This was the week that Algeria’s CERIST launched a Deeptech Innovation Hub in Algiers, expanding its role in national innovation and targeting AI, cloud and startup growth.

In other news, Oman’s Sultan issued a royal decree to establish a dedicated AI special economic zone in Muscat; the UAE put AI transformation at the heart of government; and Digital Dubai introduced an AI Integration Matrix to guide AI adoption across Dubai Government.

Here are this week’s biggest AI news stories!

Monday, April 27th

🔊 Listen to Monday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 Middle East workers lead the world on AI adoption at work

• Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE users credit AI with increases in creativity

🔥 CPX, SpendConsole launch UAE’s first sovereign e-invoicing platform

• Joint solution targets mandatory compliance ahead of 2027 deadline

🔥 MBZUAI plugs the privacy gap at the heart of enterprise AI

• DP-Fusion delivers token-level provable privacy without sacrificing output quality

Tuesday, April 28th

🔊 Listen to Tuesday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 Sinai.ai raises $1.45m for interactive AI books

• KAUST-backed startup brings licensed AI reading to a $150 billion market

🔥 Algeria launches national AI training programme

• 12-week programme combines intensive training with real startup projects

🔥 Qatar’s Shura Council mulls next steps for future AI legislation

• Motion to draft AI law referred to Shura Council committee to review options

Wednesday, April 29th

🔊 Listen to Wednesday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 DeepMinds launches DeepTech venture building summit

• First DeepX summit brings together research, AI and industry in Algiers

🔥 UAE puts AI transformation at the heart of government

• Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed to chair new AI and Development Council

🔥 Digital Dubai introduces AI Integration Matrix for AI adoption

• Framework already guiding 100-plus AI deployments across Dubai Government

Thursday, April 30th

🔊 Listen to Thursday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 Oman’s Sultan decrees AI special economic zone for Muscat

• Royal decree to establish dedicated zone with incentives for AI investment

Friday, May 1st

🔊 Listen to Friday’s Daily News Minute

Saturday, May 2nd

🔊 Listen to Saturday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 CERIST launches Deeptech Innovation Hub in Algiers

• CERIST expands role in national innovation, targets AI, cloud and startup growth

• Algeria launches deeptech hub to scale innovation (Middle East AI News)

• Djezzy introduces sovereign AI cloud platform Algeria (Tech Africa News)

• UAE Egypt lead AI university visibility rankings (Campaign Middle East)

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#Algeria #innovation - Algeria’s national research centre CERIST has launched the Deeptech Innovation Hub (DIH), a new acceleration platform designed to turn advanced research into scalable ventures, leveraging decades of national IT leadership and modern AI infrastructure. The initiative aims to support startups, connect industry and investors, and accelerate commercialisation of technologies such as AI and cybersecurity, while strengthening Algeria’s digital economy.

SO WHAT? - The launch of the Deeptech Innovation Hub is the latest of Algeria’s initiatives to foster innovation, leverage national research and nurture tech startup ventures. The hub aims to help convert research capability into commercial execution, and encourage local entrepreneurs to create new ventures. The launch of the new hub follows the announcement of Algeria’s first AI and cybersecurity start-up cluster, a national AI training programme and the DeepTech venture building summit DeepX.

KEY POINTS:

• Algiers-headquartered CERIST (Research Centre in Scientific and Technical Information) bas launched the Deeptech Innovation Hub (DIH), as an acceleration arm bridging scientific research with commercial markets, targeting startups and companies developing advanced technology solutions across sectors.

• Under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, CERIST brings decades of infrastructure leadership, including introducing the internet to Algeria and developing early national IT systems, now extended into cloud, HPC and AI capabilities.

• DIH-supported ventures gain access to high-performance computing, GPU-powered AI infrastructure and advanced data systems, providing the technical backbone required to scale deeptech innovations beyond prototype stage into commercially viable solutions.

• The hub offers structured acceleration programmes focused on refining business models, validating use cases and aligning products with market demand, addressing a critical gap between research output and commercial readiness in emerging technology sectors.

• DIH will connect startups with corporates, public institutions and investors, facilitating partnerships and real-world deployment opportunities, while also helping entrepreneurs achieve investment readiness through mentorship and exposure to funding networks.

• The initiative targets a broad ecosystem including startups, corporates seeking innovation, researchers and investors, signalling a coordinated effort to build a national deeptech pipeline rather than isolated innovation projects.

• For enterprises, DIH acts as a gateway to innovation by matching them with relevant startups and research teams, accelerating digital transformation and enabling adoption of AI, cybersecurity and data-driven technologies across industries.

• The platform is positioned as a co-innovation engine, contributing to Algeria’s ambition for technological sovereignty by fostering collaboration between academia, industry and capital, while supporting globally competitive ventures.

ZOOM OUT - The Deeptech Innovation Hub forms part of the National Venture Studio Programme, a $600 million public-private effort launched in 2025 and led by government investment fund ASF (Algerian Startup Fund), national research centre CERIST (Center for Scientific and Technical Information Research), and decentralised venture studio DeepMinds. That programme aims to create over 1,000 startups across all 58 provinces, signalling a coordinated national push to industrialise innovation. Together, these initiatives show Algeria is moving beyond fragmented startup support towards a structured, nationwide venture-building model focused on deep technology and AI-led economic growth.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

Read more about Algeria’s tech ecosystem:

• DeepMinds launches DeepTech venture building summit (Middle East AI News)

• Algeria launches national AI training programme (Middle East AI News)

• Algeria launches first AI & cybersecurity start-up cluster (Middle East AI News)

• Algeria inaugurates national AI school data centre (Middle East AI News)

• New venture studio to create Algerian 1,000 startups (Middle East AI News)

• Oman launches AI investment zone in Muscat (Middle East AI News)

• UAE deploys AI to transform labour market (Gulf News)

• Qatar and Korea expand AI investment ties (Seoul Economic Daily)

Ready for the post-training era? Contact Positron AI MENA.

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#Oman #economy – His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik has issued Royal Decree No. 50/2026 establishing an Artificial Intelligence Special Zone in the Governorate of Muscat, creating a dedicated economic zone with incentives, privileges, and exemptions designed to attract AI investment and enterprise. The Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ) will appoint a management and development partner for the zone, in coordination with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology. The decree builds on Oman’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, a core pillar of Oman Vision 2040, which targets digital economy growth to 10 percent of national GDP by 2040, up from 2 percent in 2021.

