DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The world’s first minister for artificial
intelligence says the UAE isn’t only looking for economic benefits as it seeks
to become a leading nation in the sector.
اضافة اعلان
The UAE’s
minister of state for AI, Omar bin Sultan Al-Olama, said “quality of life”
considerations were key, and also stressed the importance of a “responsible”
rollout — with impacts potentially reverberating for decades.
“We are looking
at AI as a tool,” he told AFP in an interview in Dubai. “It’s a tool that we
need to use to unleash the quality of life aspect.”
The UAE also
calls AI “machine intelligence”, defining it as a branch of technology enabling
systems to “think, learn, and make decisions like humans”, which can support
everything from virology to transport.
“Yes, economic gain
is something that every country wants, and we want it too,” Olama added. “But
... we want to ensure the development and deployment and the use of AI is
responsible.”
Olama was just
27 when he was handed the cabinet-level position in 2017, tasked with launching
the oil-rich Arab nation’s strategy in a field which touches everything from
speech and facial recognition to commerce and autonomous cars.
His appointment
came a year after the UAE also named ministers for happiness, hoping to create
a “happier society”, and tolerance, mainly aimed at promoting coexistence in
the Gulf country where foreigners make up the majority of the population.
The UAE’s stated
goal is to become one of the leading AI nations by 2031, creating new economic
and business opportunities and generating up to 335 billion dirhams ($91
billion) in extra growth.
According to
consultancy firm PwC Middle East, nearly 14 percent ($96 billion) of the UAE’s
gross domestic product will come from AI by 2030.
“The UAE was the
only country that appointed someone to actually oversee this mandate
seriously,” Olama said.
Driverless taxis
The wealthy Gulf country has invested heavily in technology over the
past decade as it diversifies its economy and reduces its reliance on oil.
Its bets include
driverless cars, with autonomous taxis already tested on the streets of the
capital Abu Dhabi, while Dubai, another of the country’s seven emirates, aims
to have a quarter of its transport driverless by 2030.
Abu Dhabi’s
Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, touted as the world’s
first graduate-level AI university, opened to students last year, and the
country has launched a number of start-up hubs and training schemes.
However, the UAE has also drawn concern over its
high levels of surveillance, and in 2019 it denied reports that a popular
mobile app was being used for government spying.
Olama said a big
part of his job was instilling public confidence and avoiding costly errors
when AI systems are put in place.
The dangers of
AI include inadvertently introducing bias against certain groups of people,
which could prove damaging in areas such as public services.
“It entails that
there’s no controversy around the deployment,” Olama said of his role. “It
entails that we focus on deploying it today, but in a way that makes sure it
does not impact future generations negatively.”
‘Element of fear’
An important step in the project, he said, was to properly
explain AI to senior officials, to “demystify” the technology and reduce the
“element of fear”.
“If you’re dealing with something you don’t
understand, you will have an aspect or element of fear associated with it, it’s
human nature,” he said.
“One program ... is focused on training senior
government officials on understanding what AI is, understanding the ethical
dilemma, understanding what good and bad deployments are, how do you remove
bias.
“Today, these people are our AI army. They are the
people that are deploying AI across government, and really have a very strong
foundation that they can build on.”
The UAE also has ambitions of becoming a major
player in other areas of science and technology, sending its first astronaut
into space in 2019 and launching a probe in 2020 that went into Mars’ orbit the
following year.
This month, the country announced a digital economy
strategy — including a council headed by Olama — hoping the sector will
contribute 20 percent of GDP within 10 years.
“I don’t think in the next quarter-of-a-century
there’s going to be an economy in the world that is not dependent for the
majority of its economic activity on the digital realm, and AI is a big
component of that,” said Olama.
“I also think we have not seen the true impact of AI
on the economy.”
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