Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today attended the opening of the Global Innovation Forum-2019: Transforming Intelligence.”

Welcoming the organizers, participants and guests of the Global Innovation Forum, Prime Minister Pashinyan emphasized the importance of holding such events in the Republic of Armenia from the point of view of regulating and developing human-technology relations.

I“From the very outset – from the start of the first industrial revolution – people used to be afraid of technology. And when the first machine tools came to substitute human labor, the artisans who were a very influential economic class at that time went into manufactories and smashed all the machines, since they had, at first glance, a very legitimate concern. Their chief concern was as follows: if machines happen to do the work that we, the humans are supposed to, then what should we do and how could we live on?” the Prime Minister said in his speech.

However, he said, time has led to an interesting reality. “It turned out that when a person’s hands are more or less free, his mind is first freed, and this mind gets the opportunity to conquer new territories. And, therefore, the development of technology is primarily the development of thinking, because new thinking has led to new technologies, new technologies have led to new thinking, and new thinking in turn has led to new technologies and so on,” PM Pashinyan stated.

“And therefore, when we talk about innovation, we must first keep in mind the innovation of thought, the innovation of thinking that actually changes the world, because in many cases, talking about innovation, talking about technology, people understand specific objects, tools or even programs, but in fact innovations occur in our thinking: in fact, the human mind is developing, and all these physical and even non-physical IT products are the product of the human mind,” he added.

According to the Prime Minister, one of the most pressing issues today is related to artificial intelligence, and the same fears naturally arise with the development of artificial intelligence.

“However, the history of technology gives us hope that the development of artificial intelligence will free the human mind in the same way that human hands and, as a result, the mind were freed during the first industrial revolution,” he said.

Pashinyan believes part of mental work that artificial intelligence should perform will free up space so that human thought, human mind, human thinking could embrace new horizons and spaces.

“And I consider it very important that today in the Republic of Armenia we can overcome fears not only with regard to technology, but also all our fears, since fear is the most important factor that always hinders development, hinders progress, hinders our desire for victory,” he stated.

To conclude with, the Prime Minister informed that the government has developed a very ambitious plan that should reach its peak on October 10, 2020.

“On this day, we plan to plant 10 million trees in the Republic of Armenia on the 10th day of the 10th month, which will symbolize the unity of 10 million Armenians around Armenian statehood, the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Armenia,” he stated.