SO WHAT? – A royal decree establishing a dedicated AI economic zone is a more concrete commitment than a policy announcement. Oman has been far more cautious about creating new zones permitting foreign ownership than the neighbouring UAE and has been careful in selecting applicable economic activities. For this reason, some business specialisations are much easier to set-up in the Sultanate than other. The announcement that Oman will create a dedicated economic zone for AI is a clear signal that the country is actively trying to encourage foreign AI companies and investors to enter the local market.

• His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik has issued Royal Decree No. 50/2026 establishing an Artificial Intelligence Special Zone in the Governorate of Muscat, on a land area demarcated in the decree’s attached layout. Details of the land area will be published by the government next week. Projects established within the zone will be granted incentives, privileges, and exemptions under the Law of Special Economic Zones and Free Zones.

• The Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones will appoint the party responsible for managing, operating, and developing the zone, working in coordination with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology. The decree takes effect from the day following its publication in the Official Gazette.

• The zone directly supports Oman’s National AI Strategy, which targets AI adoption across key economic sectors, localisation of advanced digital technologies, and establishment of a sovereign, human-centred AI governance framework.

• Oman’s digital economy contribution stood at just 2% of GDP in 2021. The national AI programme targets a rise to 10% by 2040, with AI-driven gains expected across transportation, logistics, tourism, food security, and manufacturing.

• Oman ranks in 66th place in the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index.

• The national AI programme has already delivered tangible outputs, including training for more than 1,300 people, the launch of OmanGPT (an Omani large language model trained on local cultural, historical, and scientific content) and an AI Studio serving as a hub for specialists and technology companies.

• AI pilots are already running across public-sector applications, including facial recognition, air quality monitoring, agricultural census, smart urban planning, drone surveying, and fish-farming and construction systems, moving beyond policy into operational deployment.

• Total AI sector investment in Oman reached RO 60 million ($156m) between 2021 and 2024, with RO 15 million ($39m) allocated specifically for AI projects in 2024. The establishment of a dedicated economic zone is expected to accelerate external investment alongside domestic government spending.

LINKS

• View the Royal Decree 50/2026 (Decree.om)

Read more about Oman’s AI and technology market:

• Middle East CEOs lead globally in AI adoption (Middle East AI News)

• Oman, Egypt partners announced $265 million AI zone (Middle East AI News)

• PIF-backed Elm opens Oman office (Middle East AI News)

• Sampo AI raises $750K in Oman’s largest pre-seed round (Middle East AI News)

Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News email digest!

Another busy week and the region’s AI transformation is accelerating at every level! This week, the UAE places artificial intelligence at the centre of federal decision-making; Dubai advances a scalable model for deployment; Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence addresses one of enterprise AI’s most critical risks; and a new report says that artificial intelligence could drive significant job displacement in Morocco!

As usual, thanks to our Middle East AI News sponsor: fast-growing US-based developer of hardware and software for AI inference Positron AI! Start a conversation with Positron and find out about how to achieve the highest performance and the lowest cost per token for AI inference here.

And thanks for reading!

/Carrington

Policy

UAE elevates The Cabinet’s AI oversight

#UAE #governance - The UAE has renamed its Ministerial Development Council to the Ministerial Council for Artificial Intelligence and Development. The body will oversee AI deployment across federal operations, aligning policy and supporting a plan to embed AI in 50% of government activities within two years. (Middle East AI News)

Dubai launches AI Integration Matrix for government

#UAE #implementation - Digital Dubai has introduced an AI Integration Matrix Framework to guide coordinated adoption across government entities. Already used in over 100 deployments, the model classifies AI systems into four categories, helping prioritise investments, reduce duplication and scale integrated services across operations and citizen-facing platforms. (Middle East AI News)

Iraq advances national AI strategy plans

#Iraq #AIstrategy - Iraq’s Ministry of Planning is refining its national AI strategy, focusing on sovereign capabilities and infrastructure. Plans include developing a national language model and expanding local and cloud systems aligned with national priorities and technical capacity. (Iraq Business News)

Research

MBZUAI unveils breakthrough AI privacy method

#UAE #Cybersecurity - Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has introduced DP-Fusion, a method ensuring mathematically provable privacy during AI inference. Presented at ICLR 2026, it reduces sensitive data leakage while maintaining output quality for high-stakes applications. (Middle East AI News)

Workforce

Morocco faces 1.3 million AI-driven job losses

#Morocco #jobs - Morocco could see more than one million net job losses by 2030 due to artificial intelligence, according to a new report. While 4.6 million roles may be affected, limited digital job creation and structural challenges such as skills gaps risk intensifying labour market disruption. (Morocco World News)

Middle East workers lead global AI adoption

#UAE #GenAI - PwC finds three quarters of workers across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar now use AI at work, with 92% reporting productivity gains. The region is outperforming global averages, driven by sustained investment in infrastructure, skills and policy. (Middle East AI News)

Startups

Sinai.ai raises $1.45 million for AI publishing

#Saudi #funding - Sinai.ai has secured $1.45 million in pre-seed funding to develop AI-powered interactive books using licensed publisher content. Operating across Cairo and Riyadh, the startup is targeting opportunities within the $150 billion global publishing market. (Middle East AI News)

Digital readiness

Saudi government hits 76% tech readiness

#Saudi #readiness - Saudi Arabia reports that 76% of government entities are ready to deploy emerging technologies, including generative and agentic AI, IoT and robotics. The milestone reflects progress under Vision 2030 and a shift from pilot projects to live implementation. (Middle East AI News)

Applications

UAE launches sovereign AI e-invoicing platform

#UAE #fintech - CPX Holding and SpendConsole have launched the UAE’s first sovereign AI-powered e-invoicing platform. Designed for upcoming Ministry of Finance regulations, it combines automation with secure local data hosting to modernise financial operations. (Middle East AI News)

Education

Algeria launches national AI training programme

#Algeria #training - Algeria has introduced a 12-week national AI training programme linking education with startup execution. The initiative supports a broader goal of training 500,000 ICT specialists and expanding the digital economy’s contribution to GDP. (Middle East AI News)

