UAE poised to become world’s next Silicon Valley, ‘machines can see’ summit hears

Dubai: The UAE Government, in partnership with the Office of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications and Machines Can See, launched the ‘Machines Can See 2023’ summit at the Dubai Museum of the Future.

The one-day summit aims to bring together a range of experts from around the world to discuss the future of artificial intelligence and imagine Dubai as a place capable of envisioning and bringing projects to life that will help the UAE create the next Silicon Valley, the office said.

Silicon Valley, located in California, USA, is a gathering place for the world’s top technology companies and has become synonymous with leading the latest innovations.

Al Olama further said that hosting an international conference in the UAE focused on the industry of the future reflects the government’s commitment to accelerate the country’s digital transformation programme. Furthermore, by holding meaningful dialogue on the development of AI and the rapid changes in the technological landscape, the country will create opportunities for new ideas and projects to enhance its leadership and contribute to the achievement of the goals of the National AI Strategy 2031 .

During the summit’s panel discussion titled ‘Government, Business and Science’, experts discussed the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in the UAE and its potential to become the next Silicon Valley.

Policymakers from the public sector, business and academia exploring the seamless possibilities of AI see the UAE rapidly shifting its vision and cementing its global position as a hub for advanced technologies, especially in the field of AI.

Alexander Khanin, founder and director of Polynome, which hosted the summit, said: “We are honored to host this summit in partnership with the Office of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications. The name ‘Dub.ai’ reflects The UAE is an environment that supports innovation and the advancement of AI for the benefit of humanity. We bring some of the brightest minds in the field to the renowned Museum of the Future to share their powerful vision and knowledge.”

During the discussion, Sharif Badawi, CEO of Dubai Future Zone Fund, said: “All cities in the world aspire to become the next Silicon Valley. , private sector engagement and commercialization.”

Elaborating on what still needs to be done in the UAE to create a Silicon Valley, he added: “It is possible to create a successful ecosystem similar to Silicon Valley by finding a way to commercialize research and innovation in science and technology. Government , academia and business also play an important role in creating an environment conducive to innovation.

“With the UAE successfully attracting talent, it is now embarking on a journey of perfecting knowledge creation and building technological capabilities. This is the next wave of what is happening in the country. Our efforts will unlock the potential of Dubai’s government-linked entities for the region. Building technicians creates value-added pathways.”

Khalifa Al Qama, director of Dubai Future Lab, said technology is the most critical enabler. “The most critical aspect is the business value that comes from having all the infrastructure on-premises, which can enable AI to be adopted by the enterprise. We have built an AI ecosystem, an on-premises stack of services to help organizations modernize their data . We need to assist organizations on the ground to best modernize their data and prepare it for AI.”

He added: “Organizations can modernize their data, and that’s more of a problem than AI itself. If you can figure that out, AI in general might have the right food to eat, and that’s the expected outcome. Per Verticals have their appetites, whether it’s banking, finance, healthcare, education or government, they’ve always taken the lead in formulating their own mandates,” he added.

The fact that the UAE is the only country with a national AI program is a testament to its commitment to supporting the advancement of AI technology.

The one-day summit, organized in partnership with Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism and the Dubai Future Foundation, explores current advances in artificial intelligence, its applications and its future in the UAE and the rest of the world.

This year, the summit discussed the future of computer vision and machine learning with top experts in 3D computer vision, deep learning, generative artificial intelligence, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and more.

The summit featured various presentations and panel discussions from experts such as Hao Li, Associate Professor at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence; Marc Polleveys, Director of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality and Artificial Intelligence Lab and Professor at ETH Zurich; Philip Torr, Professor of Oxford University, co-founder of Aistetic Oxsight, chief scientist of FiveAI; Bernard S. Ghanem, professor of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Fernando de la Torre, professor of Carnegie Mellon University; Serge Belongie, professor of University of Copenhagen; Daniel Cremers , Professor at Technical University of Munich, Director and Co-Founder of Artisense; Manohar Paluri, Senior Director, META; Dr. Abrar Abdulnabi, Head of Artificial Intelligence, Saaal.ai; Kamran Ashan, Senior Director, Artificial Intelligence and Smart Data, Etisalat;