from other areas know very well about the advantages of the Armenian scientists’ and researchers’ intellect and intelligence. For that very reason, we work and intend to intensify our cooperation with the Armenians; our development strategy should be a common one. Our research should be aimed at the development of the artificial intelligence science. The revolution, we are going through today, has a very important feature – it’s swift. This apparently fast revolution demands that our young people, as well as children, withstand new challenges and be ready for development and progress. Armenia and Italy need to work together to solve these problems,” Professor Inguscio said.

As a panelist of the seminar, President Armen Sarkissian said in particular, “The process of the institutional revolution is going on much faster than before. Scientific innovations and revolutions form the base of the industrial revolution. While speaking about that revolution, we have to talk about it also from the scientific point of view. We can divide the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st in two parts. Provisionally, I will call them the first and the second quantum revolutions in industry. When I say the first quantum revolution, I mean developments in industry and economy which followed the great inventions of the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, we had multiple industrial and technologies novelties which are familiar to us all, e.g. laser technologies or the invention of the transistor. But today, we have entered the era of the so called second quantum revolution where we will see new types of laser used not only to measure the distance between the satellites, but which will have a huge impact on, let’s say, agriculture, water management, or study of the climate change. It is all taking place every day, at great speed.

This proves once again the importance of science for the global development. The 21st century will be the time of the incessant scientific evolution and its practical implementation. Regardless of where you live - in the United States, Italy, or Armenia - to catch the train of the 21st century, you need to find your place in one or even two wagons on that train. Discussions related to artificial intelligence raise a question whether Armenia can be competitive. My answer is, of course, we can.

With the contemporary science, which demonstrates the merge and cooperation of industry and science, we are living through the renaissance of science. The 21st century will be a renaissance time for science.

I have been working for years on the theory which is called “The quantum nature of global risks.” It is about very simple, human risks, for instance, epidemics, terrorism, financial risks. In the globalized world, analysis of these risks creates an impression that the world is a body crisscrossed with the enormous quantity of nerves, and information is immeasurable. Just a droplet of artificial intelligence, and the world might become a sensible creature.

This is, of course, a figurative description, but the reality is the following: 200 years ago, an epidemic, which started somewhere in China, would reach Europe years later. Today, the first outbreak in China is followed by the second in Argentine or New York. The same goes for financial risks. All this of the quantum nature, first and foremost because of the speed it has. We live in a precisely that kind of the world.

The greatest information existing in the world of science and industry is the huge data and, certainly, the artificial intelligence. I am talking of the up-to-date servers functioning on the territory of several hectares, which are uploaded with certain mathematics; it allows the artificial intelligence to upgrade itself. These are the first steps of the artificial intelligence, a result of multibillion investments. This is the future which will change many things around, will change our lifestyle. Artificial intelligence will become critical.”