Aviation

UAE launches AI-powered aviation data platform

#UAE #aviation - The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has introduced an AI-enabled open data platform with 29 datasets. The initiative supports researchers and developers, enabling data-driven innovation and improved decision-making across the aviation sector. (Middle East AI News)

Events

DeepMinds launches DeepX summit in Algeria

#Algeria #DeepTech - DeepMinds has launched DeepX, a regional summit in Algiers designed to turn scientific research into commercial ventures. Backed by multiple government ministries, the initiative brings together global researchers, AI experts and industry leaders. (Middle East AI News)

Saudi to host UNESCO AI ethics forum

#Saudi #ethics - Saudi Arabia will host the UNESCO Global Forum on the Ethics of AI in Riyadh, bringing together international policymakers to address responsible AI development and governance, reinforcing the Kingdom’s growing leadership role in global AI discussions. (Qazinform)

Competitions

Tunisia students build startup in hours with AI

#Tunisia #competitions - In Sfax, 300 university students created a fully functioning startup in under three hours using AI tools. The project produced dozens of deliverables and a live platform, demonstrating how AI can dramatically compress innovation and product development cycles. (LinkedIn)

Media

UAE launches $1.36 million fund for AI creators

#UAE #media - The UAE has launched a $1.36 million Social Content Fund through Creators HQ and Alfan to support 50 creators. With 86% of creators already using generative tools and output up 77%, the initiative provides funding, training and AI-driven resources to scale the digital content economy. (Fast Company Middle East)

[ This newsletter was both AI edited & human edited ]

• UAE elevates AI to core government authority (Middle East AI News)

• Dubai framework scales AI across public sector (Middle East AI News)

• Algeria DeepX summit boosts deep tech ventures (Middle East AI News)

Ready for the post-training era? Contact Positron AI MENA.

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#Algeria #DeepTech - MENA venture studio DeepMinds has unveiled DeepX, a regional DeepTech venture building summit, aimed at converting scientific research into commercially viable businesses. Hosted in Algiers this week, the initiative brought together researchers, AI experts and industry leaders to accelerate venture creation across priority sectors. Backed by multiple Algerian ministries, DeepX focuses on five clusters including healthcare and fintech, aligning innovation with economic diversification goals.

SO WHAT? - The Middle East and North Africa producing an increasing volume of academic research but struggles to commercialise it. DeepX addresses this gap by creating a structured pipeline from lab to market, improving the region’s ability to generate high-value, technology-driven companies and reduce reliance on imported innovation. Organised by deeptech specialist DeepMinds, the inaugural event brought together deep tech experts from the United States, Europe, Asia, and across Africa, alongside policymakers, researchers, founders, and investors.

• DeepMinds, a decentralised venture studio focused on building deep technology companies in MENA, launched DeepX as a dedicated platform to transform scientific discoveries into scalable ventures with measurable economic impact across key sectors.

• The inaugural summit took place at the Centre Cultural of the Grand Mosque in Algiers, highlighting the country’s ambition to position itself as a regional hub for advanced technology development, supported by over 150 research institutions and a growing pool of technical talent.

• The initiative received backing from multiple government bodies, including Algeria’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Startups and Micro-Enterprises, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Pharmaceutical Industry and Ministry of Vocational Education and Training.

• DeepX is designed to bridge gaps between academia, artificial intelligence development and industry execution, bringing together scientists, venture builders and corporate stakeholders into a single coordinated ecosystem.

• The platform focuses on five strategic clusters with both urgent regional demand and strong potential for scalable, high-impact innovation. The five clusters are food security, healthcare, cybersecurity, logistics and smart cities, and fintech.

• A core objective of DeepX is to help researchers, entrepreneurs and startups move beyond early-stage research by introducing structured venture-building processes, including validation, commercialisation pathways and alignment with real-world industry needs.

• Algeria’s hosting of the summit reflects the country’s broader strategy to expand research and development capabilities while leveraging its domestic talent base to foster locally developed, globally competitive technologies.

ZOOM OUT - DeepMinds launched in 2023 as a venture studio specifically targeting the underserved deep tech sector across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The company was founded to address the historical lack of knowledge, investment, and ecosystems supporting MENA deep tech ventures. DeepMinds' regional strategy focuses on developing deep tech clusters that can produce technology for key industrial sectors including healthcare, defence, and shipbuilding.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

Read more about Algeria’s tech ecosystem:

• Algeria launches national AI training programme (Middle East AI News)

• Algeria launches first AI & cybersecurity start-up cluster (Middle East AI News)

• Algeria inaugurates national AI school data centre (Middle East AI News)

• New venture studio to create Algerian 1,000 startups (Middle East AI News)

• Algérie Télécom creates $11 million AI startup fund (Middle East AI News)

#UAE #digitaltransformation — His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has approved the renaming of the Ministerial Development Council as the Ministerial Council for Artificial Intelligence and Development. The council will be chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court. The decision reflects the UAE’s commitment to placing AI at the centre of government work and policy development. The news comes a few days after the announcement of a new UAE government framework to deploy agentic AI across 50 percent of government sectors, services and operations within two years.

SO WHAT? — Seemingly a cosmetic change, renaming the Ministerial Development Council is a clear signal that the UAE government has made AI a top priority for the long-term. This move makes it clear that the authority and accountability for AI implementation in government now formally belongs to the council. The Ministerial Council for Artificial Intelligence and Development will oversee federal performance, review policies and legislation submitted by all federal entities, and supervise AI deployment across government operations. The council gives the UAE government’s AI transformation direct executive authority at the highest tier of government. No other country has restructured its ministerial architecture in this way.

KEY POINTS:

• The UAE has renamed its Ministerial Development Council as the Ministerial Council for Artificial Intelligence and Development, chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The restructuring places AI governance at the centre of federal ministerial authority and policy development.

• The council will oversee federal performance in delivering government policies and national priorities, reviewing legislation, policies and strategies submitted by federal entities and providing recommendations to the Cabinet to ensure alignment and faster execution across the government.

• The council will supervise plans, programmes and projects expanding AI use across federal operations, from service development and process optimisation to improved public spending efficiency> This gives it direct oversight of the two-year agentic AI transformation programme announced earlier this month.

