Day: September 10, 2024

The third edition of the Global AI Summit (GAIN Summit), organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), was inaugurated today in Riyadh under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Prime Minister, and Chairman of the SDAIA’s Board of Directors.

The event, which is held from September 10 to 12, 2024, at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center, features 450 speakers and attendees from 100 countries, including prominent figures in the field of AI, policymakers, and thought leaders.

At the summit, 150 sessions and workshops will be held.

The opening ceremony was attended by several prominent figures, including members of the Royal Family, ministers, foreign officials, thought leaders, and executives from leading technology and AI companies from around the globe, alongside ambassadors accredited to the Kingdom.

In his opening speech, SDAIA President Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi expressed gratitude to HR
H the Crown Prince for his patronage and emphasized the summit’s role in furthering the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

Al-Ghamdi highlighted the Kingdom’s leadership in AI innovation and SDAIA’s commitment to its role to propel the nation’s economic growth through data and AI.

He underlined the summit’s aim to push the AI boundaries for the benefit of humanity while acknowledging the ethical challenges posed by the rise of generative AI, including forgery, and the need to address information generated using AI.

He also highlighted the global competition for AI talent and the need to overcome the challenges inherent in attracting talent, particularly from the global North, in order to ensure balanced digital, economic, and social development.

Al-Ghamdi presented the authority’s achievements in the field of data and AI since its establishment in 2019, including holding the first edition of the Global AI Summit, where discussions led to the establishment of a UN-affiliated advisory body for AI.

He highlighted
the authority’s role in fostering global collaboration in AI governance through hosting a major consultation for the UN, in which over 50 countries participated.

Al-Ghamdi also lauded UNESCO’s efforts in promoting AI ethics, including the establishment of the International Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Ethics (ICAIRE), in Riyadh, which is recognized by the organization as an international center.

He further outlined key SDAIA initiatives, including the ALLaM model, a pioneering Arabic language model developed in Saudi Arabia, and the “SauTech” innovation, a highly accurate Arabic speech-to-text tool covering 15 Arabic dialects. This technology is being utilized by the Ministry of Justice to transcribe court sessions, placing it at the forefront of AI-driven judicial system.

Al-Ghamdi emphasized SDAIA’s ongoing work with government agencies to leverage AI in the healthcare sector, highlighting the “EYENAI” solution, which has contributed to the early diagnosis of 846 potential patients
in the past year.

Al-Ghamdi affirmed SDAIA’s commitment to addressing the challenges facing local and global AI talents. To attain this goal, he said, the authority organized the largest national programming and AI Olympiad, in which more than 570,000 Saudi students participated, asserting that the Kingdom is hosting the first International AI Olympiad, with 25 countries competing in Riyadh.

He stressed that SDAIA continues to build national capabilities and aims to achieve gender equality in the AI workforce.

SDAIA, he said, has also made strides on a global scale with its effort to promote gender equality worldwide, particularly through the Elevate Initiative, which was launched during the second edition of the Global AI Summit, and through which the skills of women from 28 countries have been honed.

Al-Ghamdi stressed that AI is not a tool that replaces human capabilities, but a powerful enabler in expanding them, and “this journey is not just about technical achievements, but a race for a more bri
lliant industrial intelligence. It is about forging a partnership between humans and machines to solve pressing challenges so that AI can work for humanity”.

He called for a human-centered AI, where technology promotes creativity and human compassion instead of replacing them, urging participants to join the summit discussions to bridge gaps, improve the quality of life, and create a future in which technology and humanity are in harmony.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha presented the investment theory in AI in the first session of summit, titled “Empowering Society through AI Driven Technology”. He noted that the Kingdom’s challenge lies in starting from a high level of ambition to achieve productivity and prosperity through local, regional, and global innovations.

He said: “We can take cloud computing as an example, as innovation began in 2006 and continued until 2013. The sector faced many challenges at the physical and technical levels as well. Still, it succee
ded in moving from an industry worth $10 billion to a broad market worth more than half a trillion dollars”.

