Qatar Hosts World Summit on Artificial Intelligence

(DOHA, Qatar) – The World Summit AI was hosted at the Doha Exhibitions and Convention Center earlier this month. It is the first time this summit has been hosted in the Middle East and North Africa. More than three thousand people from all over the world attended the conference.

“The summit is providing over 70 speakers who are the prominent minds in AI, highlighting the compatibility between people and AI as AI can assist in developing skills and increasing the quality of life in society”  said Duha Al-Buhindi, Director of Digital Society at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in Qatar.

The summit’s theme was “Putting humanity at the heart of AI.”

During the first event of the summit, and with the attendance of Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani, the Prime Minister of Qatar officially unveiled Fanar, an Arabic language AI model made specifically for Arab speakers. “We now have completed the first stage of the project,” said Dr. Ahmed Elmagarmid, executive director of the Qatar Computing Research Institute.  He also said that six percent of people on the internet are Arabic speakers, but only half a percent of the internet’s content is in Arabic making projects like this more in demand.