Riyadh - Sharikat Mubasher: Saudi Arabia’s Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and the global technology innovator IBM signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish an artificial intelligence (AI) center of excellence in the Kingdom.

The agreement was signed by Yaser Al-Onaizan, CEO of the National Center for AI at SDAIA, and Fahad Alanazi, General Manager and Technology Leader of IBM Saudi Arabia, during the Global AI Summit that takes place in Riyadh from 10 to 12 September.

The center will focus on developing generative AI (GenAI) technologies and implementing innovative applications that meet the needs of government entities while following the best global governance frameworks and measures.

This partnership will contribute to exchanging knowledge and enhancing national capabilities, in alignment with Vision 2030’s goals of establishing a knowledge-based society and solidifying the Kingdom’s position as a global hub for cutting-edge technologies.

Furthermore, the collaboration between IBM and SDAIA includes hosting Allam, the leading Arabic large language model (LLM) developed by SDAIA, on the IBM Watsonx platform and the Saudi government cloud Deem.

It should be mentioned that Microsoft will also launch Allam on its Azure platform.

The third edition of the Global AI Summit gathers global figures, economic policymakers, and artificial intelligence (AI) specialists from 100 countries.

It aims to tackle challenges in AI development and address several issues such as human capacities, technical infrastructure, ethics, bias and fairness, national security, information security, and the economic and social impacts of AI.