Telecom LLM framework for AN; Robots for Saudi digital twins?
Middle East AI News weekly digest...
Good morning!
Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News!
The 6G Summit Abu Dhabi starts today, one of a number of significant international 6G events taking place in the UAE this year. You’ll find a couple of exclusive telecom AI stories below - and possible one or two more to follow later today or tomorrow!
However, there’re plenty of other things going on! Also see below for stories about Naver integrating robots into the Saudi smart cities digital twins project; Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University swarm drone research to detect ocean oil spills; and the launch of Oman’s first AI-powered satellite!
Scroll down to read all the news!
No live show today, but incase you missed last week’s Thursday Deep Dive all about Oman’s new National AI Programme, with Oman’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology Dr Nasser Mohammed Al-Fannah, you can listen to the podcast here!
Thanks for reading! And one last thing - Middle East AI News is now a Community Partner of World Summit AI - Qatar, so if you haven’t booked your ticket yet, please take advantage of our 20% discount code!
/Carrington
Telecom
'Telecom brain' advances autonomous networks
#UAE #6GSummitAD - Hermes, a breakthrough multi-agent telecom framework built on large language models has been developed by Huawei Paris Research Centre, Khalifa University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Yale University. Announced in advance of the 6G Summit Abu Dhabi, the LLM framework is designed to autonomously manage and optimise mobile networks. (Middle East AI News)
TelecomGPT-Chat goes live
#UAE #6GSummitAD- The 6G Centre of Khalifa University (KU) in Abu Dhabi has unveiled TelecomGPT-Chat, a chat interface for the first-of-its-kind large language model (LLM) tailored specifically for the telecom sector. (Middle East AI News)
Abu Dhabi hosts 6G Summit with global researchers
#UAE #6GSummitAD - The 6G Summit Abu Dhabi, organised by Technology Innovation Institute (TII) begins today, featuring keynote speeches from researchers at prestigious institutions like HKUST, KAUST, and Stanford University. The two-day event will address 6G advancements. (6G Summit Abu Dhabi)
Digital Twins
Naver and Swiss-Mile bring robots to Saudi digital twins
#Saudi #robotics - NAVER Corp. partners with Swiss-Mile to deploy service robots in Saudi Arabia’s digital twin project. Robots will support logistics, construction, and industrial site operations, integrated through the Kingdom’s smart city platform. (Middle East AI News)
R&D
Qaboos University develops drone swarm for oil spill detection
#Oman #environment - Researchers at Sultan Qaboos University have developed an autonomous drone swarm to detect marine pollution along Oman’s coastline. Funded by Oman’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the system offers an efficient solution for monitoring and managing oil spills. (Zawya)
Atlas-Chat-9B demo goes live
#UAE #France #Morocco - Atlas-Chat-9B, one of the Atlas series of large language models for Moroccan Arabic, now has a live demo page on Hugging Face. Two small language models (SLMs), Atlas-Chat-2B and Atlas-Chat-9B, were open-sourced in September, followed by Atlas-Chat-27B in October. (Middle East AI New)
Space
Oman launches first AI-powered satellite for earth observation
#Oman #space - Oman has launched its first ITU-registered satellite enhanced with AI for remote sensing and earth observation. This achievement represents a major step forward for Oman’s national space sector and its AI capabilities. (Times of Oman)
CoEs
Bravent to open Qatar Innovation Hub in 2025
#Qatar #innovation - IT consulting firm Bravent has announced plans to launch an Innovation Hub at Qatar Science and Technology Park in January 2025. The hub will focus on AI, GenAI, and spatial computing solutions. (Yahoo Finance)
GenAI
Generative AI could add $35B to GCC economies
#GCC #GenAI - McKinsey & Company’s report estimates that generative AI could contribute up to $35 billion annually to GCC economies, potentially boosting non-oil GDP by up to 2.8%. However, only a few regional companies have scaled their AI initiatives successfully. (Middle East AI News)
Confidence in GenAI rides high in Middle East
#MiddleEast #GenAI- A new study by Boston Consulting Group reveals that 51% of Middle East respondents are confident in generative AI, marking the region as a global leader in GenAI adoption. This confidence ranks just below India (54%) and Brazil (52%) among Global South countries. (Zawya)
Tourism
Saudi launches beta of Sara AI travel companion
#Saudi #tourism - Saudi Tourism Authority unveiled Sara AI, a virtual travel companion designed as a hyper-realistic avatar for tourism support. The beta version was presented at the World Travel Market in London to enhance Saudi’s appeal as a top leisure destination. (Zawya)
Education
UAE universities collaborate on data and analytics
#UAE #education - Zayed University, Ajman University, and American University of Sharjah have signed an MoU on data sharing to improve institutional effectiveness. The agreement, part of Zayed University’s Bluenotes MENA conference, focuses on advancing analytics and AI in education. (Zawya)
Competitions
Beltone Holding’s AI hackathon draws 450 submissions
#Egypt #fintech - Beltone Holding concluded its first AI hackathon with 450 submissions from 30 teams. Held in collaboration with MADS at the American University in Cairo, the event fostered AI-driven financial solutions by talented local developers. (Zawya)
Quantum
HBKU signs MoU with Quantinuum
#Qatar #quantum - Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum computing company, has signed an MoU with Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) College of Science and Engineering. The College's Qatar Centre for Quantum Computing will work with Quantinuum on projects and access the vendor's systems remotely. (HBKU)
Data Centres
Equinix and Omantel launch new data centre in Salalah
#Oman #datacentres- Equinix and Omantel have opened a new data centre in Salalah, Oman. Omantel’s investment in data and international networks surpasses $1 billion, reflecting the nation’s commitment to digital infrastructure. (Zawya)
Events
XPANSE event in Abu Dhabi to explore future tech
#UAE #future- Abu Dhabi’s investment group ADQ is hosting XPANSE, the world’s first event on exponential technologies. From 20 to 22 November, 2,500 global pioneers, including Nobel Laureates, will gather to discuss advanced topics like quantum computing and AGI. (XPANSE)
[ This newsletter was AI edited & human edited ]