UAE pushes artificial intelligence use in all government agencies

The UAE is amping up the use of artificial intelligence in all aspects of government.

Speaking at Dubai’s AI retreat 2025 on Sunday, Omar Al Olama, the UAE’s Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, said all departments will be evaluated on the effectiveness of how they use the emerging technology, The National reports.

“We don’t want to leverage artificial intelligence just for the sake of AI,” Al Olama said. “We want to ensure that the application actually improves the quality of life of citizens in the UAE and in Dubai specifically.”

The minister spoke during the AI event’s opening session at Dubai’s Museum of the Future. The retreat brings together more than 1,000 AI experts, policymakers, and executives from companies including Microsoft, Meta, Google and IBM.

Among those participating in the week’s activities are Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Ruler of Dubai and UAE Prime Minister and Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Managing Director of the Dubai Future Foundation.

Delegations from more than 100 countries have come to the city for a deep dive into AI technology.

Baidu’s Li tells Dubai summit AI costs pushing China to innovate

Inside Dubai’s luxurious Madinat Jumeirah resort at the World Governments Summit, some 6,000 participants were scrambling between hotel ballrooms on Tuesday to see a parade of government and corporate leaders talk about the future of the earth.

Another 1.5 million tuned in on the web feed. Topping the agenda in one session after another was how to address the promise and threats presented by artificial intelligence.

Robin Li, CEO of China’s Baidu talked about how the high costs of AI development have forced the world’s second-largest economy to find new computing solutions, including DeepSeek, which has come up with vastly cheaper AI models than those developed by OpenAI, Microsoft and Google.

“You just don’t know when and where innovations come from,” Li said in an onstage conversation with Omar Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications.

Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian economist who serves as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said the world is at an important juncture that will determine whether AI turns into a great story or a nightmare. “There are many, many unknowns,” she sighed.

Adding a touch of glamor on Monday night was a star-studded event at the Museum of the Future, where many of the WGS delegates attended TIME magazine’s Impact Awards Gala, which featured appearances by Grimes, the artist, singer and ex-life partner of Elon Musk, as well as video artist Refik Anadol and musician Arqam Al Abri.

Topping the bill on Wednesday will be Oracle’s Larry Ellison, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will deliver a keynote address in the morning. Google’s Sundar Pichai and Goldman Sachs’ Jared Cohen will speak in separate sessions on the future of tech.

Sam Altman: UAE could lead the formation of a global AI watchdog

OpenAI’s Sam Altman had two suggestions for the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Al Olama at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Tuesday.

Altman said that the UAE could be the world’s regulatory sandbox to experiment with AI technologies and the country is well placed to lead the formation of a global AI watchdog.

“It’s very hard to get all the regulatory ideas right in a vacuum,” Altman said while appearing via video, adding that allowing experimentation and running scenarios would make for better laws governing the fast-evolving technology.

The ChatGPT creator repeated a recommendation that both he and Al Olama have made in the past: that there should be an oversight body like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to address open existential questions. “What happens with the most powerful of these systems?” Altman said. “What sort of auditing, safety measures do we want in place before we deploy a super-intelligence?”

The conversation onstage comes as Altman looks to raise trillions of dollars to amass the semiconductors needed to power advanced AI, and is reportedly courting the UAE as an investor.

The UAE has made AI leadership, with Abu Dhabi-backed G42 at the forefront, the foundation of its economic transformation aims. As a result, the country has become a crossroads for some of the biggest players in AI.

Later this week Nvidia, in partnership with Microsoft, will host an event for generative AI content creators in Abu Dhabi. Founder Jensen Huang appeared at WGS on Monday.

Jensen Huang: Countries must protect ‘data sovereignty’

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a strong sales pitch to the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Al Olama onstage today at the World Governments Summit in Dubai. More than 25 world leaders, 140 governments and 85 international organizations are among the 4,000 attendees at the three-day event under the theme “Shaping Future Governments.”

The semiconductor chief, whose California-headquartered firm has a $1.73 trillion market cap, said that every country should have its own AI infrastructure and protect its “data sovereignty.” Doing so would capture the most economic upside, he said, adding that companies in the Gulf like Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi-backed G42 are already doing this. “You cannot allow that to be done by other people,” Huang said. “Build the infrastructure as fast as you can.”

Minister Al Olama asked Huang about the eye-watering $7 trillion OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is seeking — and reportedly courting UAE investors on — to realize his biggest ambitions for ChatGPT. Huang quipped that Altman was apparently looking to buy “all” of the world’s AI chips.

In October of last year, the U.S. expanded restrictions on chips and Nvidia said at the time it was working with customers in China and the Middle East to obtain export licenses for new products to comply. Huang did not provide an update on the issue today. On Friday, G42 said it has sold its stakes in Chinese companies including TikTok owner ByteDance, as the group seeks to reassure U.S. partners by cutting ties with China, the Financial Times reports.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang to talk chips at conference in Dubai

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – The founder of the world’s first semiconductor company to be valued at more than $1 trillion will take the stage on Day 1 of the World Governments Summit in Dubai next week.

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of California-headquartered Nvidia, will be in conversation with Omar Al Olama, the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, discussing who will shape the future of AI.

The annual summit was started by Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid in 2013 to serve as a global knowledge exchange program for governments.

Asked about the summit’s role against the backdrop of escalating geopolitical tensions in the region, Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the World Governments Summit Organization, said that the event focuses on laying out a future roadmap for governments. “We don’t claim to have all the solutions, but we try to get a glimpse of the future,” he said.

Alongside Huang, AI leaders like Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, are also scheduled to attend. Others include Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank; Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Klaus Schwab, Chairperson of the World Economic Forum; and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization.

Mubadala Investment Co. Managing Director and Group CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak is also on the Day 1 agenda, onstage with Stephen Pagliuca, the founder, Chairman and CEO of Bain Capital. Pagliuca, who is also co-owner of the Boston Celtics, will be alongside Ross Perot Jr., Chairman of The Perot Group.

Closing out the first day will be former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The lightning rod newsman, who found a landing pad in Elon Musk’s X last year after departing his eponymous show, is reportedly raising millions of dollars for his own media company. He will give a talk titled, “What’s next for storytelling.”