• The council will evaluate solutions to improve service quality across key sectors including healthcare, education, housing, infrastructure, transport, energy and telecommunications, ensuring faster and more efficient AI-enabled public services for all community members.

• The renaming forms part of the new federal operating model announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai in April 2026. The government is targeting the deployment of agentic AI across 50% of government sectors and operations within two years: a world first in moving towards autonomous, intelligence-driven government.

• The restructuring reflects a deliberate pattern of placing AI at the highest levels of UAE governance, with Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed who also oversees the dedicated agentic AI transformation taskforce chaired by Minister of Cabinet Affairs H.E. Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi.

• The council’s mandate connects directly to existing AI systems already embedded in federal decision-making, including the National Artificial Intelligence System deployed as an advisory member across all federal entity boards from January 2026, and the AI-powered regulatory intelligence ecosystem approved in April 2025 to accelerate law-making by up to 70 percent.

ZOOM OUT — The ministerial restructuring follows directly from a landmark announcement made just days earlier to deploy agentic AI across 50 percent of UAE government sectors, services and operations within two years. The move will see autonomous systems designed to monitor changes, manage operations, execute decisions and introduce real-time improvements without human intervention. A dedicated was formed to drive execution, with ministerial and director general performance to be assessed directly on the speed and quality of their AI adoption.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

Read more about UAE government AI announcements:

• UAE to deploy agentic AI across 50% of government (Middle East AI News)

• UAE deploys AI system to improve performance (Middle East AI News)

• UAE embeds AI at the core of government planning cycle (Middle East AI News)

• UAE embraces future with government-wide AI advisors (Middle East AI News)

• UAE approves first-of-its-kind AI regulatory ecosystem (Middle East AI News)

#Dubai #digital transformation — Digital Dubai has introduced an AI Integration Matrix Framework, to guide Dubai Government entities moving from fragmented AI pilots toward a fully integrated, coordinated AI ecosystem. Released via a whitepaper this week, the framework classifies all government AI use cases into four quadrants internal agents, internal RAG systems, external agents and external RAG systems. The methodology gives public sector leaders a practical tool to prioritise investments, eliminate duplication and deploy AI coherently across both back-office operations and citizen-facing services. The framework has already been applied internally at Digital Dubai, guiding the deployment of more than 100 AI systems across multiple sectors.

SO WHAT? — Most government AI programmes share the same structural weakness: isolated pilots that deliver local results but fail to add up to systemic change. The risk of weak outcomes is magnified when AI implementation is accelerates and Digital Dubai’s AI Integration Matrix is a direct response to that problem. By making it easy to classify every AI initiative it gives government entities a shared language, a prioritisation methodology and a roadmap for scaling AI coherently. In addition, the fact that Digital Dubai has already validated the framework across 100-plus live deployments gives it practical credibility that a whitepaper would lack on is own.

KEY POINTS:

• Digital Dubai has introduced an AI Integration Matrix Framework for government AI projects, publishing a whitepaper providing government entities with a structured, four-quadrant model for classifying, prioritising and deploying AI initiatives. The methodology covers both internal operations and citizen-facing services in a coordinated, integrated manner.

• The framework has already been deployed internally at Digital Dubai, guiding more than 100 AI systems. The implementation improved visibility of AI initiatives, strengthened coordination among teams and reduced project overlap, validating the model in a live government environment before its wider release.

• The framework is built around two core dimensions: the nature of the technology deployed (either autonomous agents or retrieval-augmented generation systems) and the scope of deployment (either internal to government operations or external facing citizens and the public).

• Four strategic quadrants define the complete AI ecosystem:

  • Internal agents that automate back-office operations and staff workflows;

  • Internal RAG systems that give employees fast access to institutional knowledge and policies;

  • External agents that automate public service delivery and citizen transactions;

  • External RAG systems that provide real-time public information and personalised guidance.

• The framework addresses one of the most common challenges facing government AI programmes: where to begin with AI adoption. Digital Dubai’s shared methodology provides structured prioritisation methodologies, gap analysis tools and a roadmap development process that sequences initiatives based on strategic objectives and available resources.

• Data quality and governance are identified as foundational enablers, with the whitepaper emphasising that successful AI implementation depends not only on models and applications but on systematic data management, accuracy, reliability and adherence to ethical and regulatory frameworks.

• Digital Dubai describes the framework as a shift from adopting AI to embedding it across a fully integrated government ecosystem, building a government that operates as one interconnected system with people at the centre.

• The AI Integration Matrix has been designed as a globally adaptable model, offering a methodology that can be tailored to different government contexts while maintaining core principles of integration and balance. Digital Dubai is increasingly becoming a source of exportable government AI governance thinking for public sectors worldwide.

ZOOM OUT — The AI Integration Matrix Framework builds on institutional foundations and agile processes that Dubai has been assembling systematically over the past few years. In 2023, Dubai launched the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence to coordinate AI adoption across government entities. In 2024, the Dubai Universal Blueprint for Artificial Intelligence aligned all emirate AI initiatives under a single strategic plan, followed by the appointment of 22 Chief AI Officers across government departments. Last year, Dubai Crown Prince HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum approved the formation of the Dubai AI Acceleration Taskforce, bringing together those chief AI officers from 27 government entities under a coordinated framework. The AI Integration Matrix provides a shared methodology to take government AI projects from strategy through implementation

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

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Ai Integration Matrix Framework (April 2026)

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Read more about Dubai Government’s AI initiatives:

• Digital Dubai launches AI+ to train 50,000 government staff (Middle East AI News)

• Dubai announces task force to accelerate AI adoption (Middle East AI News)

• 2nd Dubai AI Government Services Accelerator (Middle East AI News)

• Dubai;s human-AI collaboration classification (Middle East AI News)

• Dubai launches AI Academy to train 10,000 leaders (Middle East AI News)

• Algeria launches AI training to power digital economy (Middle East AI News)

• Qatar advances national debate on AI regulation (Middle East AI News)

• Sinai.ai raises funds for AI reading platform (Middle East AI News)

Ready for the post-training era? Contact Positron AI MENA.

Streaming Services

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• Amazon Alexa

• Amazon Music

• Anghami

• Deezer

• Soundcloud

• Spotify

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Want to stop receiving email notifications for this podcast?

