
Saudi-US strategic partnership in artificial intelligence highlighted
Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha emphasized the importance of the strategic partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States in the field of artificial intelligence. "This cooperation reflects a shared understanding and a genuine commitment from both parties to support innovation and achieve success in a sector worth trillions of dollars," he said while addressing the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Al-Sawaha emphasized that advances in advanced technologies are accompanied by legitimate concerns about their misuse. However, he noted that complex technologies, such as servers with high-performance processors, are difficult to exploit surreptitiously, contributing to enhanced security and transparency. "Saudi Arabia seeks to deploy and adopt these technologies to serve the public good, in cooperation with trusted partners. The Kingdom's commitment to adopting a responsible approach to developing AI technologies, one that takes into account ethical and security considerations and aims to benefit society," he said.
Al-Sawaha reviewed some of the fruits of technical cooperation between the Kingdom and the United States, including the development of AI-based government services, such as issuing passports in five minutes and renewing driver's licenses. He also highlighted the use of generative AI technologies in the development of advanced medical robots to treat cellular diseases and harmful cholesterol, which has contributed to reducing the cost of treatment from $2.2 million to just $100,000.
The minister said that Saudi Arabia continues to make progress in the field of renewable energy, working to reduce costs to the lowest possible level. The Kingdom is also witnessing developments in the field of physical artificial intelligence, noting that Saudi Arabia boasts of performing the first heart transplant relying entirely on a robot.
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