2021 Middle East AI roundup (Part I); and more Middle East AI News

Welcome to Middle East AI News!

Needless to say, it has been a quiet news week for AI in the Middle East. However, it has been year full of new government initiatives, proof of concepts, pilot projects and investments moving the region's AI agenda forward. So, I'm going to dedicate my last two Linkedin newsletters of the year to recapping some of the most exciting developments of 2021.

Today's newsletter reviews the year's new initiatives in developing human resources and attracting talent; progress in public policy; and how AI and automation are changing the region's retail sector. I'll share Part II of my 2021 recap in next week's Linkedin newsletter and will aim to cover three more topic areas. Of course this is merely scratching the surface - so much has happened this year - but I hope that you find it interesting.

• This newsletter is an extension of my weekly?Middle East AI News?email, which I send out at about 8AM GST every Thursday morning. You can checkout past issues or subscribe to receive the original email version?here.

As usual, please do leave a comment or send me a message. Meanwhile, I hope that you enjoy the Christmas weekend and, whether you're celebrating or not, I wish you and the world peace and happiness! ??

/Carrington

Middle East AI News – 23-Dec-21

???Listen to the?podcast version of this newsletter

A year of empowering talent

For the #GCC states, 2021 has been a year full of exciting new projects, futuristic proof of concepts and bold government initiatives. There seems to be a real and growing sense of urgency at a national level across the region to invest in the measures necessary to make economies competitive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Key to success, of course, is having the right talent - and at all levels. #Saudi Arabia and the #UAE, in particular, have begun a wide range of programmes this year to help create the talent ecosystems they need to be globally competitive.

The world's first AI university, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), welcomed its first class of 80 students in January 2021 and a further 74 students in for its September 2021 admission. With a goal to attract the brightest minds to the UAE,?students have been accepted from 29 countries, some from as far away as Colombia and Mexico. The university also launched an executive education programme to help public and private sector leaders unlock AI's potential.

Meanwhile, as highlighted in last week's newsletter, the UAE's government artificial intelligence programme - run by the UAE National AI Programme and Kellogg College - University of Oxford - has grown from strength to strength. More than 300 government attendees have graduated from the programme, helping to increase capacity across over 90 local and federal government entities.

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE now also have large scale programmes that aim to dramatically increase the number of coders in their talent pools.?

Established in 2020, Tuwaiq Academy aims to help train and develop 100,000 Saudi programmers by 2030 and this year launched a bootcamp to train 10,000 students in 13 Saudi regions in partnership with Google; 40 intensive virtual training camps to train 1,500 graduates in future skills; and CoderHub, a learning portal with more than 400 coding challenges. The Kingdom's SATR platform aims to be the biggest for teaching programming and modern technologies in the Arabic language, with 50,000 Saudis participating in the pilot phase.

The UAE's 'National Program for Coders' this year set a target to train 100,000 coders and has set out a plan to provide 100,000 ‘Golden’ 10 year UAE visas to the best computer programming talent both in the UAE and from around the globe. It was also announced that eight universities in the country will train 20,000 students with coding skills as part of the first phase of the programme.

Has the pace of digital policymaking in the Middle East stepped up?

It's been a fascinating year for digital policy in the Middle East, with a wide variety of policy initiatives put in motion across the region. Different countries are all at different stages with the development of national AI strategy, and so also the programmes and policies that they need to make AI strategies work. The great wave of digital transformation has exposed plenty of gaps in digital policy, as whole industries seem to be held back by the absence of adequate regulations and government processes. Digital legislation has received a lot more focus over the past couple of years, but there's still much work to do.

While the #UAE became one of the first countries in the world to announce a national artificial intelligence strategy in 2017, countries around the region have moved at their own pace. #Saudi Arabia published its AI strategy last year, leading to a long list of new national initiatives. This year, #Egypt and #Turkey both announced their first national AI strategies, while #Qatar formed a new committee to focus on the implementation of its 2019 AI Strategy.

Among other initiatives, Saudi Arabia and the UAE both announced Industry 4.0 programmes to fast-track digital transformation in the industrial sector. In line with the Kingdom’s strategy to adopt Fourth Industrial Revolution practices and technologies in its industrial sector, the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources plans to enable 4,000 factories to be automated within 5 years. In the UAE, the Ministry of Industry & Advanced Technology launched 'Operation 300bn' to digitise and develop the country's industrial sector, including creating a Champions 4.0 network of industrial leaders that will help local manufacturers embrace Industry 4.0. As a first step, it will identify 200 companies ripe for transformation.?

