The Global AI Summit took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last month, billed as an opportunity to explore what the new global era means to AI, and how AI’s transformational potential can be best used to create a better future for all. During the event Saudi Arabia announced its National Strategy for Data and Artificial Intelligence (NSDAI) and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese technology companies to further its AI ambitions over the coming years. One of the deals it signed is for a partnership with China-based Huawei, to train Saudi students, researchers, and engineers to become proficient in AI techniques. The NSDAI is also partnering with Alibaba Cloud to develop smart cities, aims to implement the Arabic language into AI tools, and has committed to collaborate with a division of the UN to accelerate AI for Good.
The objectives of Saudi Arabia’s new national AI strategy include the following:
- Ambition: Turn the country into a global leader in data and AI, including development and adoption of data and AI technologies, and as a leader of global dialogue and strategy and policy development. Saudi Arabia aims to rank among the top 15 countries in AI by 2030;
- Skills: Transform the current and future Saudi workforce, through education, and up-skilling and re-skilling to enable Saudis to utilize the power of data and AI, in public and private sectors. Programs are already underway with education establishments to attract, develop and retain AI talent in the Kingdom, with a target of creating 20,000 AI and data specialists and experts by 2030;
- Policy and regulations: Create a world-class regulatory framework that will encourage and foster data-driven businesses, collection and sharing of data between government entities for the benefit of citizens, and open data;
- Investment: Aim to attract and incentivize local and foreign investors and companies to encourage investment in qualified opportunities within Saudi Arabia. The strategy aims to attract a total of $20bn (SAR 75bn) in FDI and local investments by 2030;
- Research and innovation: Build and enable core research and innovation institutions in data and AI, to enable the kingdom to lead in the development and commercialization of new technologies. The nation aims to rank among the top 20 countries in the world for peer reviewed data and AI publications.
To date, China and the U.S. have been leaders in AI. China’s highly-detailed proposal released in 2017, specifies the goal of becoming the world leader in AI by 2030. One tenet of the plan is for the Chinese AI industry to be valued at US$145 billion within 11-years, and for related industries to be valued at 10-times that, almost US$1.5 trillion. To achieve these goals, the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Tianjin announced separate funds in 2018 of approximately US$16 billion to support Chinese AI companies. Additionally, Beijing is building a US$2-billion AI research facility to attract initiatives and talent to the Chinese capital.
U.S. government funding pales in comparison to these staggering figures. Although a record $9.3 billion was invested in AI companies by VC firms in 2018, DARPA (the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) announced that it would spend just $2-billion nationwide on AI research. In 2017, Chinese AI startups accounted for 48% of all global AI funding by VC firms.
It is not just China that has a well-defined AI strategy. France announced its ‘AI for Humanity’ strategy in 2018, allocating $1.7 billion toward its initiatives. Germany is putting $3.4 billion toward ‘AI Made in Germany.’ The Canadian government helped launched the $135-million research organization the Vector Institute in Toronto in 2017. And the U.K., home to Google acquisition Deep Mind, the late computer scientist Alan Turing, and well respected AI researcher Oxford University, released a 183 page paper on AI authored by the House of Lords in 2018. The U.K. announced the same year that it has put together a $1-billion deal from public and private funds to fund AI research.
The U.S. Executive Order on ‘Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence’ was released 9-months after President Trump’s 2018 White House AI Summit. A summary of the AI Summit noted that a Select Committee on AI had been established under the National Science and Technology Council. It is noted that the AI Committee will be chaired by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Select Committee on AI is made up of “the most senior R&D officials in the Federal Government,” according to the AI Summit Summary, and specifically names the Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the Undersecretary of Energy for Science, the Director of the NSF, the Directors of DARPA and IARPA, representatives from the National Security Council, the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, the Office of Management and Budget, and OSTP.
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