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MBZUAI Talks returns with webinar on AI in government

ABU DHABI, The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has held its latest MBZUAI Talks session, which focused on AI in government, as part of its ongoing efforts to advance knowledge and capabilities in AI.

The webinar, moderated by MBZUAI Provost Professor Fakhri Karray, was attended by Dr. Mohamed Abdelhameed Al Askar, Director-General of the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA), in addition to researchers, faculty members, students from the UAE and abroad, and local tech experts.

In his speech, Dr. Al Askar noted that, nowadays, data has become as important as natural resources, such as oil, due to its potential impact on economies.

He explained how the UAE has already put its plans into practice with concrete AI use cases, noting that, for instance, last year, Abu Dhabi deployed machine learning capabilities to localise a cardiovascular disease risk calculator. “This is expected to reduce operational costs in the health sector massively by proactively identifying these risks and treating them before they deteriorate,” he said.

With regard to the education sector, Dr. Al Askar highlighted that Abu Dhabi has deployed a model to predict and improve student performance. Working with Abu Dhabi Police, ADDA has also developed a traffic safety and accident prevention tool that utilises traffic cameras to detect phone usage and seatbelt violations.

“We have so far identified several high-impact use cases focused on healthcare, economic development, education, municipalities, transport and community development, that are ready for implementation,” Dr. Al Askar said.

“AI will have a massive social impact in the future. As we increasingly rely on calls and text, human interaction is becoming increasingly scarce, and will become more scarce as AI’s capability to communicate with humans improves,” he concluded.

Source: Emirates News Agency