Armenia has approved a seven-year program to develop physical artificial intelligence, with at least $14 million in planned investment, reports Zartonk Media. The government adopted it at its session on November 5.
Physical artificial intelligence sits where robotics and AI meet. It covers systems that can perceive the physical environment around them, make decisions, and carry out actions.
Half of the $14 million is to come from the state and half from the private sector. State co-financing is capped at the dram equivalent of 7 million dollars across the seven years, and money raised above that from non-state sources creates no further obligation for the state budget.
For the first year the state has allocated about 168,444,000 drams, roughly $467,000. Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan, who presented the program, said that sum goes mainly to the base salaries of scientists, with private money topping those salaries up to an internationally competitive level.
The main beneficiaries are Yerevan State University, the National Polytechnic University of Armenia and the American University of Armenia. The program will be carried out in partnership with the BAGIN Center for Sciences and Artificial Intelligence, a foundation established by the Armenian Society of Fellows.
Over the seven years the universities are to build a permanent scientific core of at least 3 long-term senior scientists, more than 12 postdoctoral researchers and more than 60 short-term invited scientists. At full implementation, 15 researchers are to be working at once: 3 senior scientists, 3 postdoctoral researchers and 9 doctoral or master’s students.
The Polytechnic University’s laboratory for intelligent systems and advanced control will be re-equipped and turned into a physical AI research laboratory. A second laboratory will be set up at one of the partner universities.
The program expects about 330 graduates in robotics and artificial intelligence at bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral level. Participation in the courses it develops will be free for applicants selected against the admission criteria, within the number of places available.
Other expected results include more than 20 publications in leading international journals and conferences, at least 2 invention patents, 2 major grants, and at least 5 startups or companies built out of the research.
“Higher education must not be separate from science, and this is exactly where research capabilities need to develop,” Andreasyan said. “This program will also contribute to our strategic agenda in this direction.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the next stage of AI development will move the technology out of the virtual world. “While we currently communicate with artificial intelligence in a virtual space for a specific purpose, the next generation, the next development, will involve interacting with artificial intelligence in the real world,” he said. “In future, we will face a robot with a specific appearance, shape and body, and, depending on its functions, arms and legs.”
Pashinyan tied that to Armenia’s industrialization goals. “I think we should at least aspire to have industrial capacity in this field in the Republic of Armenia, or be able to create a suitable environment for such capacity and investment,” he said.
He also pointed to expertise outside the country. “We have considerable expertise in this field within the diaspora, with people who are also ready and keen to see this sector and area develop in Armenia,” Pashinyan said. “We are now taking this decision so that we can open up opportunities for such developments, starting at the educational level.”
Dollar figures are converted at 360.4 drams to the dollar, the Central Bank of Armenia rate on November 5, 2026.