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#Egypt #SaudiArabia #funding — AI reading platform Sinai.ai has closed a $1.45 million pre-seed funding round led by Saudi Arabia’s KAUST Innovation Ventures and Cairo-based venture capital firm DisrupTech Ventures, with participation from Maza Ventures and YOUXEL Ventures alongside angel investors. Sinai.ai transforms traditionally published books into interactive, multimodal aiBook™ experiences. The company offers 100% licensed content sourced directly from publishers, giving the platform a legally compliant foundation that generic AI tools cannot match. The capital will fund proprietary technology, AI infrastructure, user acquisition and licensing.

SO WHAT? — The global book market is worth over $150 billion and the core format of books has changed remarkably little in decades. Most AI tools that engage with published content hit copyright walls almost immediately. Sinai.ai has built its entire model around solving that problem first, sourcing fully licensed, full-text content directly from publishers and sharing revenue with rights holders. The legal-first approach is not just a compliance strategy, it’s the key differentiator that positions Sinai.ai as a partner to the publishing industry rather than a threat to it.

KEY POINTS:

• Sinai.ai has closed a $1.45 million pre-seed round led by KAUST Innovation Ventures and DisrupTech Ventures, with participation from Maza Ventures and YOUXEL Ventures, plus angel investors. The funding will support proprietary technology development, AI infrastructure, user acquisition and content licensing.

• The company’s core product is the aiBook™, a trademarked, patent-backed book format that transforms traditional titles into multimodal, hyper-personalised reading experiences. Readers can converse with their book in real time, generate study guides and quizzes, access titles in multiple languages, switch between reading and listening, and visualise ideas and narratives as they explore.

• Sinai.ai sources 100% licensed, full-text content directly from publishers and rights holders, allowing its AI to operate on complete books in a legally compliant environment. This distinguishes it from generic AI tools that cannot engage with published works without hitting copyright constraints.

• The platform is launching with thousands of titles across its library, having secured partnerships with double-digit publishers including several prominent industry names. The publisher partnership model is designed to protect rights, grow revenue and open new global markets for existing content.

• Sinai.ai was founded by a five-person team with credentials spanning Stanford, Yale, the University of Toronto and senior roles at Google, McKinsey, Meta, Warner Bros. and Netflix.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

#Algeria #education — Algeria has officially launched a National Training Programme in Artificial Intelligence at the National Specialized Institute for Vocational Training in Rahmania, Sidi Abdallah, in a joint initiative led by the Ministry of Vocational Training and Education and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Startups and Micro-Enterprises. The 12-week programme consists of eight weeks of intensive training followed by four weeks of applied project work with startups. The initiative forms part of a broader digital transformation strategy targeting the training of 500,000 ICT specialists and support the ICT sector in contributing approximately 7 percent of GDP by 2027.

SO WHAT? — Algeria has a large young population, a growing startup ecosystem and an explicit target to reduce the outflow of skilled workers. The new national AI training programme is one of a number of initiatives aimed at bridging the gap between ambition and workforce capability. The new training is developed around real startup challenges, co-designed with diaspora expertise and structured around applied project delivery rather than classroom theory.

KEY POINTS:

• Algeria has launched a National Training Programme in Artificial Intelligence, jointly overseen by the Minister of Vocational Training and Education Nacima Arhab and the Minister of Knowledge Economy, Startups and Micro-Enterprises Noureddine Ouadah, at the El Rahmania National Specialized Vocational Training Institute in Sidi Abdallah, Algiers.

• The programme runs for 12 weeks, comprising eight weeks of intensive training followed by four weeks dedicated to applied project work with real startups, using the latest AI tools and models. A train-the-trainers phase launched on 15 January 2026 to ensure teaching quality ahead of the main programme rollout.

• The curriculum was co-designed with diaspora expertise, the initiative represents a deliberate effort to repatriate knowledge.

• The programme is built around real startup challenges, with training themes drawn directly from problems faced by Algerian and global startups. The approach is designed to accelerate participants’ transition into the workforce and support the creation of new technology ventures through the institute’s newly launched business incubator.

• The initiative forms part of a broader digital transformation strategy targeting the training of 500,000 ICT specialists, aimed at curbing the outflow of skilled workers and strengthening Algeria’s technological sovereignty by retaining and developing domestic digital talent.

• Earlier this month Algeria opened the first start-up cluster dedicated to artificial intelligence and cybersecurity at the Abdelhafid Ihaddaden Scientific and Technology Hub in Sidi Abdallah.

• Algeria is targeting a contribution from the ICT sector of approximately 7% of GDP by 2027, supported by dedicated funding, the development of centres of excellence and expanded access to digital technologies. Therefore, rapid workforce development a strategic and short-term priority.

ZOOM OUT — The national AI training programme sits within a longer-term strategy that Algeria has been building on since 2019. The National Research and Innovation Strategy on Artificial Intelligence 2020-2030 is led jointly by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Startups and Micro-Enterprises. Algeria's strongest asset in this strategy is its capacity to produce computer science talent: 57,702 students are currently studying computer science across the country, with 74 master programmes in AI available across 52 universities. Notable Algerian researchers rank among the top 2 percent of scientists worldwide, and Algeria's scientific publication volume places it in the top five in Africa and the top 50 globally. The critical challenge for Algeria remains whether this talent can be retained domestically.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

Read more about Algeria:

• Algeria launches first AI & cybersecurity start-up cluster (Middle East AI News)

• Algeria inaugurates national AI school data centre (Middle East AI News)

• New venture studio to create Algerian 1,000 startups (Middle East AI News)

• Algérie Télécom creates $11 million AI startup fund (Middle East AI News)

• AI stakeholders convene to advance national strategy (Middle East AI News)

#Qatar #law — Qatar’s Shura Council has convened a formal debate on the governance of artificial intelligence, with members raising concerns about algorithmic bias, data protection, privacy, intellectual property rights and legal liability arising from AI systems. Presided over by Speaker HE Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim, the session concluded with a motion to referred the issue to the Health, General Services and Environment Committee for detailed scrutiny and a formal report back to the council. The debate is another step in Qatar’s effort to establish a coherent national legal framework for AI, aligned with Qatar National Vision 2030 and the country’s Third National Development Strategy.

