Med42 v2 LLM released; Egypt digital exports top $6b
Med42 v2 LLM released; Egypt digital exports top $6b
Middle East AI News weekly digest...
Good morning!
Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News, brought to you by OnDemand, an innovative AI platform which enables you to fast-track AI product development and seamlessly integrate AI and IoT apps into your environment.
Lots of news to share today, including the release of second generation of M42’s clinical LLM; Egypt’s digital exports; continued growth in Saudi AI business registrations; R&D, competitions and an upcoming AI law in Turkey.
Scroll down for more news!
No Middle East AI News LIVE show today, but I can reveal that I will be talking to Professor Bernard Ghanem on next week’s THURSDAY DEEP DIVE about KAUST’s Centre of Excellence for Generative AI and GenAI Factory! I will share details soon (both via the website and LinkedIn)
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LLMs
New version of Med42 clinical LLM released
#UAE #LLMs - Nine months after the debut of the Med42 LLM, technology-driven healthcare group M42 has released Med42 v2 8B and Med42 v2 70B, via the data science platform and open-source AI community Hugging Face. Built on Meta's LLaMA-3, the new models are instruction and preference fine-tuned, to both expand access to medical knowledge, and recognise the human preferences of clinicians and other medical stakeholders. (Middle East AI News)
Digital Economy
Egypt’s digital exports top $6 billion
#Egypt #digitaleconomy - Egypt’s digital exports jumped to $6.2 billion in the country's fiscal year 2022-2023. up from $4.9 billion in the previous year, according to the Egyptian Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC). Egypt's national Outsourcing Industry Strategy aims to build on the country’s position as a global hub for outsourcing and to establish it as a recognised brand in AI. (Zawya)
Saudi sees 54% increase in AI business licences
#Saudi #licences - Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Commerce has recorded a 54% increase in business licences issued for AI companies during the second quarter. The ministry issued 8,948 licences during April, May and June, compared with 5,820 issued during the same period last year. (Gulf News)
R&D
Google awards grants to KAUST researchers
#Saudi #R&D - Google has awarded five seed grants to faculty members at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) to support AI research. Totaling 100,000 dollars, the grants will fund research projects focused on multilingual and multimodal machine learning. (Arab News)
Ericsson and KAUST renew 5G/6G R&D partnership
#Saudi #6G - Ericsson has announced the extension of its research and development partnership with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for an additional two years. Research includes 5G and 6G, with specific emphasis on on-chip reflective intelligent surfaces, and free-space optical communications. (Arab News)
Competitions
AI71 and Lablab.ai to run Falcon Hackathon
#UAE #hackathons - Applications are open for AI71's first-ever Falcon Hackathon, hosted by global lab and AI development ecosystem, Lablab.ai. The competition challenges developers to create a product using one of the Falcon series of large language models. The Falcon Hackathon begins on July 26th. (LinkedIn)
QRDI announces Qatar-UK AI competition
#Qatar #bilateral - Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation Council (QRDI) has called for project proposals under the newly formed Gulf Strategy Fund, a Qatar-UK Collaboration on AI. Submissions are due by August 12th. The call for proposals invites non-profit organizations, NGOs, and government entities globally to identify ambitious ways to enhance Qatar-UK cooperation in the realm of AI. (Zawya)
GenAI
Presight launches Enterprise AI Suite
#UAE #analytics - Abu Dhabi listed big data analytics company Presight, has launched its Enterprise AI Suite. The Presight Vitruvian on-premise platform, provides deep business insights, while the collaborative AI assistant, Presight Connect, integrates with business applications to deliver business insights. (Presight)
Education
UNESCO endorses AI Movement CoE
#Morocco #CoE - UNESCO, the Government of Morocco and AI Movement (the Mohammed VI Polytechnic’s centre of excellence for AI) have signed an landmark agreement. AI Movement will become the first AI centre in Africa to be classified as Category 2 by UNESCO. (UNESCO)
Sohar to set up AI Lab with Chinese support
#Oman #CoE - Sohar University plans to establish an AI centre of excellence, in collaboration with UNESCO’s International Centre for Higher Education & Innovation (ICHEI), the Southern University of Sciences and Technology (SUSTech) and Chinese tech companies. (Zawya)
ADEK and KU to train high school teachers to be future-ready
#UAE #education - ADEK (Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge) and Khalifa University have collaborated to shape future-ready STEM leaders, by elevating the skills and knowledge of 11th-grade high school teachers in Abu Dhabi’s Charter Schools. (Emirates News Agency)
ADIA Lab runs summer school in Spain
#Spain #UAE education - ADIA Lab, the basic and applied research lab for computational sciences, formed by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), is running an International Summer School in Spain. The programme, which is being organised together with the University of Granada from 15-26 July, will focus on trustworthy, safe, and governable AI. (ADIA Lab)
Iraq to add AI to school curricula
#Iraq #schools - The Prime Minister of Iraq's office has announced a move to begin using AI in Iraqi school curricula. Iraq aims to build a knowledge-based economy and so will prioritise education, innovation and research. (QNA)
Satellite
Maritime security satellite project launched
#UAE #maritime - The UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure has launched the Satgate project in collaboration with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). Satgate will harness the power of AI to more efficiently locate ships, monitor sea conditions and forecast maritime weather. (Emirates News Agency)
Transport
Dubai TRA uses AI to survey road damage
#UAE #roads - Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), is running a pilot programme of an AI system to automatically detect damage to Dubai's roads. Fed with data from high resolution cameras mounted on RTA survey vehicles, the AI system is being used to inspect traffic diversions to help optimal road conditions, for safety, and traffic flow. (Khaleej Times)
Najm to use AI to monitor driver behaviour
#Saudi #insurance - Najm for Insurance Services Company has launched an initiative for safe driving in Saudi Arabia, powered by advanced mobility analytics. Najm has partnered with Cambridge Mobile Telematics, and AiGeNiX. Smart devices installed in vehicles will measure various driving elements such as speed, acceleration, braking, handling turns, and adherence to traffic regulations. (Zawya)
AI & Data Regulation
Turkey to introduce new AI law
#Turkey #AI-law - Turkey plans to introduce an AI law, to ensure the safe, ethical, and fair use of AI technologies. With much in common with the recently approved EU AI Act, the much anticipated Draft AI Law was submitted to the country's Grand National Assembly last week. (CMS Law)
SDAIA invites feedback on PDP officer rules
#Saudi #PPL - Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA) has invited the public, business and government to provide feedback on the draft rules for appointing a Personal Data Protection Officer. The deadline for submitting feedback is Tuesday, August 6. Visit public consultation site. (SPA)
Cloud
Google Cloud office opens in Kuwait
#Kuwait #cloud - Google Cloud has announced the opening of its new office in Kuwait, in line with plans to bring a new Google Cloud region to the Gulf state. In 2023, Google Cloud announced an agreement with the Kuwaiti government to develop a roadmap for digital transformation programme. (Zawya)
AI Avatars
Moroccan virtual influencer wins Miss AI award
#Morocco #avatars - Moroccan AI-Generated online influencer Kenza Layli, has been names Miss AI, by The Fanvue World AI Creator Awards. The virtual pageant for virtual influencers was launched in April, with 1,500 competitors entering from around the globe. (Morocco World News)