September 2022 — Carrington Malin

Blogs, writing, published articles, media interviews and other news
September 29, 2022
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Dubai Metaverse Assembly took place this week, drawing together technology experts, innovators and government policymakers from all over the world and connecting with tens of thousands of virtual attendees. Many visions, opinions and predictions were shared at the event but on one thing they all agreed on: Dubai is leading the way in creating metaverse policy!

The Dubai Metaverse Assembly took place at the Museum of the Future and the Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai this week (28-29 September), drawing 500 technology experts, innovators and government policymakers together from more than 40 prominent local and global organisations. Following on from the Dubai Metaverse Strategy announced in July, the event certainly did its job of capturing the attention of global metaverse and Web3 leaders. More than 20,000 people worldwide watched the event virtually.

Many visions, opinions and predictions were shared, including new metaverse phrases such as Gross Metaverse Product and B2A (standing for business-to-avatar). However, the broad consensus at this event was that the future remains hard to predict! No one really knows how long the grand metaverse concepts that the technology industry has will take to come together, when our new and existing virtual worlds will become interoperable or what regulation is required to govern the metaverse. Meta intimated that many of the concepts being talked about today will take decades to become virtual reality.

One thing that technologists, investors, businesses and finance professionals did seem to agree on, was that the metaverse demands forward-looking policymaking and for governments to proactively set the agenda. They also all agreed that this was exactly what the Government of Dubai was doing, as one delegate put it ‘at light speed’, fast-developing the environment that metaverse, Web3 and DeFi businesses need to create and grow.

Delivered in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation, H.E Omar Sultan AlOlama Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence delivered a compelling case for why Dubai was well-positioned to become a global metaverse hub. The Dubai Metaverse Strategy will both capitalise on Dubai’s strengths and invite metaverse firms to help shape how Dubai leverages the new technologies and develops new policy.

The Dubai Metaverse Strategy echoes some of the Dubai Blockchain Strategy announced in 2016, which included a goal for all Dubai government documents to be moved to blockchain. In recognition of the fact that there were both huge opportunities, yet many unknown facts, the government formed the Global Blockchain Council. Inviting global blockchain leaders and local innovators to contribute, the new council set about identifying how blockchain technology could help government, specific use cases and steps that would need to be taken to move forwards with the emerging technology.

As touched on in last week’s Middle East AI News, the Government of Dubai has worked hard to position itself to better identify, assess and act on upcoming digital and technology opportunities. It’s open engagement of the private sector, combined with its agility in policymaking now allows the emirate to move forward quickly and purposefully with initiatives like the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, together with supporting policy and regulatory frameworks.. This, in turn, provides developers, innovators and platforms with the confidence to use Dubai as a based to push ahead with their own plans.

Keith Jordan, Vice President Innovation, Mastercard Labs summed it up in comments made on Day Two of the Dubai Metaverse Assembly, “What’s really amazing is that the [Dubai] vision is being set from the top down. That’s really important, because you need to set that North Star.”

And that’s what Dubai’s become extremely good at. Finding that ‘North Star’ and setting the coordinates.

This article was first posted in my weekly Middle East AI News on Linkedin.


September 16, 2022
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The Global AI Summit 2022 brought together thousands of business leaders, policymakers and technology experts in Riyadh this week. Organised by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, or SDAIA, under the theme of ‘Artificial intelligence for the good of humanity’, the event showcased the breadth and depth of the Kingdom’s National Strategy for Data and AI.

This week saw the second edition of the Global AI Summit took place in Riyadh (September 13th – 15th), bringing together a world-class roster of speakers with thousands of influential delegates under the theme of ‘Artificial intelligence for the good of humanity’.

Some may be quick to dismiss such conference themes for being a little too ambitious, or perhaps not representative of the conference content itself (often speakers at these things end up talking about what they want to talk about, regardless of any theme). However, this week’s Summit seemed to truly serve its stated purpose!

At the same time, the event gave us a glimpse of how the Kingdom’s National Strategy for Data & AI – which was officially launched at the first Global AI Summit in 2020 – is beginning to affect all aspects of Saudi Arabia’s public and private sectors, society and culture, education, R&D and policymaking.

For those close to the Kingdom’s data and AI initiatives, a lot of what was shared was perhaps already common knowledge. However, the Summit clearly went to great lengths to create a platform to engage decision makers and policymakers from across all sectors of business, government and society. Government departments, Saudi businesses and global technology firms were able to showcase a wide range of data and AI projects, many of which have been fast-tracked to begin delivering results at the earliest point possible.

Under the ‘for the good of humanity’ theme, the Summit also gave the government the opportunity to show that it is striving to ensure policymaking takes into account all aspects of local society and positions the Kingdom as a desirable partner for global organisations, businesses, plus other sovereign nations that want to embrace digital transformation.

Alongside the big deals such as SCAI‘s investment in a $207 million SenseTime Middle East and Africa joint venture, and Saudi Aramco‘s new $250 million ‘Global AI Corridor’ initiative, the government announced a new partnership with the I.T.U. to develop a new Global AI Readiness Framework, and that it was joining The World Bank’s Digital Development Partnership (DDP), which helps developing countries leverage digital innovations.

Was the Global AI Summit a big public relations exercise then? Well, of course it was, and by many accounts, a very successful one. However, it is the carefully curated content and discussion of the Summit that made it especially meaningful to the national AI strategy’s broad objectives and to other nations trying to reap the benefits of AI.

When one considers that the organiser of the conference, the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) was first formed just three years ago and that the National Strategy for Data & AI was approved by the Saudi King little more than two years ago, the progress made since, is quite astonishing. The speed and effectiveness of government digital transformation programmes, not to mention the enormous investment in digital infrastructure, has also inspired Saudi businesses to ‘step up to the plate’.

Equally impressive is the public support that AI has in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It may come as no surprise that, in sync with many countries worldwide, 77 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s government IT decision-makers are prioritising AI (Yougov/SAP 2022). Afterall, this is becoming the norm.

What is more unexpected is the level of support for AI technologies amongst the Saudi public. According to a World Economic Forum survey conducted by Ipsos at the end of last year, some 80 per cent of respondents from the Kingdom expected AI to change their lives, compared with less than half of respondents from Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., or from the U.S.

‘Artificial intelligence for the good of humanity’ becomes all the more meaningful, when your whole country is engaged in the objective.

This article was first posted in my weekly Middle East AI News on Linkedin.