He touched on three main challenges in AI: devices and energy efficiency, where, he said, AI techniques lack energy efficiency; storage and memory, with many global developers exerting efforts to accelerate the development of memory devices; and models, where there might be confusion regarding accurate and false information, or some biases may occur.

The opening ceremony included visual presentations of the scope of AI, its relationship with humans, and the development of related technologies.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Gaza – Ma’an – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the horrific massacre committed by the Israeli army against the displaced people in dilapidated tents in the area it declared humanitarian in “Mawasi Khan Yunis” in the southern Gaza Strip, is additional evidence that the international silence on the crime of genocide against the Palestinians for 11 months, and the failure to express appropriate positions regarding the mass killings, encourages Israel to commit more of these crimes.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor explained that its initial investigations showed that Israeli warplanes dropped three American-made MK-84 bombs, after midnight on Tuesday, September 10, on a gathering of displaced people’s tents in the ‘Mawasi Khan Yunis’ area, while they were sleeping, creating three holes several meters deep and in diameter, burying about 20 tents with the families inside them.

He pointed out that the area where the displaced people’s tents were located was sand dunes, and therefo
re many of the tents, including entire families, were buried under the sand.

He stated that the initial death toll exceeded 60 people, between dead and wounded, stressing that the use of this type of American bombs with a wide destructive effect in an area full of tents and displaced people is an indication of the Israeli army’s intention to kill the largest number of civilians, noting that no evacuation warnings preceded the bombing.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned that this massacre comes a month after the bloody massacre committed by the Israeli army when it bombed the “Al-Tabi’in” school in Gaza City, killing more than 100 Palestinians.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed that even if the allegations of the presence of members of armed factions in the area were true, the use of several bombs with high destructive power and their dropping in an area that is one of the most densely populated areas for displaced civilians in the Gaza Strip, and the commission of a massa
cre against civilians while they were sleeping, cannot be justified in any way.

He pointed out that Israel remains bound at all times by the rules of international humanitarian law, especially the principles of distinction, proportionality, military necessity, taking necessary precautions, and the obligation to protect civilians. This includes choosing the method by which military operations are carried out and the type of weapons used, so as to minimize civilian casualties and injuries.

He stressed that the state of silence and disregard that such unprecedented massacres in the history of wars are going through, as they target civilians in a pure and repeated manner, is shameful and disgraceful, and constitutes a green light for Israel to continue committing them within a clear approach to killing and eliminating Palestinians en masse.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed that the United States of America is a partner in this crime, as it supplies the Israeli army with weapons and destruct
ive bombs despite knowing that they are used to kill hundreds of civilians every time.

He explained that the Israeli killing methodology indicates the existence of a clear policy aimed at eliminating Palestinian civilians everywhere in the Gaza Strip, spreading panic among them, depriving them of shelter or stability, even for a moment, forcing them to flee repeatedly, destroying them and subjecting them to deadly living conditions, while continuing the bombing throughout the Strip and targeting areas declared as humanitarian areas, and focusing on targeting shelter centers, including those established in schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed that civilians in the Gaza Strip are paying the price for Israeli military attacks that seriously violate the rules of international humanitarian law, especially the principles of distinction, proportionality and military necessity.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights
Monitor renewed its call for all countries to assume their international responsibilities by stopping the crime of genocide and all serious crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, protecting civilians there, ensuring Israel’s compliance with the rules of international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, imposing effective sanctions on it, and stopping all forms of political, financial and military support and cooperation provided to it, including the immediate cessation of arms sales, exports and transfers to it, including export licenses and military aid, and ensuring that it is held accountable for its crimes against the Palestinians.

