The GAIN Summit, hosted by the Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), kicked off its three-day event on September 10 in Riyadh, with a focus on the latest advancements in AI and their potential to benefit humanity. The summit has drawn over 450 speakers from across 100 countries, including industry leaders, policymakers, and researchers.
On its opening day, the summit addressed significant challenges like biases in AI models, stressing the importance of international cooperation and the development of comprehensive AI governance frameworks.
Nvidia announced a notable partnership with SDAIA to facilitate the development and deployment of AI applications using the ALLaM Arabic LLM model, setting a new benchmark for AI-driven language models in the Middle East. Additionally, the partnership plans to expand SDAIA’s supercomputer capabilities, establishing one of the largest high-performance computing data centers in the MENA region using NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture.
The OECD has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SDAIA to enhance AI incident monitoring and data tracking in Middle Eastern countries using its vast database, which includes over 1,000 AI policies from 70 countries. This collaboration aims to tackle both the challenges and opportunities presented by AI technology.
Furthermore, UNESCO and SDAIA announced that the International Centre for Research and Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (ICAIRE) has achieved a Category 2 (C2) classification under UNESCO, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s crucial role in fostering international and regional cooperation on AI policies, ethics, and research.
Day 1 also featured diverse sessions, such as ‘Generative AI and Personalised Adventure’ led by Boson AI CEO Alex Smola, and ‘Beyond Words: Unleashing the Power of Generative AI with Next Generation Arabic LLMs’ featuring Dr. Esam Alwagait, Jonathan Adashek, and Turki Badhris, highlighting the summit’s rich agenda and its emphasis on groundbreaking AI applications.
