President Sarkissian attended the gala dinner of the Global Innovation Forum: We need to work hard and be very disciplined

President Armen Sarkissian attended the gala dinner of the Global Innovation Forum named “Transforming Intelligence” organized by FAST (Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology).

The event is held in the framework of Aurora Forum. President expressed thanks to the founders of the Aurora initiative – Vartan Gregorian, Nubar Afeyan, and Rouben Vardanian, and noted that they are the persons who have made their contribution to Armenia’s science, technologies, innovation, and charity areas. Speaking of the forum and activities of the FAST, President Sarkissian assessed it as a path toward the future. “This not only a path toward the future but also a return to reality,” Armen Sarkissian said. “And the reality is that at the moment, we live in the world where we are not the only country, republic of city which will be competing for technologies.” The President noted that today the world is once again standing at the crossroad of changes. “The world is changing rapidly,” he said. “Our future, undoubtedly, will be artificial intelligence, mathematical modeling, and the large volume data management. This forum will help return to reality. We cannot boast about what we have reached in the IT area only because it is not an ultimate result. We cannot deceive ourselves by saying that we are the only and the best. We are competing with the entire world. There is only one path which will lead us to victory in that competition: It must become a national mission, mission for all of us, mission for all our friends who believe in Armenia, who are ready to assist us. We have to consolidate our entire knowledge, know-how, our brilliant minds wherever they are, in the Silicon Valley in California, New York or Cambridge University, France, Italy, or Russia. We must work hard and be very disciplined because we are going to compete with the best in the world.”

He urged not to be afraid of artificial intelligence but rather embrace the changes. “Hundreds of millions new jobs have been created in the world thanks to IT,” the President of Armenia said. “Artificial intelligence will create billions of jobs, and this is not something to be scared of because machines and artificial intelligence lack a number of qualities which belong to humans only. There is one fundamental feature: Artificial intelligence, machines make no mistakes unlike us, humans who make errors. But to err in an environment where rules and laws are present is the only path toward evolution. It means that an error, which is human, is a powerful tool. And there is no chance that artificial intelligence can beat the real intelligence.” According to the President, our people have proved through the history that are able to triumph in different areas, and now new opportunities for advancement have come forward.