SO WHAT? — Qatar has a brief national AI policy and a digital agenda, but no AI-specific legislation yet on the table. The Shura Council motion aims to change that picture and formally place AI legislation on the parliamentary agenda. Voices from the council warned that the pace of technological change is outrunning the pace of legal scrutiny. Other concerns raised by Shura Council members included algorithmic bias, labour market disruption, reliance on foreign technology and digital sovereignty.

KEY POINTS:

• Qatar’s Shura Council debated the country’s lack of specific AI legislation on Monday, with members raising substantive concerns about algorithmic bias, data protection, privacy, intellectual property rights, legal liability from AI systems and the risks of dependence on external technologies.

• A motion to draft AI-specific legislation has been referred for detailed scrutiny to the Health, General Services and Environment Committee, which is headed by H.E. Abdullah bin Nasser bin Turki Al Subaie. The committee with review potential next steps and report back to the full council.

• Speaker HE Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim opened the debate by framing AI as a factor in public policy and decision-making, not merely a technical tool, stressing the need for a coherent national framework that balances innovation with robust oversight.

• Members highlighted the widening gap between the pace of technological innovation and legislative scrutiny, a concern that echoes debates in parliaments and assemblies across the world as AI deployment accelerates faster than legal frameworks can respond.

• Digital sovereignty emerged as a central concern, with members raising questions about Qatar’s reliance on external technologies and the implications for national control over data, systems and AI infrastructure, themes increasingly prominent in government discussions across the region.

• Labour market disruption was also raised, with members underscoring the need to equip the national workforce with skills suited to the digital economy as AI-driven structural shifts accelerate across sectors.

• Members reviewed international AI regulatory approaches, noting global movement toward proportionate, risk-based frameworks that balance oversight with support for innovation. How how those models might be adapted to Qatar’s national context was also discussed.

• Qatar’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology published a National AI Policy Brief in September 2025, establishing a framework for ethical, inclusive and coordinated AI deployment across sectors, aligned with Digital Agenda 2030 and the 3rd National Development Strategy. No AI-specific draft law has yet been proposed.

ZOOM OUT — Qatar's move toward AI legislation builds on a national AI journey that began in 2019 with the launch of its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy. The strategy is structured around six pillars covering education, data access, employment, business, research and ethics. In 2021, Cabinet Decision No. 10 established the Artificial Intelligence Committee to coordinate AI initiatives across government entities and align them with Qatar National Vision 2030 and Digital Agenda 2030. The country has strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Google Cloud and Scale AI as strategic partners to support strategy implementation. Meanwhile, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) launched Qai in December 2025, as a global AI company headquartered in Doha formed to develop and invest in AI and AI infrastructure.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

Read more stories from Qatar:

• Middle East workers lead the world on AI adoption at work (Middle East AI News)

• Dubai, Abu Dhabi top Arab cities in IMD Smart City Index (Middle East AI News)

• Qatar’s national AI platform’s powerful upgrade explained (Middle East AI News)

• QIA joins Replit’s $400M Series D funding round (Middle East AI News)

• Qatar’s ShipBee raises $500k to scale AI logistics platform (Middle East AI News)

• Middle East Workforce Surges Ahead in AI Adoption (Middle East AI Newss)

• MBZUAI Unveils Breakthrough in AI Data Privacy (Middle East AI Newss)

• UAE Launches Sovereign AI E Invoicing Platform (Middle East AI Newss)

Ready for the post-training era? Contact Positron AI MENA.

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#MiddleEast #GenAI — Three quarters of the Middle East workforce used AI tools in their jobs over the past 12 months, significantly ahead of the global average of 69 percent, according to PwC Middle East’s Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025, drawing on responses from 1,286 employees across the region. In the UAE, 72 percent of employees report using AI at work; in Saudi Arabia, 69 percent; and in Qatar, 69 percent, all well above the global benchmark of 54 percent. The survey reveals a workforce confidently integrating AI into daily work, with 92 percent of regional respondents reporting productivity improvements against a global figure of 77 percent. At the same time, job security has emerged as the top workforce priority, with 85 percent of regional respondents rating it very important.

SO WHAT? — The Middle East is not just adopting AI faster than most of the world, its workforce is reporting stronger productivity gains, higher creativity benefits and greater optimism about AI’s impact on job security than global peers. That combination of high adoption and positive sentiment is not accidental. It reflects years of deliberate national investment in AI strategy, digital infrastructure, skills development and public education across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. For employers in the region, the PwC data signals a workforce ready to scale AI.

KEY POINTS:

• PwC Middle East has released new country-specific data points from its Middle East Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025, for Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

• 75% of Middle East employees surveyed used AI tools at work in the past 12 months, compared to 54% globally, with 32% using generative AI daily, above the global daily usage rate of 28%. The survey covered 1,286 public and private sector employees across the Middle East region.

• 92% of Middle East respondents say AI has improved their productivity, well above the global figure of 77%. Regional employees also report higher-than-average gains in work quality (87%) and creativity (84%), consistently outperforming their global counterparts across all three measures.

• In the UAE, 72% of employees report using AI at work, with 24% using it daily and 83% reporting productivity gains (all above global benchmarks). The UAE’s advanced adoption is attributed in part to the visibility and ambition of the UAE National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031.

• In Saudi Arabia, 69% of employees report using AI at work, with 36% using generative AI weekly or daily. Notably, 55% of Saudi respondents expect AI to improve their job security (well above the global average of 38%) reflecting a broadly optimistic workforce attitude toward AI’s long-term role.

• In Qatar, 69% of employees have used AI at work in the past year, with 44% using generative AI weekly or daily, ahead of the global rate of 32%. Over 80% report improvements in work quality, productivity and creativity, with optimism remaining strong about AI’s continued impact over the next three years.

• Job security has become the top workforce priority across the region, with 85% of Middle East respondents rating it very important, compared to 79% globally. The share of employees planning to ask for a pay rise fell sharply from 71% in 2024 to just 46% in 2025, signalling a more cautious approach to career advancement.

• Skills development is a defining feature of the regional workforce, with 69% of Middle East employees reporting they gained new skills in the past 12 months, compared to 56% globally. 81% prefer jobs offering transferable skills (12 percentage points above the global average).

