American-Armenian Paolo Pirjanian, whose Embodied, Inc. company has created the Moxie AI robot, believes that there is significant potential for the development of robotics and artificial intelligence in Armenia.
In an interview to Armenpress, he claims while many countries possess oil, gas, and gold resources, Armenia’s most valuable resource lies in its intellectual capacity.
Paolo Pirjanian was born in Iran, moved to Denmark and then to the USA. He was interested in computers and programming from an early age. After earning a doctorate in robotics, he assumed a leading position in the field of consumer robotics. His impressive career includes work at NASA JPL. Pirjanian held leadership positions at iRobot, Evolution Robotics.
“In childhood, people go through many difficulties. For example, some children may have autism or other psychological problems. Sometimes the divorce of their parents can have negative impact on them. If no one helps them, these challenges can affect them for the rest of their lives. We have witnessed what happened in Artsakh, where thousands of children have been deprived of their homes, facing many trials. If we do not help these children, treat them psychologically, we cannot predict what will happen to them in the future. Consider the situation in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza — children in every corner of the world need help. There are specialists to address this problem: psychologists, but their services are often very expensive and inaccessible. We understood that technology can help in such situations. We have created the Moxie robot, which primarily focuses on EQ, developing emotional intelligence. Additionally, we have started working on IQ,” he noted.
Pirjanian stated that Moxie AI robot was born out of his problem.
“I was born in Iran, and we moved in 1975. As Christians, it was a very dangerous situation for us. My parents decided to send me to Europe. Being separated from my parents at the age of 11 was very difficult. That process caused emotional and psychological difficulties. Finding a solution to the problem was a big goal for me. I tried to do everything to help the next generation. I mean, Moxie was born out of my problem,” he said.