On the legal front, many trials using new, unregulated technologies for fintech, driverless vehicles, delivery drones and other projects have been given temporary approvals in the absence of relevant laws. However, regulation now seems to be catching up fast. Early this year, the Saudi Central Bank announced an open banking framework with a plan to go live with open banking during the first half of 2022. Meanwhile, both Saudi Arabia and the UAE approved data protection laws, that will come into force in January and March next year respectively. Saudi's Communications & Information Technology Commission also launched a public consultation on the Kingdom's draft Digital Content Platform Regulations.?

The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority and the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority are just some of the organisations working on new regulatory frameworks for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). However, current laws remain restrictive to new types of drone services such as air taxis and drone delivery services, and the timeframes for new laws to be introduced are difficult to predict.

The prospects for autonomous vehicle services seem to be looking up. In Saudi Arabia, although there is no approved legal framework for the operating of AVs, moves are afoot to pave the way for trials. This year, the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) issued regulations on the import of AVs into the Saudi market, while the Saudi Central Bank approved a first-of-its-kind insurance product designed to provide coverage for AVs. In the UAE, the Cabinet approved a temporary licence to allow trials of self-driving vehicles on the country’s roads.

However, perhaps one of the boldest AI-related moves this year was the UAE Cabinet's decision to approve the use of facial recognition technology for public and private sector consumer services. A number of pilots have followed the decision and the government has added biometric face ID to its 'UAE Pass' digital services app. UAE residents can now use their face ID to access more than 6,000 digital public services via the app. In the banking sector, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Mashreq NEO both launched services allowing residents to open bank accounts using face IDs registered with the country's Ministry of Interior. We can certainly expect more services to implement face ID during 2022.

With the increase in focus by governments on digital policies and commitments already made to deliver policy and laws, 2022 is looking quite exciting. For starters, both Saudi and the UAE will have new data laws, while Saudi will allow open banking systems. Who knows, some of our long-awaited new drone regulations may finally see the light of day!

Autonomous retail enters reality

After a variety of retail experiments with AI, robotics and intelligent automation over the past few years, we may look back on 2021 as the year that finally began to activate the Middle East's next generation retail experience. This year saw ADNOC Distribution and Carrefour launch well-supported, state-of-the-art autonomous retail stores in the #UAE, using smart shelves and offering a cashierless checkout experience for shoppers.

Of course, AI and robotics have already been in usage across the region behind the scenes, in logistics, warehousing, distribution, stock-control and visitor analytics. Carrefour began using inventory Tally robots from California-based Simbe Robotics in 2019 and has been adding to its robot fleet each year.?

However, 2021 was a good year for robots 'front-of-house'. There were some early pilots of restaurant service robots in 2019, but it was the coronavirus pandemic that encouraged cafes and restaurants across the region to buy their first service robots to meet the demand for contactless retail services. Building on those regional case studies, manufacturers of service robots such as Pudu Robotics have sales grow in 2021.

There are also now signs that robots could be used more for delivery during the next couple of years. In 2020, Carrefour launched Click & Collect Self-Service at DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre), using a robot to carry online grocery orders to customers cars. This year, robots from Terminus Group are delivering food ordered via restaurant ordering platform Talabat to customers across the Expo 2020 Dubai site.

There's a lot more to come. Berkeley-based delivery robot startup Kiwibot, Chinese autonomous delivery vehicle startup Neolix and Moscow-headquartered Internet and technology company Yandex all signed agreements during the past few months to develop autonomous delivery solutions for retail.

More News!

Here's some other interesting news from the past week:

AI Voice

• #Saudi - With Hejazi and Najdi dialects, Amazon’s Alexa goes hyperlocal in Saudi Arabia (Arab News)
• #UAE - DEWA is the world's first government utility to provide Arabic services on Amazon's Alexa (Zawya)

Cloud Computing

• #UAE - ADAA becomes first government entity to migrate its data centre to G42 Cloud (Zawya)

Facilities Management

• #UAE - Farnek installs remote IoT solution at select Aster facilities in UAE (Zawya)

Killer Robots

• #World - UN talks adjourn without deal to regulate ‘killer robots’ (Al Arabiya)

R&D

• #UAE, #Sweden partner to develop system to manage unmanned aircraft, drones (Dubai Eye)

Interview of the week!

Watch: TII's CEO Dr. Ray O. Johnson on CNBC Arabia's 'Tech Talks'

AbuDhabi's Technology Innovation Institute CEO Dr. Ray O. Johnson talked to CNBC Arabia's 'Tech Talks' programme recently about the research centre's strategy to work at the intersection of discovery science and technology.

Watch the video (12 minutes)

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