Media Coverage Archives — Carrington Malin

August 21, 2020

A great roundup about artificial intelligence in the Middle East by Damian Radcliffe, Carolyn S Chambers Professor in Journalism at the University of Oregon, which quotes me commenting on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. With IT spending in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) forecast by IDC to reach $83 billion this year, AI is going to become an increasing focus.

IDC also predicts that investment in AI systems across MEA will hit $374.2 million this year, up from $261.8 million in 2018 and a projected expenditure of $310.3 million in 2019. However, with many AI technologies in high demand since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, one has to wonder how this will affect IDC’s forecasts – not just in the MEA region, but globally too.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE had both begun investing in new AI technologies for government use, planning how to encourage AI-powered innovations and looking at regulatory requirements for their Fourth Industrial Revolution future. However, the advent of coronavirus has certainly fueled both interest and investment in artificial intelligence, with public and private sectors investing in automation, data analysis, robotics, health and safety systems, plus technologies to enhance contactless delivery of consumer services.

Despite forcing the cancellation of many high tech events around the region, the pandemic has also, arguably, fast tracked government plans and policies to harness AI and create a business environment conducive to driving successful digital economies. The UAE is reported to have improved plans for leveraging AI consistent with its national AI strategy, while Dubai announced a new comprehensive drone law in July. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia approved its own national artificial intelligence strategy in August – and muted that it would soon introduce a comprehensive law to govern commercial and recreational drone use in the Kingdom.

For more on artificial intelligence in the Middle East read Damian’s full article here.

July 13, 2020

I’m name-checked in this opinion piece in The National today about the new Dubai drone law. The move certainly opens up new possibilities for the drone industry. I can’t wait to see how this is implemented and when we will see the first new urban air mobility trials under the new law.

Read the full article in The National here.

May 31, 2020

Abu Dhabi is moving its R&D strategy up a gear with the formation of a new Advanced Technology Research Council or ATRC, to be headed up by Dark Matter founder Faisal Albannai.

With a growing variety of R&D initiatives driven by the likes of ADNOC, DarkMatter, Group 42, Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence and others, Abu Dhabi is starting to create a significant R&D ecosystem. Last year Abu Dhabi Investment Office and SenseTime announced that the AI unicorn would open an EMEA R&D centre in Abu Dhabi employing 600 engineers. More recently ADQ launched a $300 million startup fund aiming to bring promising Asian startups to set-up in Abu Dhabi. The mix of big tech, new startups and government-backed R&D initiatives could turn out to be a magic combination.

Read the full article in The National here.

April 6, 2020

CIO Middle East asked me how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is using technology to cope with impact of the novel coronavirus. The pandemic has, of course, put enormous pressure on business and government to change the way services are delivered and introduce alternatives that meet the health, safety and practical requirements of the emergency, However, Saudi’s previous technology investments have stood the country in good stead. Saudi has been able to move quickly to monitor public places, digitise healthcare processes and ramp up online education as a result of technology initiatives already put in place.

Read the full article here.

March 31, 2020

CIO Middle East recently asked me about recent moved by the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulation Authority (TRA) to unblock certain VoIP and video call apps. In March 2020, the TRA lifted a long-held ban on a few popular apps such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom as it announced measures to promote remote working.

It’s an interesting subject since, although the UAE is one of the most technologically advanced nations on the planet, pressure from telecom service providers has effectively blocked the usage of most of the world’s most popular voice and video call apps, such as Facetime, Skype and Whatsapp. So, now having allowed access to a number of video call apps, what will happen when the coronavirus emergency ends? Will the TRA block those apps again or does this mark the beginning of a new era of policy?

Read the full article here.

January 22, 2020

I was delighted to be able to contribute to Damian Radcliffe‘s Middle East technology predictions feature for ZDNet, rounding up expert predictions for 2020 on 5G and 4G adoption, venture funding, retail tech and artificial intelligence.

I was asked: as the Middle East and North Africa’s spending on AI continues to grow, will the region ever become more than simply a consumer of artificial intelligence?

Read the full article here.

February 27, 2018

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is seeking more partnerships globally as it endeavours to create a sustainable digital business and a share of global online voice. In the Middle East, it signed a partnershipw with Abu Dhabi Media-owned publication Al-Ittihad.

The Arab News asked for my take on why WSJ is trying to develop such partnerships and I made the point that the paper will be counting on deals like this to help push their own digital platform in front of more new eyeballs globally.

Read the full article here.