Arabnet Arabnet

Dubai is the host of the inaugural ‘AI Everything Summit,’ an event organised by the UAE National Program for Artificial Intelligence in strategic partnership with Smart Dubai. Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, the summit took place from April 30 to May 1, 2019, at Dubai World Trade Centre.

Opened by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, CEO and Chairman of the Emirates Group and Chairman of Dubai World, the AI Everything Summit seeks to promote initiatives, collaborations, partnerships, and breakthroughs in the field of AI and harness its positive impact for governments, businesses, social enterprises, and people in general.

Smart Dubai’s role as strategic partner for the summit is part of its efforts to build interactive international platforms to explore leading global trends in advanced technologies, enhancing the emirate’s status as a hub for technology, innovation and for building the smart cities of tomorrow.

The event explored AI-based innovations across various sectors, including government, the creative economy, social enterprises, education, energy, finance, healthcare, transport & logistics, travel & tourism, retail, security and telecommunications.

“It is clear that Artificial Intelligence has grown into a bona-fide sector of its own – and a rapidly expanding one at that. AI is gaining tremendous momentum around the world. Recent studies have predicted that AI will account for 45% of the world economy’s total gains by 2030 – that’s $15.7T – and as much as $122B to our GDP here in the UAE by 2030,” said Her Excellency Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr.

“We are here today at the AI Everything 2019 Summit to find the ideal formula for all of us to work together and launch initiatives, R&Ds, and partnerships with AI at their core. Our shared objective is to affect positive change and support governments and businesses to embrace technology for the good of mankind,” Her Excellency concluded.

H.E. Al Nasser, Assistant Director General of Smart Dubai and CEO of the Dubai Data Establishment, co-chaired a workshop at the summit titled ‘Data Governance & Ethics,’ in addition to attending the launch of 2 new reports, the first of which, ‘Convergence in the Smart City’, explores how the convergence of emerging technologies (Blockchain, IoT, AI, etc.) necessitates the creation of a new decentralised web.

The second report, compiled by Smart Dubai, The Economist Intelligence Unit and Google, examines the potential economic impact of AI. His Excellency also gave a presentation exploring data and the ‘X Factor’ to powering Artificial Intelligence.

H.E. Wesam Lootah, CEO of the Smart Dubai Government Establishment, took part in a panel discussion titled ‘Welcome to The Future City of AI,’ which evaluated the concepts of applied Artificial Intelligence, AI for social good, and ‘augmented humanity,’ while Hessa Al Balooshi, Smart Dubai’s Director of Smart Services, took part in a panel discussion titled ‘The Secret Sauce in Successfully Implementing your AI Program.’

Smart Dubai used the forum to shed light on its forays into the Artificial Intelligence sector, showcasing the Ethical AI Toolkit, launched in January 2019 to set clear guidelines on the ethical use of the technology. It aims to prevent a fragmented, incoherent approach to ethics where every entity sets its own rules and to serve as a blueprint for governments to draft AI laws and regulations.

Smart Dubai also highlighted its AI Lab initiative, established in March 2017 in collaboration with multinational giant IBM, to harness the power of machine learning and produce practical solutions that enhance the lives of residents and visitors in Dubai.

Fundamental to its operations is the AI Roadmap, designed to integrate AI across all smart city services. Since its inception, the AI Lab has partnered with 13 government departments to identify more than 43 use cases that are currently being developed into pilots and live productions.

Smart Dubai also showcased its ‘Rashid’ initiative at the summit. Launched in October 2016, the AI platform puts the technology at the disposal of the community, offering official and reliable answers to their questions, procedures, documents and transactions – all according to the extensive database of Dubai’s Department of Economic Development.

The service was latterly upgraded with the ‘Living in Dubai’ feature to provide residents and visitors with access to the information they need to lead happy lives in the city and to complete transactions in a seamless and straightforward fashion.