Raffi Krikorian: Armenian tech has plenty top-level solutions

On October 14 Yerevan hosted the HIVE Summit 2017: Hacking Silicon Valley, attended by famous representatives of the American IT market, Silicon Valley in particular.

The event at Tumo Center for Creative Technologies was organized by HIVE, the initiative of the Hirair and Anna Hovnanian Foundation.

Itel.am talked with Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Democratic National Committee. Previously, he worked as Director of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center and VP of Engineering Platform at Twitter.

-During our previous interview, you stressed that Armenia should go for AI solutions. Do you see any moves towards that in Armenia since last year?

-Yes, I see there’s a bunch of stuff happening. FAST [Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology] has started its activities, and they’re doing machine learning training class these days. PicsArt also hosted machine learning training. A lot of people are on board, generally with the idea that Armenia is really good at math, science and engineering, I think there’s a lot of movement. I would love to see more around it, obviously, but I think we are going in the right direction.

Narine Daneghyan and Raffi Krikorian Mediamax
photo © Mediamax

-What do you think is lacking in the Armenian tech at this moment?

-Sadly, nothing really changed but things have gone better. I think there are more people willing to be involved and more international mentors who are eager to either bring their experience or bring companies into the global stage.

But at the same time there is always a funding problem, market fit problem, the debate of whether we should bring that product to the local or global market. For better or for worse, it’s the similar things that we were facing in the last 2 years. Just now we are trying to operate in bigger scales.

During my visit, I spent time with a few Armenian startups in Impact Hub and the companies I saw there were like wow. I didn’t realize that this is the level of things they are trying to do, like chess AI engine, and actually those things are pretty amazing. We couldn’t see that level like 5 years ago and we are seeing it today. I just imagine where it could be in 5 more years.

Raffi Krikorian
photo © Mediamax

The changes are visible. You have to step back and don’t necessarily look at year by year basis, but look at 5 year basis.

- According to you, what is the key change that may accelerate Armenia’s tech growth?
 
- We need more companies either operating on the international stage or having more brand recognition. We just need more examples of what success could look like and we need to inspire people to continue to dream big. I am not saying people are not dreaming big today. But having concrete examples that people can point to and say, “This is possible,” always does amazing things. This is where the ecosystem is trying to fill in gaps.

-You have moved from corporate to public sphere and started working for the Democratic National Committee of the U.S. How different is your job now from what you were doing in before?

- A lot has changed. Resources you have in the public world are very different from the ones in tech world. I came from two previous companies where I had internal budget, with which I could do what I wanted. In public world, we are trying to be more thoughtful and mindful. I think it’s important to try to balance and understand those two worlds.

-Was it a tough decision to leave Uber?

-No, I did everything I set out to do, similar to Twitter. I left Twitter after we fixed the service and I left Uber after we launched the first fleet of self-driving cars. I hate stagnancy, so I get a good milestone and then go and learn something new.

Raffi Krikorian
photo © Mediamax

The political world in U.S .is a bit broken right now, so it’s a perfect timing to go and try something new again.

- There’s a new President in America for around a year now. How does Trump impact the U.S. tech ecosystem?

- Trump is a polarizing figure regardless of what space you are in. He makes heavy use of Twitter and I built that platform. Twitter as company is “one of the biggest megaphones” in the world right now.

It is not about only tech world of the Silicon Valley, the entire U.S. is currently in a very divisive state due to our current president and we all are trying to figure out how we should react, given that.

- American tech leaders recently debated whether AI may become a real danger in the future. What’s your opinion?

- I think everything can be a threat if it’s not managed properly. The real problem is the question of how you train your algorithms. Work needs to be done to make sure we understand all the technology we are deploying to the world and all the implications around it. It’s less about is it going to be a threat and more about how do make it go in the right direction.

- Finally, please name 3 books you would suggest to our readers.

- From a technology, leadership standpoint, I would recommend Turn the Ship Around! that teaches you how to think about leading companies. In terms of how to develop products, I would recommend Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, a story of how PixArt came to life.  

Narine Daneghyan talked to Raffi Krikorian
Photos by Emin Aristakesyan