The Euro-Mediterranean called for holding accountable the countries complicit and partnering with Israel in committing crimes, most notably the United States of America and other countries that provide Israel with any form of support or assistance related to committing these crimes, including providing aid and engaging in contractual relations i
n the military, intelligence, political, legal, financial, media, and other fields that contribute to the continuation of these crimes.

Source: Maan News Agency

Gaza – Ma’an – The Israeli occupation army stopped a UN convoy on its way to northern Gaza.

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA said that the occupation army stopped the convoy for more than 8 hours yesterday, Monday, despite prior coordination.

The Commissioner stated that the convoy was stopped at gunpoint immediately after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, with threats to detain UN staff.

He pointed out: This serious incident is the latest in a series of violations against UN staff.

Source: Maan News Agency

Damascus, SANA – The Cabinet condemned on Tuesday the brutal Israeli aggression on Syrian territory, which reflects how far this fascist entity went with its arrogance and its defiance to all international laws, by targeting residential areas and destroying infrastructure including roads, communications, electricity and drinking water.

‘The brutal aggression indicates that this criminal entity seeks further escalation in the region’ Caretaker Prime Minister Hussein Arnous said during a weekly session of the Cabinet.

Arnous added ‘The act also indicates that the Israeli occupation entity is in a major predicament and trying by all means to export its domestic crises to the region as a whole, because of its inability to achieve any goal from its aggression against the Palestinian people other than killing children and women.’

The Council offered its condolences for the souls of the martyrs, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured, and at the same time praising the efforts made by government agencies to repair the damaged facilities and put them into service as quickly as possible.

The Israeli enemy carried out on Sunday evening an aerial act of aggression from northwestern Lebanon, targeting several residential areas and leaving a number of martyrs and wounded, in addition to huge material damages

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli aircraft continued their bombardment of various areas in the Gaza Strip on the 340th day of the war, leaving a large number of martyrs and wounded.

The Israeli occupation committed two massacres against families in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, of which 16 martyrs and 64 wounded arrived at hospitals.

The death toll from the Israeli aggression rose to 40,988 martyrs and 94,826 wounded since October 7.

The occupation committed a new horrific massacre against the displaced in the Mawasi area of ??Khan Younis.

The massacre led to the martyrdom of forty citizens and the injury of sixty who were transferred to several hospitals in Khan Younis.

The Civil Defense spokesman said that the raids targeted a gathering of displaced people’s tents consisting of at least 20 tents inhabited by residents in an area that the occupation claimed was humanitarian.

The violent raids left 3 large craters as the missiles used were heavy concussion missiles.

He explained that a number of martyr
s were buried in the ground and that ambulance and civil defense crews are facing great difficulty in retrieving the martyrs amidst the lack of capabilities and the absence of a source of light.

The occupation army launched a series of raids that led to the martyrdom of a citizen from the Abu Daqqa family and the injury of two others in a bombing that targeted them east of Khan Yunis.

Central Gaza Strip

Ten martyrs were killed in the bombing of three houses in the central area of ??the Gaza Strip, including three martyrs from the Al-Louh family near the Al-Da’wa area in Al-Nuseirat.

The occupation army renewed its artillery shelling of the north of Al-Nuseirat camp.

Gaza and the North

Three martyrs were killed and injured as a result of the occupation’s bombing of a popular food stall in Al-Shawa Square east of Gaza City.

Five martyrs were killed, including two women and a child, and 12 were injured as a result of the bombing of a residential apartment belonging to the Labad family in Gaza City.

A cit
izen was killed and five were injured in a house bombing in the Sabra neighborhood south of the city.

Five citizens were killed and ten were injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted a residential apartment of the Abu Bakr family near the Jordanian hospital in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood south of Gaza City.

The occupation army continues to invade the al-Zeitoun neighborhood for the seventeenth consecutive day.

In Jabalia camp, seven citizens were killed, five of them women and children, in a bombing that targeted the al-Hanawi family home.

The occupation army issued new evacuation orders in the town of Beit Lahia and its neighborhoods.

