MBZUAI and the Manara Center for Coexistence and Dialogue hosted a panel discussion at the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi on the role of faith in the age of AI. The panel featured scholars, religious leaders, and AI experts including MBZUAI President Eric Xing. Panelists discussed the differences between human consciousness/spirituality and AI capabilities, emphasizing the human capacity for higher consciousness, empathy, and collective understanding. Why it matters: The event highlights the UAE's focus on ethical AI development that considers the intersection of technology, spirituality, and human values.
A panel discussion was hosted at MBZUAI in collaboration with the Manara Center for Coexistence and Dialogue. The discussion centered on the potential of multimodal machine intelligence for human-centered applications, particularly in health and wellbeing. USC Professor Shrikanth Narayanan spoke on creating trustworthy and inclusive AI that considers protected variables. Why it matters: This signals MBZUAI's interest in exploring ethical AI development and its applications for societal good, potentially driving research and policy initiatives in the region.
A panel discussion hosted by MBZUAI in collaboration with the Manara Center for Coexistence and Dialogue addressed misinformation and its threat to elections. The talk covered the reasons behind the rise of misinformation, citizen perspectives, and the role of social media influencers. Two cases, the Indian general elections of 2024 and the upcoming US presidential elections in November 2024, were used to describe the contours of misinformation. Why it matters: Understanding the dynamics of misinformation, especially through social media influencers, is crucial for safeguarding democratic processes in the region and globally.
The Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi has launched Manarat, a custom-developed control electronics platform for quantum computing. Manarat can control 10 qubits with high accuracy and synchronizes multiple electronic boards with accuracy exceeding 100 picoseconds. TII claims Manarat is five times more cost-efficient than commercial alternatives. Why it matters: This development marks a step toward large-scale quantum computing in the UAE and establishes sovereign capabilities in quantum technologies.
MBZUAI hosted a panel discussion in collaboration with the Manara Center for Coexistence and Dialogue. The discussion focused on the intersection of AI and medical image computing. Jiebo Luo, a professor at the University of Rochester, discussed his work on applying AI to healthcare, including moving beyond classification to semantic description and expanding use from hospitals to home telemedicine. Why it matters: This highlights the increasing focus on AI applications in healthcare within the Middle East, particularly at institutions like MBZUAI, which are fostering discussions on the ethical and practical implications of AI in medicine.
MBZUAI hosted a panel discussion in collaboration with the Manara Center for Coexistence and Dialogue. Chaoyang He, co-founder of FedML, presented on federated learning (FL), covering privacy/security, resource constraints, label scarcity, and scalable system design. FedML is a platform for zero-code, cross-platform, secure federated learning across industries like healthcare and finance. Why it matters: Federated learning is an important subfield for the GCC region, allowing privacy-preserving model training across distributed data sources.
KAUST and Nesma Holding inaugurated the Thuwal Embroidery Center on April 18, under the patronage of HRH Prince Badr bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz. The center is a strategic partnership aiming to create job opportunities for women in Thuwal and neighboring villages. 50 women from the area will benefit from employment at the center. Why it matters: The center exemplifies KAUST's goals of finding job opportunities for the people of Thuwal and creating prosperity in the community.
Hamad Bin Khalifa University's Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) introduced Fanar, an Arabic-centric multimodal generative AI platform featuring the Fanar Star (7B) and Fanar Prime (9B) Arabic LLMs. These models were trained on nearly 1 trillion tokens and are designed to address different prompts through a custom orchestrator. Fanar includes a customized Islamic RAG system, a Recency RAG, bilingual speech recognition, and an attribution service for content verification, sponsored by Qatar's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Why it matters: The platform signifies a major step towards sovereign AI development in Qatar, providing advanced Arabic language capabilities and addressing regional needs.