The Gulf pushes for AI independence

This article is part of a collection on artificial intelligence in the global South created jointly by Nature India, Nature Africa and Nature Middle East. You can read the other articles in the collection here. 

link to the collection: https://www.nature.com/collections/bgficabbgc 

AI has transformed the way the digital can support and enable services, innovation, or simply humanity. With the emergence of deep learning, and then foundation models, this has triggered important investments globally, being seen as a unique opportunity towards real automation and higher business efficiency. While this has had a global impact, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has probably been the unexpected player in this game. Mainly driven by national visions and digital transformation strategies across member states, the regional AI ecosystem proved to be very dynamic and fast changing, in line with the wishes of governments not to miss this opportunity.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are leading the way with strong and significant investments, including in AI research and development, infrastructure, adoption in government services, and education, to name a few. These investments are backed by national initiatives such as the UAE’s National AI Strategy 2031 and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which aim to position AI as a main enabler for economic diversification, efficiency, and smart city development. The strategies intend to foster partnerships between global companies and research centres, while nurturing local talent and startups to build AI ecosystems tailored to their needs.

With high expectations come big challenges. In realizing its AI ambitions, the GCC’s main hurdles could include: (i) talents, (ii) dependency on imported technology, and (iii) limited high quality and culturally relevant data. While the situation is clearly improving, there is still a shortage of research talent who would consider GCC as a prime destination, even with its attractive advantages. It is certainly difficult to rival US or Chinese giants who provide, e.g., shares for their employees and a plenty of other financial plans to convince talents to join. The GCC is an emerging actor in the field, and more time is needed for its appeal to become apparent. However, a variety of training strategies supported by a solid set of programmes allow these countries to send talented young researchers to top global universities for their MSc or PhD degrees, allowing them to build a solid base of experts down the road.  

The second challenge is dependency on foreign technologies. Most of the hardware and software is made outside GCC, imposing uncertainty for the region. There is however imminent change from this perspective as countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, invest in research institutions, e.g., TII, MBZUAI, KAUST, SADAIA, and QCRI, to name a few. On the software side, we witness new and competitive foundations models coming from the region fully built locally inhouse, e.g., Falcon LLM (TII) and Jais (G42).  From a hardware perspective, large investments have been made to build both local and international data centres —  for example G42, an Emirati AI development firm, building data centers in the UAE, the US,  and France after a record investment in the field.

Finally, access and/or ownership of high-quality data is a core challenge for the region. The dominance of English-based AI models poses hurdles for Arabic language integration and culturally sensitive applications. In fact, most of the work performed around AI in the world is done on English (with integration of recent language models coming from China) as a main language. This raises the risk of the disappearance of local languages and cultures. Data is still fragmented between different entities, in different countries, and its access is extremely complex. Privacy regulations are still evolving, creating uncertainty around data sharing. As the region strives to become a global AI hub, it must look at these gaps through coordinated policy frameworks and sustained investment in local innovation.

Despite the challenges, the integration and deployment of AI in the region is happening rapidly, showcasing some of the most ambitious digital transformation projects globally. Two major sectors are impacted: healthcare and education. In particular, the UAE explores AI to assist in early diagnostics, radiology, and telemedicine. With the recent announcement of the integration of AI in education curricula, the UAE also shows its clear intention towards revolutionizing learning.

Energy is another key sector in the region and there is a focus to improve energy management, efficiency, and cost. Companies like ADNOC in the UAE and ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia exploit AI to enhance oil and gas operations through, e.g., predictive maintenance and targeted extraction, helping reduce downtime and increase efficiency.

Finally, fraud detection has been successfully implemented by financial institutions. Examples include Bahrain and UAE who use AI for detecting fraud and managing risk. Systems mostly involve machine learning to help identifying suspicious patterns, allowing better compliance with regulations.

Countries in the region have taken a strong stance in taking advantage of AI and transform challenges into opportunities. The continuous deployment of AI in key sectors such as education, healthcare, energy, and security show the eagerness of the countries to play a pivotal role in this transformation, often at the international level. The involvement of different government entities, including in regulation, the pursuit of open collaborations, the speed of growth, and the fertile regulatory environment puts the region in a leading position in AI and promises a shift in the core strategies: from an importer of technology to a solid and reliable exporter.

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