August 2023 — Carrington Malin

    Blogs, writing, published articles, media interviews and other news
    August 29, 2023
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    Proving the value of Naval USVs

    There are powerful forces driving the Middle East’s unmanned systems sector, but perhaps the biggest catalyst for focusing the attention of the US Navy and that of its partners on integrating unmanned systems with naval operations so far has been 5th Fleet-based Task Force 59.

    Captain George Galdorisi, writing for the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) wrote about the Digital Horizon naval exercise, which took place in the Arabian Gulf last year. The exercise set out to trial and test the integration of unmanned systems, AI and big data analysis with traditional naval forces. He was kind enough to credit some of my analysis on Task Force 59’s activities, originally published in Middle East AI News.

    You can read Capt. George Galdorisi‘s full story in The Maritime Executive here.

    You can also read my original article on Task Force 59 here:

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    August 19, 2023
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    The Middle East is buying a lot of AI chips

    We are moving into a new era enabled by artificial intelligence, with both enormous potential and enormous risk. This makes AI and access to AI technologies a growing geopolitical issue.

    The Middle East is buying a lot of AI chips, but an FT news story, which came close to claiming that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are hoarding processors, stirred up some global controversy!

    The focus from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on computational research and development across government, national companies and academia, has resulted in an upswing in the demand for high performance computing power. For example, HP is currently building Shaheen III a 100 petaFLOP supercomputer for KAUST (King Abdulla University for Science and Technology). That system alone will use nearly 3,000 NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips.

    Arabian Gulf Business Insight (AGBI) asked me to comment on the global availability of AI chips, the demands for high performance computing in the Middle East and whether AI chip supply and pricing could become as critical as the oil price. My answer: unequivocally, yes!

    The availability, pricing and geopolitics of access to AI chips may well start to look a lot like oil,”

    As the world relies on AI more and more. So access to high-end processors will become more and more critical. In that respect, the availability, pricing and geopolitics of access to AI chips may well start to look a lot like oil.

    You can read UAE-based journalist Megha Merani‘s full story in AGBI here.

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    August 8, 2023
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    Dubai holds great potential for India’s AI startups

    Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence could prove to be an ideal hub for global tech founders looking to co-create future technology applications.

    I was recently asked for my views on the opportunities for Indian AI startups in Dubai and my answer was, naturally, that Dubai and the UAE as a whole offers great potential for many AI startups. And I’m not just saying that because I’m based in the UAE. The crucial difference between the UAE and many other countries, is that it not only ‘talks the talk’, but it also ‘walks the walk’!

    I am frequently find myself impressed by how fast the government moves to create new programmes that help its AI policies gain traction. Teams in government departments across the country are actively looking for the most innovative AI technologies and solutions all the time. So, if you’re the founder of an AI startup that solves a new problem for government, public services or national issues in general, there’s going to be someone, somewhere in a government department that would like to talk to you.

    The UAE holds great potential for many AI startups, most of all because the government actually ‘walks the talk’!

    The recently created Dubai Centre for AI, which was announced in June 2023, hopes to accelerate Dubai government efforts even further. The new centre has already organised innovation programmes in 30 different government entities to identify AI use cases and implement solutions. Meanwhile, in July the Dubai Future Foundation launched a programme to encourage pilot schemes for generative AI tech in government departments.

    The UAE is, no doubt, a fiercely competitive technology market and developers do need to ensure their plans are grounded in reality. However, for the foreseeable future, there is that opportunity to engage with enthusiastic government departments and authorities that are on the lookout for new, innovative approaches.

    You can read UAE-based journalist  Megha Merani‘s full story in The Times of India here.

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