Good morning,Welcome to this week’s edition of Middle East AI News!The big news this week is yesterday's announcement of Abu Dhabi's new Advanced Technology Research Council or ATRC, to be headed up by Dark Matter founder Faisal Abdulaziz Al Bannai. With a growing variety of R&D initiatives driven by Adnoc, Dark Matter, Group 42, the Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence and others, there's certainly an opportunity for the ATRC to both help coordinate R&D activities and pave the way for global tech players to invest in Abu Dhabi.As the emirate continues to grow its R&D ecosytem, it also increases its chances of creating a sustainable pool of R&D talent. Last year Abu Dhabi Investment Office and SenseTime announced that the AI unicorn would open an EMEA R&D centre in Abu Dhabi employing 600 engineers. No doubt, Abu Dhabi would like to see more tech firms do the same.Scroll down for more on this and stories from around the region.Have a great weekend!/Carrington