Aside from presenting and discussing the world's novel ideas, this year's Artificial Intelligence (AI) track at the GITEX 2020 discusses inclusivity and guiding the tech into the future.
In its conference program for the AI track, GITEX described the new tech as "one of the most disruptive technologies after electricity to hit mankind," stressing its importance in transforming the various aspects of life as we know it. Additionally, the tech show and conference stressed that missing the ongoing AI revolution is akin to missing the chance to optimize the society of tomorrow.
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Taming the Machine: Ethical Governance of AI
Dr. Juergen Rahmel, Chief Digital Officer and AI & ML Advisor for HSBC, took the Sheikh Maktoum Hall's Blue Stage on the first day of the five-day event, December 6. His talk, titled "Ethical governance of AI: How do you tame a wild horse?" notes that the full potential of AI can only be realized with a framework that supports trust and benefits all stakeholder.
Dr. Rahmel's talk is specifically tailored to the Fintech world, although its ethical takeaways are applicable to the entire AI space. "I like to compare AI to a wild horse. It has tremendous potential but needs to be harnessed in the right ways to become useful." The HSBC advisor added that the world needs AI systems aligned with existing ethical corporate standards, noting that these systems should exist "within a framework that ensures human accountability and full transparency."
Leveraging AI for the Arabic Language
In a "Fireside Chat" session, Eyas Hawari, Huawei Middle East's Regional Director for its Cloud & AI Business Group, discussed the importance of localizing future AI systems and development environments into the Arabic language with Majid Al Shehry, General Manager for Enterprise Architecture at the National Information Centre and the Strategic Advisor for Saudi Arabia Data & AI Authority (SDAIA).
Despite having more than 400 million speakers and consistently ranked as among the top 5 spoken languages, Arabic remains underrepresented in the field of artificial intelligence. Al Shehry explained that integration of the language in future projects is important for the SDAIA to achieve its mandate - supporting Saudi Arabia's shift to becoming a world leader in technology.
Women in AI: Gender Diversity to Propel Progress
With the organizers of the 2020 GITEX Technology Week firm in supporting inclusivity, it stated in its 2020 agenda webpage that future societies will be directly proportional to the diversity and inclusivity it represents. Led by Yasmin Al Enazi, Leadership & Communications Lead of Women in AI & Director, Projects and Customer Happiness, Mechatronic Engineer for DGWorld, the talk focused on the challenges women face in a previously male-dominated space, the socio-economic impact of correctly writing algorithms, and offering fresh insights on addressing AI bias - one of the field's most persisting challenges.
Al Enazi is joined by Dr. Hoda Alkhzaimi, President of Emirates Digital Association for Women and Director of the Centre for Cyber Security, New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi; Andrea Gallego, Managing Director and Partner for the Boston Consulting Group; and Arunima Sarkar, Artificial Intelligence Lead from the Center for Fourth Industrial Revolution.
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