The Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) has launched a national AI and data curriculum to be implemented across all universities in Saudi Arabia. The curriculum aims to equip students with essential skills in AI and data science, regardless of their field of study. The initiative is part of Saudi Arabia's broader efforts to build a skilled workforce and advance its digital transformation agenda. Why it matters: This nationwide curriculum signals a major push to develop a homegrown AI talent pool and accelerate AI adoption across various sectors in Saudi Arabia.
This paper discusses the integration of AI into education, emphasizing a transdisciplinary approach that connects AI instruction to the broader curriculum and community needs. It delves into the AI program developed for Neom Community School in Saudi Arabia, where AI is taught as a subject and used to learn other subjects through the International Baccalaureate (IB) approach. The proposed method aims to make AI relevant throughout the curriculum by integrating it into Units of Inquiry.
This paper presents an experience report on teaching an AI course to business executives in the UAE. The course focuses on enabling students to understand how to incorporate AI into existing business processes, rather than focusing only on theoretical and technical aspects. The paper discusses the course overview, curriculum, teaching methods, and reflections on teaching adult learners in the UAE.
A new dataset called the Saudi Privacy Policy Dataset is introduced, which contains Arabic privacy policies from various sectors in Saudi Arabia. The dataset is annotated based on the 10 principles of the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) and includes 1,000 websites, 4,638 lines of text, and 775,370 tokens. The dataset aims to facilitate research and development in privacy policy analysis, NLP, and machine learning applications related to data protection.
This study assesses workforce preparedness for AI in the GCC region, using socio-technical systems theory to analyze national AI strategies and initiatives in KSA, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. The research combines TF-IDF analysis, case studies of MBZUAI and SDAIA Academy, and scenario planning to evaluate the balance between technical capacity and social alignment. The study identifies a potential two-track talent system and emphasizes the importance of regulatory convergence for successful AI adoption.