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Saudi Arabia pledges to ‘confront’ risks posed by AI

By Andrew Hammond
Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, head of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence: 'The rise of generative AI presents ethical dilemmas we must confront head on' SADAI
Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, head of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence: 'The rise of generative AI presents ethical dilemmas we must confront head on'
  • Riyadh aims to be ‘at forefront’ of the tech
  • Wary of deepfakes and ‘ethical dilemmas’
  • ‘The solution is unity,’ says top AI official

Saudi Arabia is determined to be “at the forefront” of artificial intelligence funding and development, a senior official told an AI conference in Riyadh on Tuesday.

However, Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, head of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence, also said the kingdom was wary about the security implications of AI and would take on the challenges it poses. 

“The rise of generative AI has brought a surge in misinformation, deepfakes and manipulation of public opinion. It presents ethical dilemmas we must confront head on,” Alghamdi said.

“It’s a crucial challenge we must confront and overcome.”

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He remains “optimistic”, he added. “The solution is unity, we can navigate the AI-driven world through collaboration.” 

Alghamdi listed a number of educational and health projects Saudi Arabia had developed using AI systems, including the treatment of diabetes, which affects 4 million Saudis, and the transcription of court sessions. 

Saudi venture capital is also targeting AI as an investment opportunity. 

The government’s Public Investment Fund plans to create a $40 billion AI investment fund, reports said in March, which would make Saudi Arabia among the world’s biggest AI investors. 

A group of Saudi family offices and investors has launched a SAR750 million ($200 million) Gulf-focused startup investment fund called Waad that will invest in AI. 

The Saudi IT company Al Moammar Information Systems, an investor in the American AI research company OpenAI, formed a partnership in July with the investment bank Saudi Fransi Capital to launch cloud services for the kingdom’s AI market.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) has set up a centre of excellence on generative AI with research grants from Google. 

Metabrain

Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company and the country’s leading venture capitalist, has a number of divisions dedicated to investing in AI. 

Ahmad Al Khowaiter, Aramco’s executive vice-president for technology and innovation, said the company had launched its own generative AI model, called Metabrain. This uses Nvidia’s latest supercluster chips to manage drilling, exploration and demand forecasts.

“Aramco’s investment in AI technologies will completely transform the way we operate, we can gain advantage across our businesses,” Al Khowaiter said. 

“But the rollout of industrial-scale AI will come with new cybersecurity risks because of the sensitivity of the data it uses.”

Alex Smola, CEO of Boson AI, based in California, told the conference in Riyadh: “I’m not afraid of AI, I’m afraid of humans using it for nefarious purposes. I’m not afraid of AI for now, or at least for the next 10 or 20 years.”

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