Uzbekistan launched the Five Million AI Leaders project in December 2025 at the International Artificial Intelligence Forum in Tashkent, jointly with the UAE. The initiative is backed by a Presidential Decree adopted in October 2025 and aims, by 2030, to train 4.75 million schoolchildren and students, 150,000 teachers, and 100,000 civil servants in artificial intelligence. The programme integrates AI into school, vocational, and higher education, and is supported by a new supercomputer cluster developed in partnership with Nvidia. President Mirziyoyev described the initiative as a continuation of the One Million Uzbek Programmers programme.
Who it affects: Students at school, vocational, and university level; teachers across the national education system; and civil servants — all three groups have specific numeric training targets within a presidential programme that carries the force of executive mandate.
What is notably missing: The initiative sets ambitious targets but does not define minimum AI literacy standards, mandatory assessment criteria, or an enforcement mechanism to verify that training actually reaches all targeted individuals. Teacher training numbers are ambitious but pre-rollout certification requirements are not specified.