• Fatigue is emerging as a significant pressure point, with 45% of regional employees reporting they feel fatigued at least once a week and nearly half saying they feel overwhelmed. This is true even as engagement levels remain among the highest globally, with 78% saying they look forward to going to work.

• Millennials and Gen Z employees are the most active AI users, adopting new tools quickly and often outpacing older colleagues in both usage and creative application. This positions younger talent as a key driver of digital adoption for employers across the Middle East.

ZOOM OUT — The workforce survey findings are consistent with those of PwC's 29th Global CEO Survey, published in January 2026. Based on insights from more than 300 Middle East chief executives, the survey found that 82 percent say that their organisation's culture enables AI adoption, with UAE CEOs at 85%. Meanwhile, 70 percent have a clearly defined AI roadmap. Nearly 40 percent of Middle East CEOs have adopted AI for demand generation, customer service and support, significantly ahead of the global benchmark of 22 percent. Overall, Middle East businesses reported 12 percent average revenue growth against a global figure of 8 percent, with stronger profit margins.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

LINKS

• Download the Middle East Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025 (PDF)

• Download PwC’s Qatar-specific workforce survey (PDF)

• Download PwC’s Saudi Arabia-specific workforce survey (PDF)

• Download PwC’s UAE-specific workforce survey (PDF)

Read more about PwC:

• Middle East CEOs lead globally in AI adoption (Middle East AI News)

• Qatar signs AI partnership with PwC and OpenAI (Middle East AI News)

• GCC CEOs see AI as key to growth - survey (Middle East AI News)

#UAE #AIFintech — Abu Dhabi-based cyber and physical security solutions company CPX Holding and global AI-powered finance automation firm SpendConsole have announced a strategic partnership to launch the UAE’s first sovereign, mandate-ready e-invoicing platform. The joint solution is designed to help public and private sector organisations comply with the UAE Ministry of Finance’s new e-invoicing regulations, which enter voluntary effect on 1 July 2026 before becoming mandatory in phases from 2027. The platform combines SpendConsole’s AI-powered invoice automation with CPX’s cybersecurity assurance, compliance reporting, secure data hosting and continuous SOC monitoring, hosted on Microsoft Azure to ensure data sovereignty and scalability.

SO WHAT? — The UAE’s e-invoicing mandate is the new foundation of a national real-time financial governance infrastructure, standardising digital tax compliance, reducing VAT leakage and securing data exchange across B2B and government transactions at scale. Organisations that treat this as a box-ticking exercise will miss the operational upside. CPX and SpendConsole are pitching their platform as a finance transformation tool, not just a regulatory fix.

KEY POINTS:

• G42’s cybersecurity company CPX Holding and SpendConsole have launched the UAE’s first sovereign, mandate-ready e-invoicing platform, combining AI-powered finance automation with cybersecurity assurance and secure local data hosting on Microsoft Azure, ahead of the UAE Ministry of Finance’s phased e-invoicing mandate beginning in 2027.

• The UAE Ministry of Finance’s e-invoicing regulations enter voluntary effect on 1 July 2026, with mandatory compliance rolling out in phases from 2027. The mandate covers structured XML invoice formats across B2B and B2G transactions, targeting improved efficiency, reduced manual errors and stronger tax compliance.

• CPX brings cybersecurity assurance, compliance reporting, continuous SOC monitoring and secure sovereign data hosting to the partnership, while SpendConsole contributes AI-powered invoice capture, validation, compliance automation and payables management. The result is an integrated, compliant end-to-end e-invoicing solution from a single platform.

• The platform is hosted on CPX’s Microsoft Azure tenant, ensuring data sovereignty, scalability and robust security for UAE public and private sector organisations processing sensitive financial data through the system.

• Beyond compliance, the platform includes embedded payment and treasury capabilities, giving CFOs real-time visibility into cash flow and the ability to optimise working capital. The additional features position the solution as a broader finance transformation tool rather than a regulatory product.

• The partnership directly supports the UAE’s AI and Digital Economy Strategy, with the platform designed to accelerate enterprise AI adoption, strengthen national tax transparency and reduce fraud risk and VAT leakage across the economy.

• CPX was founded in 2022 and employs over 600 cyber and physical security specialists serving enterprises, governments and critical infrastructure sectors in the UAE and beyond. The e-invoicing platform extends its remit from cybersecurity into enterprise finance transformation for the first time.

ZOOM OUT — The CPX and SpendConsole platform arrives at a critical moment in the UAE's e-invoicing rollout. The UAE Ministry of Finance officially announced the mandate in October 2024, with a voluntary first phase going live in Q2 2026 and mandatory compliance rolling out in phases from 2027. The framework uses the Decentralised Continuous Transaction Control and Exchange model, with Peppol International as the data standard. The same model is used by many other countries, making UAE invoices interoperable with international counterparts. Only XML-format invoices will be compliant; PDFs and images are excluded. The mandate covers all B2B and B2G transactions, including non-VAT registered entities, a requirement that carries particular implications for SMEs, who will need to obtain a Tax Identification Number from the Federal Tax Authority ahead of their mandatory phase. Eighteen Accredited Service Providers are already listed and active, and the Ministry has confirmed there will be no extensions to its deadlines.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

Read other fintech stories:

• DIFC to become the first AI-native financial centre (Middle East AI News)

• UAE builds world’s first sovereign financial cloud (Middle East AI News)

• CBUAE issues AI consumer protection guidance (Middle East AI News)

• HSBC UAE and Presight partner on AI for financial services (Middle East AI News)

• DIFC AI adoption jumps to 52% of financial firms (Middle East AI News)

• Morocco Faces Major AI Driven Job Disruption (Morocco World News)

• Iraq Advances National AI Strategy And Infrastructure (Iraq Business News)

• Saudi Arabia To Host Global AI Ethics Forum (Gaxinform)

Ready for the post-training era? Contact Positron AI MENA.

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You can also listen to this podcast via the following services

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• Amazon Music

• Anghami

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Want to stop receiving email notifications for this podcast?

Or to sign-up for email notifications for this podcast? Navigate to your Settings page, scroll down to Subscriptions, click on Middle East AI News and change your Notifications preferences. You’re find more help here.

Note: this is an experimental podcast using a clone of my voice created by AI. Unfortunately, the voice clone is prone to some errors, including mispronunciations of some Arabic words and place names. However, I’m always working to improve this.

