Artificial intelligence (AI) is modern society's most remarkable change force. The leading countries competing in the AI market have already designed AI strategies to educate and sustain the best and brightest AI talents from an early age.
Armenia also has the potential to compete in this market and may be positioned as a global hub for pure AI research due to its strong advantage in mathematics (World Bank, 2020). However, nowadays, the country has a severe shortage of talent working with AI tools and on research projects. Moreover, the AI education pipeline is also broken with poor quality of math education at schools, few universities providing data science and AI-related degrees and the absence of PhD programs.
The official statistics and years of experience in the field indicate that scale programs such as ADVANCE aim to create conditions for top-notch research activities in the country. We urgently need to develop a pipeline of talents guiding them towards research careers.
The "Generation AI" program is an initiative of FAST aimed at fostering a new generation of AI researchers equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in an AI-driven world.
It’s a multi-stage program that starts at the school level.
The program is designed in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports of Armenia. It will be integrated into the public education system to ensure sustainability and support systematic change. The partnership with different NGOs and industry specialists is provisioned to serve as a model that features the robust public-private partnership.