Source: Maan News Agency

Manama, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that its consular authentication offices in Riffa and at the Diplomat Tower have joined the national appointments system through the ‘Mawaeed’ (appointments) application, launched by the Information and eGovernment Authority.

This app serves as a unified platform for booking appointments at government service centres requiring in-person visits.

Dr. Issa Nasser Al Nuaimi, Undersecretary for Consular and Administrative Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlighted that this move is part of the ministry’s ongoing efforts to enhance e-services and provide the best service in line with the Government Action Plan (2023-2026).

He emphasised the importance of continuing to offer efficient e-services that reduce waiting times through the digitalisation of available services.

The Mawaeed application supports both Arabic and English, allows users to easily book and manage appointments with government agencies, and provides notifications for confirmation an
d reminders.

It also enables government agencies to receive immediate feedback from users via text messages through the national suggestions and complaints system (Tawasul).

All citizens and residents can access Mawaeed by downloading it from bahrain.bh/apps. Registration requires a Bahraini ID for citizens and residents, a passport number for non-residents, or a GCC ID for GCC nationals, followed by selecting the relevant government service.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Gaza – Ma’an – Hamas movement said in a statement, “The claims of the fascist occupation army that there were resistance elements in the targeted area are a blatant lie.”

The following is the full text of the statement:

Statement of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) regarding the Mawasi massacre:

A new horrific massacre committed by the Zionist occupation army in Mawasi, Khan Yunis, by targeting the tents of the displaced with missiles.

The massacre committed by the occupation army in Khan Yunis resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilian martyrs, most of them women and children.

The claims of the fascist occupation army that there were resistance elements at the targeted site are a blatant lie.

This brutal targeting of defenceless civilians, including women, children and the elderly, is a confirmation of the Nazi occupation government’s continued war of extermination.

The international community, the United Nations and all institutions are required to leave the box of silence and assume their r
esponsibility to stop this holocaust.

Source: Maan News Agency

Bethlehem – Ma’an – The Israeli army claimed that many steps were taken to reduce the possibility of civilian casualties in the attack on Khan Yunis.

He said that in the attack on Khan Yunis, we used precision munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence information.

He claimed that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure to carry out operations against the State of Israel and the army.

Source: Maan News Agency

The President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization, Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Duailej, stated that there is a significant transformation taking place in the civil aviation sector in Saudi Arabia. This transformation is part of the National Aviation Strategy, which aims to achieve the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 goals of building a prosperous and diversified economy.

Al-Duailej made these remarks during Saudi Arabia’s participation at the first forum of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) in Montreal, Canada. The forum, held from September 9 to 12, 2024, was attended by the President of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Salvatore Sciacchitano, as well as representatives from member states of the “ICAO” organization and leaders of the aviation sector worldwide.

He emphasized that Saudi Arabia’s participation in the forum highlights its leading role in advanced and
international civil aviation. Earlier in the year, GACA launched the Advanced Air Mobility Roadmap, which aligns with the National Aviation Strategy. This roadmap outlines comprehensive changes based on seven main pillars: adopting technical solutions, developing infrastructure, achieving comprehensive governance, building trust, attracting investments, setting regulations and systems, and empowering human capital.

Al-Duailej also called on civil aviation authorities worldwide to collaborate, address challenges, and build partnerships to ensure the success of advanced air mobility technologies globally. As part of the forum, the ICAO presented the Advanced Air Mobility Global Academic Paper Competition award to students from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). This acknowledgement underscores the Kingdom’s capabilities in advanced air mobility and its commitment to integrating and enabling it, which aligns with its ambitious goals to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2060. The Kingdom
‘s investments in electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) were also highlighted as part of its commitment to advanced research.

Additionally, the GACA President held separate bilateral meetings with Salvatore Sciacchitano and the President of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Barry Butler, discussing ways to enhance international cooperation in the civil aviation sector.

Source: Saudi Press Agency