Is the Arab world ready for the uncertain age of AI-powered web tools?

Special Is the Arab world ready for the uncertain age of AI-powered web tools?
Thousands attended February’s LEAP 2023 conference in Riyadh, where the biggest names in tech showcased their products and discussed industry trends. (Supplied)
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Updated 09 March 2023

Is the Arab world ready for the uncertain age of AI-powered web tools?

Is the Arab world ready for the uncertain age of AI-powered web tools?
  • Described as a “tipping point” in artificial intelligence, ChatGPT and Bard pose both challenges and opportunities 
  • Arab countries will have to deal with chatbot tools’ potential for destroying jobs and creating new ones

DUBAI/RIYADH: Silicon Valley startup OpenAI caused a sensation when it released ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot tool capable of formulating detailed, human-like answers on a seemingly limitless range of topics. In retrospect, that was just the start. 

Google has since announced its own web tool, Bard, in an apparent bid to compete with the viral success of ChatGPT. Both tools are built on large language models, which are trained on vast troves of data in a way that they can generate impressive responses to user prompts.

Conversations with ChatGPT — GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer — show that the program is capable of explaining complex scientific concepts, writing plays and poetry, composing university dissertations, and even crafting functional lines of computer code. 

Such programs can hold a conversation with any human user, no matter their IT experience or background. They have also written fake scientific reports, convincing enough to fool scientists, and even been used to write a children’s book.

Described by some experts as a “tipping point” in artificial intelligence technology, ChatGPT responds to “natural language questions on any topic and gives in-depth answers that read as if they were written by a human,” according to the World Economic Forum. 




Conversations with ChatGPT — GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer — show that the program is capable of explaining complex scientific concepts. (AFP)

However, the web tools of Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google have raised fears about their potential misuse to spread disinformation, orchestrate sophisticated deep fake scams, cheat in school exams, and even destroy writing jobs, rendering authors, journalists, and marketing professionals redundant. 

How the technology is received, responds and is eventually regulated will be closely watched by several of the Arab Gulf states, many of which have launched their own national strategies for adopting and investing in AI.

Saudi Arabia launched its National Strategy for Data and Artificial Intelligence in October 2020, aimed at making the Kingdom a global leader in the field as it seeks to attract $20 billion in foreign and local investments by 2030. 

The Kingdom also aims to transform its workforce by training and developing a pool of 20,000 AI and data specialists. 

The UAE has likewise made AI investment a top priority, becoming the first nation in the world to appoint a minister of state for artificial intelligence. Omar Sultan Al-Olama took on the brief in October 2017 to spearhead the UAE’s expanding digital economy.

The Middle East is projected to accrue 2 percent of the total global benefits of AI by the end of the decade, equivalent to $320 billion, with AI expected to contribute more than $135.2 billion to the Saudi economy, according to PwC. 





The Ameca humanoid robot
​​​greets visitors at Dubai’s Museum of the Future. (AFP)

Founded in late 2015, OpenAI is led by Sam Altman, a 37-year-old entrepreneur and former president of startup incubator Y Combinator. The firm is best known for its automated creation software GPT-3 for text generation and DALL-E for image generation. 

OpenAI has long counted on financial support from tech industry leaders, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, investor Peter Thiel, and Tesla boss Elon Musk, who served on the start-up’s board until 2018. 

In January this year, multinational tech corporation Microsoft upped its initial 2019 investment in the firm worth $1 billion to $10 billion, meaning the company is now valued at roughly $29 billion.

Google’s core product — online search — is widely thought to be facing its most significant challenge since its launch in 1996. Reports claim the enormous attention being attracted by ChatGPT has spurred Google’s management to declare a “code red” situation for its search business.

ChatGPT is being used to obtain answers to questions many people would previously have searched for on Google’ flagship search tool. Last month, Microsoft announced that the next version of its Bing search engine would be powered by OpenAI. Also on the cards is a new version of the Edge web browser with OpenAI chat tech in a window to help users browse and understand web pages.

Unfortunately for Google, Bard had an embarrassing debut in early February when a video demo of the chatbot showed it giving the wrong answer to a question about the James Webb space telescope.

“ChatGPT is indeed very interesting,” Noaman Sayed, a Dubai-based tech professional and co-founder of the online shopping website DeenSquare, told Arab News. 

“If you look into the past, every innovation and advancement has had discussions raised in relation to concern, whether it was planes, cars, mobiles, the internet, Google, YouTube, social media and more. 