#UAE #LLMs — Abu Dhabi-based Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has presented DP-Fusion, a new method for protecting sensitive data during live AI inference, at ICLR 2026 (International Conference on Learning Representations) in Rio de Janeiro. The research addresses one of the most persistent vulnerabilities in deployed AI systems: the risk that large language models inadvertently leak sensitive information from their context. Information such as personal data, medical records or confidential documents can sometimes leak when AI generates responses. DP-Fusion provides mathematically provable privacy guarantees at the token level to solve the problem, while maintaining high output quality, achieving six times lower perplexity than competing privacy methods.

SO WHAT? — Training-time privacy in AI has received significant attention from global researchers, but what happens when a live model processes sensitive data during inferencing has not. Inferencing is not only where the real-world risk concentrates, but the demand for inferencing is witnessing explosive growth, taking Generative AI into more risk-averse operations. GenAI models are now being deployed more extensively in regulated environments, such as hospitals deploying AI on patient records, financial institutions running AI on client data, or governments using AI on classified documents. MBZUAI’s DP-Fusion was developed in response to that gap. The fact that it provides mathematically provable guarantees (rather than probable ones) makes it different from existing approaches.

KEY POINTS:

• Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has presented DP-Fusion at ICLR 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, one of the most competitive venues in AI research. The paper introduces a token-level differentially private inference method for large language models that provably limits how much sensitive information can leak through AI-generated outputs.

• The method works in four steps:

  • labelling sensitive tokens in the input;

  • running the model without those tokens to establish a baseline;

  • running the model with the sensitive tokens; and

  • blending the two output distributions so the final result stays within a mathematically bounded distance of the baseline (hiding sensitive information without destroying output quality).

• DP-Fusion achieves six times lower perplexity than competing differentially private inference methods, meaning its outputs are significantly more coherent and useful while maintaining stronger privacy guarantees. The research suggests this is a substantially better privacy-utility trade-off than any previously published approach.

• The method provides provable privacy bounds, meaning the advantage any attacker gains from trying to infer sensitive information is mathematically bounded. This is a stronger guarantee than scrubbing or paraphrasing methods, which offer no formal proof of privacy.

• DP-Fusion also mitigates prompt injection and jailbreak attacks, by treating tokens retrieved from untrustworthy external sources as sensitive. This effectively gives the method a dual function as both a privacy tool and a security defence against adversarial manipulation of AI systems.

• The research targets high-stakes deployment environments such as hospitals using AI to match patient symptoms to historical medical records, financial services firms processing client data through AI systems, and any organisation where personally identifiable information flows through a live language model.

• The privacy-utility balance is controlled by a single parameter, where setting it to zero hides sensitive tokens entirely and higher values progressively trade privacy for improved output quality. The option gives operators practical control over the level of protection applied to different use cases.

• The DP-Fusion research team includes: Rushil Thareja, Preslav Nakov, Praneeth Vepakomma, and Nils Lukas.

ZOOM OUT — The AI privacy challenge that DP-Fusion addresses is growing faster than most organisations realise. According to McKinsey, AI inference will account for more than 40 percent of total data centre demand and growing at 35 percent annually. The global AI inference market, currently valued at over $100 billion, is projected to reach $250 to $350 billion by 2030. Inference already accounts for upwards of two-thirds of all AI workloads today and represents 80 to 90 percent of the total lifetime cost of an AI system. Every one of those inference calls is a moment when a live model touches real data and, whenever it does so, there’s also a live operational risk.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

LINKS

• DP-Fusion research paper (arXiv)

• DP-Fusion live demo (website)

• DP-Fusion library (GitHub)

• Pypi package (Pypi)

• Example collab notebook (Google Colab)

Read more about recent MBZUAI research:

• MBZUAI builds AI to save researchers drowning in papers (Middle East AI News)

• UAE lab breaks the speed barrier in AI video generation (Middle East AI News)

• MBZUAI advances medical AI, cut training costs (Middle East AI News)

• MBZUAI officially launches K2 Think V2 with mobile apps (Middle East AI News)

• MBZUAI, Inception launch enhanced Nanda Hindi LLM (Middle East AI News)

This was the week that the UAE government set a two-year deadline to deploy agentic AI across 50% of government services.

In other news, Saudi government entities moved from experimentation to live emerging technology deployment; DIFC announced plans to become the world’s first AI-native financial centre; TokenAI released the Horus open-source LLM; and Khazna’s DXB8 data centre became the world’s first zero waste certified data centre.

Here are this week’s biggest AI news stories!

Monday, April 20th

🔊 Listen to Monday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 Algeria launches first AI & cybersecurity start-up cluster

• Abdelhafid Ihaddaden cluster bridges academia and industry in Algeria

🔥 Egyptian open-source LLM Horus punches above its weight

• TokenAI’s Horus 1.0 outperforms Llama 3.1 8B despite having half the parameters

Tuesday, April 21st

🔊 Listen to Tuesday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 Paragon-Adeer, Plug & Play to launch AI Campus in New Cairo

• The AI 100 programme targets 100 Egyptian AI startups by 2030

🔥 Valeo opens AI Development Centre in Cairo

• Valeo’s Cairo centre goes from R&D hub to global AI development base

🔥 DIFC set to become the world’s first AI-native financial centre

• DIFC aims to leverage AI to create $3.5 billion economic impact and 25,000 jobs

Wednesday, April 22nd

🔊 Listen to Wednesday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 Signit raises $15M to build AI contract platform

• Raed Ventures leads Signit round to expand beyond e-signatures

🔥 Khazna’s DXB8 data centre is world’s first zero waste certified

• Dubai data centre diverts 99.55% of waste from landfill over 12 months

Thursday, April 23rd

🔊 Listen to Thursday’s Daily News Minute

🔥 UAE to deploy agentic AI across 50% of government

• UAE government sets two-year deadline for agentic AI transformation

🔥 76% of Saudi government now ready for emerging tech deployment

• Government entities move from experimentation to live deployment

🔥 UAE aviation authority launches AI-enabled open data platform

• GCAA’s open data platform brings AI-driven insight to civil aviation

Friday, April 24th

🔊 Listen to Friday’s Daily News Minute