His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Ulama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, Director-General of the Office of Dubai Crown Prince, affirmed that Dubai adopts a pioneering approach that reflects the vision of the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, more than 60 years ago, for city-building and achieving all the accomplishments it has witnessed. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has outlined a vision to develop Dubai as a leading, anticipatory, and futuristic model.
His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Ulama spoke in his opening speech during the Artificial Intelligence Summit at The Museum of the Future, organized by Dubai Center for Artificial Intelligence Applications in collaboration with the National Artificial Intelligence Program. These events bring together more than 1000 decision-makers, experts, and officials from both the government and private sectors, with the aim of accelerating the implementation and utilization of artificial intelligence applications.
He emphasized that Dubai’s focus on artificial intelligence in its annual plan reflects its full understanding of global advancements and the rapid progress in this field, highlighting the significant importance of developing future plans that facilitate the adoption of these technologies and recognizing the opportunities they offer for countries and governments to effectively use artificial intelligence.
He noted that the future heavily relies on the field of artificial intelligence, especially with the clear benefits we are currently gaining. He explained that Hong Kong’s experience in improving traffic management, waste, and energy by adopting artificial intelligence technologies has led to a 20 percent reduction in energy consumption in buildings and a 30 percent improvement in traffic flow.
He mentioned that the National Cancer Institute in the US using machine learning technology on a wide range of medical images and patient data contributed to an 87 percent improvement in diagnosing skin cancers and predicting other diseases present in brain tumors. Also, the British National Grid’s predictive maintenance network has been improved by 30 percent using networks and reducing machine downtime by half using sensors on power lines. These results reflect the medical sector’s new capabilities in addressing various challenges and achieving a better quality of life for societies.
The survey results were reviewed by His Excellency, where it included more than 4000 CEOs, confirming that artificial intelligence will be the most important sector in the next three years. He also pointed out that the survey also addressed other technological sectors related to artificial intelligence, requiring the cooperation of governments and individuals to develop and foresee them, such as virtual cities, biological innovations, advanced robots, and more.
His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Ulama emphasized the importance of advancement in the field of artificial intelligence in increasing awareness of its capabilities, stressing the need for continuous development and training for leaders, employees, and experts. Their goal is to prepare qualified entities capable of competing in the global digital race and harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence to improve various fields such as healthcare, education, water, and others.
It was mentioned that Dubai solidifies its digital twin directives through initiatives, strategies, and plans aimed at ensuring its global position in the digital sector, such as the establishment of a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer position in every government entity in Dubai within the first package of Dubai’s annual plan, in addition to launching Dubai’s AI Company Incubator and the “Web 3” initiative, which will be the largest gathering of artificial intelligence and technology companies to attract innovators, startups, and sector leaders from around the world.
He said that the leadership’s belief in the importance of talents in building the future is reflected in the UAE ranking third globally in attracting artificial intelligence talents compared to the population size, after Luxembourg and Switzerland, and the top regionally after being in the 11th position in 2021. This is according to a report by LinkedIn in collaboration with Stanford University, and its ranking 15th globally in the number of artificial intelligence skills compared to the 20th position last year.
He affirmed that Dubai’s plans and initiatives were not sudden, but the result of continuous vision and thinking for many years, leading the way towards leadership in the digital field today. Dubai’s digital strategy was launched, forming a new phase in digital transformation, making it flexible, keeping pace with progress, and achieving a historic qualitative leap for Dubai, from comprehensive focus to digital, artificial intelligence, and all the way to the future.
Our esteemed scientist Omar Sultan stated that Dubai’s experience is the result of a journey that lasted more than 185 years of planning, design, and implementation, laying the groundwork for its transformation into the world’s first digital city.
The “Artificial Intelligence Retreat” held within events, key sessions, panel discussions, and workshops, discussed the major challenges facing the artificial intelligence field, including policies, legislations, governance, talent exploration and development, in addition to enhancing digital infrastructure, developing AI-supported data center capabilities, as well as ways to enable financing, research, and more.