“Looking back, we can all say that these have eventually made not only our lives easier, they are also seen as the norm now. I’m very optimistic that with further development and time, ChatGPT will also make our lives easier and shall be the norm.” 

Not everyone is as optimistic as Sayed, however. Given the rapid pace of technological change now underway, many workers are concerned their professional functions will soon be entirely replaced by machinery, in the same way earlier bouts of automation eliminated farming and manufacturing jobs. 

Many industry experts argue such job losses will likely be offset by a rise in the number of new skilled roles in designing, building and maintaining AI products, necessitating a shift in the kind of education governments ought to provide to their future workforce.

INNUMBERS 

• $119.78bn AI’s estimated global market value in 2022.

• $15.7tn What AI is expected to contribute to the global economy by 2030.

• 13x AI industry’s projected growth over next 8 years.

• 97m Projected number of people working in AI by 2024.

Although Sayed accepts AI will alter the way people interact and communicate, he is confident humans will “learn how to adapt with changes over time” in the same way they accepted and adjusted to past technological leaps. In many ways, they already are. 

“Over the last few years, some of us may have already engaged with some form of AI product (knowingly or unknowingly) during our discussion with call centers, websites chatbots, hospital surgeries, Siri, Alexa, some Google products, certain vehicle manufacturers and more,” he said.

Beyond the future job market, chatbots are also creating headaches for educational institutions. Some colleges have reintroduced paper-based tests to stop students from using AI during exams after some students were caught using chatbots to answer test questions.

New York City’s education department has banned ChatGPT on its networks because of “concerns about negative impacts on student learning.” A group of Australian universities have also said they would change exam formats to prevent AI cheating.

On January 27, the Sciences Po school in Paris, one of the most prestigious universities in France, announced that anyone found to have used the chatbot would face “sanctions which can go as far as expulsion from the establishment or even from higher learning.”

Using data harvested from the web, ChatGPT was even able to pass exams at Minnesota University Law School after writing essays on topics ranging from constitutional law to taxation and torts — reportedly earning a C+ grade.

Some companies are now marketing programs they claim can catch a text written by AI to help prevent cheating.




The Middle East is projected to accrue 2 percent of the global benefits of AI by the end of the decade, equivalent to $320 billion. (Shutterstock)

Despite the temptation to rely on such programs to answer exam questions, replace existing search engines, or provide unbiased news coverage, Jenna Burrell, director of research at Data & Society, an independent non-profit research organization based in California, said people need to take ChatGPT’s answers with a pinch of salt.

“ChatGPT simplifies things and is fun to play with. (It) can be very useful for journalists,” Burrell said during a recent webinar on how the technology might impact the work of media professionals. However, the information it gives “is not up to date…(and) there is a need for fact-checking.”

Burrell said AI is not going to be able to replace every professional function, as it cannot fully imitate human innovation, creativity, skepticism, and reasoning.

Furthermore, ChatGPT, which is based on “a large-language model,” is not the only emergent form of AI — and not necessarily its most sophisticated. Reinforcement learning, generative adversarial networks, and symbolic AI are all alternative models that are nipping at its heels.

“Large-language models are trained by pouring into them billions of words of everyday text, gathered from sources ranging from books to tweets and everything in between. The LLMs draw on all this material to predict words and sentences in certain sequences,” Dan Milmo and Alex Hern, the tech editors of the UK’s Guardian newspaper, said in a recent feature.

“LLMs do not understand things in a conventional sense — and they are only as good, or as accurate, as the information with which they are provided. They are essentially machines for matching patterns. Whether the output is ‘true’ is not the point, so long as it matches the pattern.”

Asked directly by Arab News whether it ultimately plans to replace human writers, ChatGPT offered a measure of reassurance — appearing to acknowledge its own creative and analytical limitations in a tone that might be construed as modesty.

“My abilities are limited to generating text based on patterns and patterns I have seen during my training on text data,” ChatGPT said.

“Human writers bring creativity, emotion and personal perspective that I am not able to replicate. Moreover, human writers are able to interpret, analyze and bring their own perspective and insight to a text.”




“Don’t demonize AI as it will be a part of our lives. I insisted that I use it to prove that it can deliver a pretty good speech,” said Ahmed Belhoul Al-Falasi, UAE minister of education. 

ChatGPT said it was programmed to “assist” in content creation on social media, blogs, and websites and write business plans, reports, emails and presentations; legal documents such as contracts; medical reports and summaries; and responses to customer inquiries and complaints.

Despite its many possible applications, in everything from entertainment to medical diagnosis, and its immense investment potential, with forecasts valuing in the trillions of dollars, the age of AI remains fraught with anxiety.

