Abu Dhabi attracts Insilico R&D; Saudi spearheads robotic mining

Middle East AI News weekly news digest...

Good morning!

Here’s your weekly Middle East AI News!

Big news in R&D this week, as AI-driven drug discovery company Insilico Medicine launches the region’s largest AI-powered biotech research centre in Abu Dhabi. The move is a big win for the emirate, bringing global deeptech into its fast-growing R&D ecosystem.

It was also an historic week for Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, as the first intake of students graduated from the university.

There were a couple of new reports published this week: Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy’s digital economy report and Dubai Future Foundation’s 10 Mega Trends Shaping Our Future in 2023. Scroll down for those stories and download links.

Meanwhile, mining giant Ma’aden has signed a deal with extra terrestrial robot developer OffWorld, to deploy autonomous mining robots for its sites in Saudi Arabia.

Thanks for reading!

/Carrington

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Investment

ADIO funds three global tech firm to build operations in Abu Dhabi

#UAE #techsector - Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has announced the ‘arrival’ of three technology companies to Abu Dhabi: The Applied AI Company (AAICO); Insilico Medicine; and Ubisoft. No figures were disclosed for venture capital investments. (Emirates News Agency)

R&D

Insilico opens region’s biggest AI-powered biotech R&D centre

#UAE #pharma - Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage AI-driven drug discovery company, this week opened the Insilico Medicine Generative Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing Research and Development Center in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, the region’s largest AI-powered biotechnology research center. (Global Newswire)

Education

Abu Dhabi's first AI university students graduate

#UAE #MBZUAI - The first batch of students to enrol at Abu Dhabi's Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) graduated this week amid a surge of interest in the subject. A total of 52 students graduated from MBZUAI — 20 with a master's in computer vision, a strand of AI that trains computers to understand the visual world — and 32 in machine learning, the popular field that trains computers to mimic human intelligence. (The National)

4th Khalid bin Hamad Innovation, AI competition

#Bahrain #competitions - Bahrain Polytechnic is organising the fourth edition of the Khalid bin Hamad Innovation and Artificial Intelligence Competition in cooperation with Microsoft. (Bahrain News Agency)

Digital economy

UAE’s national digital economy set to grow $140 billion by 2031

#UAE #digitaleconomy - A new report released by Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, one of three chambers operating under Dubai Chambers, projects the national digital economy will reach US$140 billion in 2031 from US$38 billion today. Download PDF report. (Emirates News Agency)

Robotics

OffWorld and Ma’aden to spearhead a new era of robotic mining

#Saudi #mining - Saudi Arabia's Maaden, the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East, has signed a MoU with OffWorld , the developer of a new generation of industrial swarm robots that can withstand extreme conditions and work collaboratively. (BusinessWire)

Update: also read my in depth feature on OffWorld and Ma’aden here.

DEWA’s AI robot answers 6.8 million queries

#UAE #customerservice - Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)’s humanoid customer service robot ‘Rammas', answered more than 6.8 million enquiries since its launch in the first quarter of 2017 until the end of December 2022. (ITP.net)

Startups

DIFC launches new metaverse accelerator platform

#UAE #metaverse - Dubai International Financial Centre has launched a metaverse platform to attract technology innovators from around the world as part of the emirate's efforts to become a hub for the metaverse. (The National)

Space

UAE lunar rover will test 1st AI on the moon with Canada

#UAE #Canada #Japan #moonlanding - A Canadian machine learning system developed by Mission Control Space Services will make its way to the moon's surface onboard a UAE rover that launched with SpaceX Dec. 11. The Rashid rover, hosted on the Japanese ispace lander, is expected to touch down this spring in search of minerals and other items of interest on the lunar surface. (Space.com)

Trends

Dubai Dubai Future foundation releases metatrends report

#UAE #future - Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) has published a report that identifies 10 major trends that will transform economic sectors and societies over the coming year. The report, called ‘10 Mega Trends Shaping Our Future in 2023‘, is part of a series of forward looking reports published by DFF. Download the PDF report. (Dubai Future Foundation)

Defence

Israel appears to have been behind drone strike on Iranian factory: US official

#Israel #Iran - Israel appears to have been behind an overnight drone attack on a military factory in Iran, a US official said on Sunday. Iran claimed to have intercepted drones that struck a military industry target near the central city of Isfahan. (Reuters via Arab News)