In Ashgabat, the results of the "Hi-tech Startup Turkmenistan 2024" competition were announced at the International Science and Technology Park of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan. This event was organized as part of the International Conference and Exhibition on attracting high technologies and innovations into the country's economy.
The event created a special atmosphere of responsibility for the finalists. They presented their inventions not only to local visitors but also to numerous foreign guests, including Alexander Okunev, a representative of the Skolkovo Foundation.
According to the competition rules, the authors of 12 interesting projects that reached the final had to give five-minute presentations of their startups, after which the jury was to select the three most promising ones.
Young innovators offered their developments, including artificial intelligence with Turkmen language support, useful applications, and other "smart" technologies aimed at being helpful in everyday life.
After evaluating all the presented ideas and holding a brief meeting, the jury announced the three winners. First place was awarded to the "Unite" project, second place to the "Allsounds" project, and third place to the "Biar delivery" project.
Encouragement coupons for discounts to participate in the incubation program of Ashgabat's "Startup Academy" were awarded to the "Allsounds" and "Soulin" projects. Additionally, the authors of the "DormWave" project received the opportunity to take a training course for free.
The "Soulin" team's idea, focused on developing an artificial intelligence system for speech synthesis and generation in the Turkmen language, sparked lively interest among the guests.
"Currently, the most popular AI application, GPT-chat, can return text responses in Turkmen. However, it does not work in audio format, which significantly limits users who, for various reasons, cannot type or read text," said Allan Kazakov, the chief AI engineer at the "Soulin" startup.
Essentially, the project developed by Turkmen enthusiasts is "Alice" (a virtual voice assistant), only in Turkmen language. The authors note that the proposed model can be implemented in various sectors of the economy, from call center automation to managing household devices in "smart" homes.
Congratulating the participants of the startup competition, Alexander Okunev, a representative of the Skolkovo Foundation, invited Turkmen enthusiasts to participate in events at the Moscow Innovation Center. Additionally, the winners of "Hi-tech Startup Turkmenistan 2024" will be able to receive free consultations from Skolkovo experts to refine their projects.
