Saudi Arabia unveils initiative to foster ethical AI research

Saudi Arabia has launched a pioneering initiative to advance ethical artificial intelligence (AI) research and applications.

Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), a government agency, announced the initiative on the sidelines of the third edition of the Global AI Summit in Riyadh.

SDAIA said the initiative emphasises Saudi Arabia’s commitment to responsible innovation while aiming to establish a new benchmark in the global AI environment.

The scheme, according to a statement from SDAIA, was developed in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). 

Targeting a diverse range of stakeholders, the initiative aims at including policymakers, government officials, researchers, academics, AI developers and engineers, corporate leaders, business managers, decision-makers, and research and academic institutions.

“It aims to create a platform for discussing the future of AI and exploring how modern applications can empower policy development, enhance research environments, foster business growth, and influence various aspects of life,” the agency said.

“The program promotes the sharing of knowledge and best practices for integrating ethical standards into the development of artificial intelligence. 

“It also aims to provide a comprehensive framework for assessing the ethical maturity of AI systems, facilitate collaboration to advance research and ethical applications, and promote responsible AI on a global scale through impactful deliberations and harmonisation of strategies.”

According to the statement, the newly launched programme is a component of a collaborative effort to advance AI systems, develop ethical standards, align technologies with religious, human, and moral values, and protect family and societal well-being.

“It also reflects SDAIA’s commitment to working with international institutions to promote the ethical use of AI and achieve shared goals in developing data and AI strategies that support societal growth and sustainability,” SDAIA said.

“As the responsible body for the development of data and artificial intelligence technologies in the Kingdom, SDAIA encourages relevant authorities to implement ethical best practices in alignment with Saudi societal values and ethics. 

“It also supports the promotion of research and policymaking that foster investment in the field, while advancing data-driven economies and artificial intelligence on a global scale.”

‘SDAIA COLLABORATES WITH NVIDIA CORPORATION’

In another development, SDAIA said it has collaborated with NVIDIA Corporation to propel Saudi Arabia to the forefront of AI innovation and integration of the latest NVIDIA technological advancements.

SDAIA said it will enable developers to easily build and deploy “AI applications with the ALLaM Arabic LLM model, ensuring an unparalleled performance and scalability for region-specific workloads”.

“Leveraging NVIDIA NeMo, part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform for large-scale language model training and NeMo Guardrails for AI safety, this strategic move will provide developers with a faster, more accessible path to building generative AI applications with ALLaM’s capabilities and set a new standard for AI-driven language models in the region, making it a pivotal element in Arabic language AI,” the agency said.

“In addition to these advancements in AI applications, SDAIA is working closely with NVIDIA to significantly scale its supercomputing infrastructure. Plans are in place to establish one of the largest high-performance computing data centers in the MENA region by expanding SDAIA’s existing NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD infrastructure.”

SDAIA said NVIDIA plans to expand its Saudi Arabian facility with over 5,000 graphic processing units (GPUs), integrating advanced technologies like Blackwell architecture, to set a new digital innovation benchmark.