Third cohort completes AI training
UAE national AI training programme graduates 240 students
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, honoured the 240 graduates of the second and third cohorts of the ‘Artificial Intelligence Programme’ at Expo 2020 Dubai this week.
It's not so much the numbers that impress, nor the details of the training. It's the commitment and drive of the UAE government to upskill the nation and build capacity to cope with the demands of the AI race. One of the first to announce a national AI strategy, the UAE was quick to identify the scale of the change management challenge ahead. There's no point whatsoever in trying to create transformational projects using the latest technologies, if the majority of your public sector employees become bystanders - or worse, obstacles. So, how do you build AI capacity nationally?
The AI programme's participants came from 90-odd local and federal government entities. All those participants now bring a new perspective to their organisation and, one would hope, will now understand a little more about and think about government transformation initiatives a little differently. No one is going to come away an AI expert from a three month course, but if that new level of knowledge and understanding helps replace friction with focus in the digital transformation of government, then that's real progress!
Launched in 2019 with the aim to train UAE nationals and enhance their skillsets, the government AI training programme is a joint collaboration between the UAE National AI Programme and Kellogg College - University of Oxford.
Read about this story in The National.