The Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA) has joined hands with Alibaba’s cloud unit to bolster the Kingdom’s ambitions to develop smart cities, media reports said. Furthermore, SDAIA also signed MOUs with companies such as IBM and Huawei in areas of AI. The developments took place at a summit in the Kingdom.
Abdullah Bin Sharaf Alghandi, President of SDAIA, told the media, “Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has clear goals to transform KSA cities into smart ones by unlocking the value of city data as a national asset to realize Vision 2030 aspirations. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will share the best practices in the field of AI with the Kingdom. This will help in shedding light on how to sponsor and support emerging companies and new incubators in the national space, especially as there is no official framework that currently exists to support the AI readiness of countries and international cooperation.”
It is reported that Huawei will provide AI to SDAIA to recognise the Arabic language and character with the help of researchers from Huawei and the kingdom. Furthermore, IBM will assist SDAIA to develop real use cases of AI in the field of energy, health and other fields through the strategic partnership.
The kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plan focuses to free the kingdom from depending on oil exports by introducing economic and social policies. The kingdom seeks to train 20,000 people in the filed of AI in the next 10 years.