AI dawning in the Middle East

AI is a powerful engine that drives industry digital transformation. The fundamental characteristics of the technology is its ability to autonomously expand its capabilities by sensing, understanding, acting and learning. This characteristic is creating new experiences across industries and organizations, from Computer-Aided diagnosis techniques to financial transactions, smart logistics, and more. AI is revitalizing industry growth and profitability; it is also having a social impact by improving the delivery of public goods like healthcare, environmental sustainability, and education. 

To maximize the potential of AI, at Huawei we are committed to investing in machine learning that is data and power-efficient (i.e., less data, computing, and power needed), secure and trusted, and automated and autonomous. We believe these characteristics have enormous potential to maximize efficiency and open new venues of growth and innovation.

We made a major breakthrough at HUAWEI CONNECT 2018, which was the stage for the global launch of our revolutionary AI chipset series. Our AI portfolio now includes our new Ascend series of AI chips – the world’s first AI IP and chip series designed for a full range of scenarios. The portfolio also includes new products and cloud services that are built on Ascend chip capabilities. By launching our full-stack AI portfolio in the region, we aim to provide pervasive intelligence whose impact will reverberate cross all vertical sectors, and build a fully connected, intelligent world.

As President of Huawei Middle East, I’m proud to say that this region was one of the first globally to import these chips. Just a week after our Rotating Chairman Eric Xu announced the global launch of Huawei’s AI strategy, as well as our full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio, we introduced these products here in the Middle East on the sidelines of GITEX 2018.

Our partners and customers responded with great enthusiasm to the launch. We were honored to be joined by prominent industry experts and government leaders at our AI conference held on the sidelines of Huawei Middle East 3rd Annual Innovation Day at GITEX 2018. The attendees included the guest of honor and keynote speaker, H.E. Engineer Mothanna Hamdan Gharaibeh, Jordan Minister of ICT, and other leaders who came to strategize on the best path forward to bringing AI to the Middle East. 

We organized the conference to foster a discussion on how the Middle East can best position itself to benefit from the imminent arrival of AI, and the strong interest of key players is a highly encouraging sign. Clearly the regional leadership sees the pressing need to develop a national AI strategy, and recognizes that AI is vital to the success of national development plans and visions to become diversified, knowledge-based economies. 

I firmly believe that the Middle East has all the ingredients it needs to be successful in the age of AI: a young, talented population, visionary and forward-thinking leadership, and a drive to innovate and develop. Again and again we have seen that our partners and customers in the region recognize the value of adopting technology to drive growth, and we are confident that AI will bring nothing but continued progress and success to organizations in the region. 

One area where we see a lot of potential for AI is the public safety industry. We are a leading player in the global and Middle East public safety industry and we provide multiple AI-based solutions. This includes the world’s first AI-enabled software-defined camera (SDC), the M/X series. This series of cameras can be applied to a vast range of scenarios and improve image processing capabilities by 25 times. We have also launched the Industry Enabling Platform to flexibly orchestrate AI services and introduce components from different partners, such as intelligent analysis, to quickly solve cases and establish a new intelligent policing process. This approach enables intelligent infrastructure, efficient and collaborative government services, visualized city operations, and coordinated city emergency response. 

This is just the start. One of the defining characteristics of our AI portfolio is that it is “all scenario”: by this we mean it can be deployed through a wide range of scenarios, including public clouds, private clouds, edge computing in all forms, industrial IoT devices, and consumer devices. The power of AI will soon be within reach of every home, person, and organization. 

Humanity should be proud of the progress we have made towards AI in the past years, but there is still a way to go. To continuously drive forward the AI industry, we have pledged USD 140 million in AI talent education. Globally we just launched our AI Developer Enablement Program, and we will soon import the program to the region. The initiative will help Huawei collaborate with developers, partners, universities, and research institutions. We will use the program to build a better development ecosystem that can support AI resources, platforms, courses, and joint solutions. 

AI-driven technologies promise to transform society in a way not seen since the Industrial Revolution. Naturally, it will take work to get there. All progress requires early explorers to take the first bold steps into the unknown. Yet I am confident that by continuous investment in research and development, and tireless training of ICT talent, we are creating a generation ready to lead humanity into the age of robotics. 

AI is an important component of a larger tale of digital transformation – 5G and Cloud technologies are also driving progress and profit for organizations. We are living through an epoch, in which ICT is impacting every person, home, and organization, redefining how we live, work, and learn. In this great age, Huawei aspires to be a great company. We want to help mankind take the next stride into a fully connected and intelligent world.

Through relentless breakthroughs in digital technology, we will bring better products and services to our customers, and help integrate digital into daily life and work. Our focus on ICT infrastructure and smart devices is the foundation for a fertile business environment that will integrate information technology, automation, and intelligence. This environment will help us enrich our enterprises’ content, applications, and clouds. Working alongside our partners, we will elevate our capabilities to serve our customers better than ever before.