KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI)
Speaking at the "Make it in the Emirates" forum, Faisal Al Bannai, chairman of the board of directors of EDGE Group and advisor to the President of the UAE, discussed what he believes are the biggest challenges facing the development of industries.
"I think there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to the talent that you require for development. There is the computing power, the energy needed, the use cases, and the data that you need to be able to teach your AI. I think as a country and as an ecosystem, we're trying to get this across the board," he said on Monday.
Al Bannai warned that going forward, global and domestic regulation would become more critical, believing that there would be instances where AI would inevitably get it wrong. In those cases, he stressed the need to be prepared to handle the consequences and move forward pragmatically.
"The opportunity far outweighs the costs, but we need to be conscious and we need to be ready to deal with any side effects that come up," he said.
"For sure, there will be a scenario in the near future where AI is used in the wrong way. We are hoping it won't be a major catastrophe, but it will probably cause some damage, and when that happens, it will be an issue and will be hard to deal with."
Al Bannai believes the UAE, with its relatively small population, has the most to gain from the advancement of AI and hopes that its utilisation will permeate every aspect of industry and business.
"I think why it's useful for us in the UAE, with such a small population, is that it is a dramatic force and multiplier. It's a major opportunity for start-ups. A five-person team today can produce an output level of 120. So, the possibilities are dramatic," he said.
"The opportunities of leveraging AI are endless, so let's start by using concepts today and planning your business and your operation for what's coming in the next 12-24 months."
With such a wide array of use cases, Al Bannai said there was no doubt that we would continue to see the exponential growth of the technology. He emphasised how quickly AI models went from being text-based to 'multimodal', being able to recognise voice and images alongside text, as evidence of this.