Good morning!Here’s your weekly roundup of Middle East AI News!Hot on the heels of Saudi Arabia'a Launch event last week, the new National Technology Sector Development Program (NTDP) has announced details of its Technology Growth Financing programme, which will loan or guarantee loans for Saudi tech startups and SMEs up to a value of $4 million (SR 15m). Scroll down for news on startups, smart cities and the Saudi robotics team that is competing at the World Robotics Summit in Japan this month. At the end of this newsletter you'll find media interviews with Professor Fakhreddine Karray, the new provost of MBZUAI and Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder of emotion AI firm Affectiva.Lastly, if you were following the announcements made at last week's #LaunchKSA event in Riyadh, then you might be interested to know that I've made a list of all the announcements with useful links here: https://lnkd.in/dFryyGyRStay safe and have a great weekend!/Carrington