UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence launches sustainable and data

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director-General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, TRA, has lauded the launch of the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, AI, describing it as a move towards a sustainable and data-centric future.

In a statement, Al Mansoori said that the announcement of the strategy by Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is an affirmation of the country’s leadership and its sincere efforts to create a bright future based on sustainability and innovation.

The AI strategy is a first of its kind both in the region and the entire world, that seeks to promote government performance and create an innovative and highly-productive environment by means of investing in artificial intelligence technologies, and its applications across multiple domains. The strategy is premised to ensure best use of all resources and invest in all available potential in creative methods that accelerate the execution of developmental projects.

The TRA Director-General went on to applaud the nation's development journey, which, he said, confirms the proactive spirit undertaken towards future growth and sustainability. "Today, in the midst of the world’s major transformations in the fields of Information and Communication Technology, our wise leadership foresees a new horizon to place us at the global forefront towards Artificial Intelligence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution," he added.

"We, along with other government entities, are honoured to have been together in the smart/electronic transformation workshop under the patronage of our wise leadership, hence we are proudly prepared to continue the path towards the achievement of our highest goals for the UAE Centennial 2017, and the UAE strategy for Artificial Intelligence is at the heart of it," Al Mansoori continued.

The strategy includes five core themes, which are: the setting up of an AI work force that includes the formation of the UAE AI Council, activating numerous programmes, initiatives and organising field visits to government bodies and conducting workshops, developing capabilities of higher government leaders and enhancing skills of all staff operating in the field of technology, in addition to organising training courses for government officials, ensuring implementation by providing all services via AI, and the full integration of AI into medical and security services, launching a leadership strategy by appointing an AI Consultative Council and issuing a government law on the safe use of AI.

"We are aware of the exceptional importance of data as the new oil of the upcoming era. Data is the raw material for the formation and analysis of patterns, which lead to the activation of Artificial Intelligence and achievement of unprecedented leaps of productivity and efficiency on economic, cognitive and scientific levels," Al Mansoori concluded.