Good morning,Here’s this week’s Middle East AI News!Lots of news to share this week, including the yesterday's announcement that the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC) has launched a new unit to plan, fund and facilitate new R&D programmes in Abu Dhabi. The ATRC was formed earlier this year to define drive Abu Dhabi's research and development agenda.Meanwhile, Bangalore AI chatbot platform Verloop.io announced its first new UAE deal since setting up in Abu Dhabi, revealing that it is the developer behind Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank's chat banking, a chatbot that is able to understand Emirati Arabic. ADQ's $300 million Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) fund invested in Verloop's Series-A round earlier this year (see Middle East AI News August 27)Also Smart Dubai celebrates 5 years of innovation; the new smart health lab in Dubai that can analyse thousands of samples per day, reducing some types of analysis to a few seconds; robotics competitions; AI diplomacy; and a GITEX 2020 roundup from Gulf Business. Scroll down for more!Stay safe & have a great weekend!/Carrington