“Trust is key to the safe expansion of the use of AI solutions around the world, Dr. Scott Nowson, PwC Middle East’s artificial intelligence lead, told Arab News at the LEAP technology conference in Riyadh in early February.

While there are “some skills and some tasks that are better suited to automation with technology,” he said, the use of AI is “still contingent upon human intelligence and awareness.”

Nowson added: “There’s as much optimism as there is pessimism over AI. People believe AI will completely replace us when I really don’t think it will. I think we’re many generations away from when AI becomes greater than human capabilities.”

As the nations of the Gulf region pursue their national AI strategies, establishing schools to teach the next generation of tech developers, it is only a matter of time before similar products emerge on the regional market.

Sayed, the DeenSquare co-founder, expects governments, businesses, and tech developers across the Gulf region to follow AI-powered tools’ growth and applications with interest.

“I’m certain that in their upcoming strategy review meetings, the latest trends will be discussed to see how it can assist in their strategy to their advantage.”


French leader urges Lebanese parties to urgently elect new president, save country from ‘drowning’

French leader urges Lebanese parties to urgently elect new president, save country from ‘drowning’
Updated 31 May 2023

French leader urges Lebanese parties to urgently elect new president, save country from ‘drowning’

French leader urges Lebanese parties to urgently elect new president, save country from ‘drowning’
  • Emmanuel Macron made his plea following a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi
  • French judiciary has accused the central bank chief, his brother Raja Salameh, and his assistant Marianne Hoayek, of amassing a huge fortune in Europe

BEIRUT: French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Lebanon’s divided politicians to save the country from “drowning in crises” by immediately electing a new president.

The French leader made his plea following a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi.

A French presidency statement, issued on Wednesday, said: “Macron and Al-Rahi expressed their deep concerns about the crisis in Lebanon and the paralysis of institutions, which has been exacerbated by the presidential vacuum for the past seven months.

“They agreed on the necessity of electing a president for the republic without delay.”

The statement quoted Macron as highlighting, “the need to keep Lebanon’s Christians at the heart of the sectarian and institutional balance of the Lebanese state.”

The president described Lebanon as a country “drowning in crises” adding that “the political deadlock has been an obstacle to the reforms without which there can be no recovery and lasting stability in Lebanon.”

Lebanon has entered its eighth month without being able to elect a president.

Hezbollah and its allies support the Marada Movement leader, Suleiman Frangieh, who is close to Syrian President Bashar Assad, but the largest parliamentary blocs oppose him in favor of their own candidate, former minister Jihad Azour, currently the director of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia department.

Agence France-Presse quoted sources in Paris as saying that, “Al-Rahi and Macron discussed bridging the gap between Lebanese parties to agree on a presidential candidate and complete the electoral process.”

No political party has the necessary majority to elect its presidential candidate in parliamentary elections. Other parties refuse to bring a compromise candidate and because of the impasse, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has not set a date for what would be the 12th attempt to elect a president.

The country is struggling with economic, financial, and administrative crises that the caretaker government has been unable to resolve due to its inability to authorize decisions except in exceptional cases.

When the term of Lebanon’s central bank governor, Riad Salameh, is due to terminate at the end of July, another key vacancy will appear in the country.

Salameh is being investigated by several European countries and the Lebanese judiciary over allegations of corruption.

He appeared before the public prosecutor of the Court of Cassation, Judge Imad Qabalan, on Wednesday at the Palace of Justice in Beirut to be questioned about an arrest warrant recently issued against him by the German public prosecutor on charges of money laundering, forgery, and embezzlement.

Salameh’s son, Nadi, and Marwan Issa Al-Khoury, were also named in the German arrest warrant without any demand for their arrest, but rather a request that Salameh be held accountable for them.

The French judiciary has accused the central bank chief, his brother Raja Salameh, and his assistant Marianne Hoayek, of amassing a huge fortune in Europe, including money and real estate, through complex financial arrangements and embezzlement of large sums of Lebanese public funds. Salameh’s lawyers have filed an appeal against the charges.

The Lebanese judiciary is still awaiting a response from their French counterparts over the possibility of merging the European and Lebanese files on Salameh and prosecuting him in Lebanon, to avoid extradition.

Meanwhile, Raja Salameh failed to appear before a Paris court on Wednesday, citing through his legal representative in Lebanon medical reasons for his absence.


Arab League chief meets Palestinian PM

Arab League chief meets Palestinian PM
Updated 31 May 2023

Arab League chief meets Palestinian PM

Arab League chief meets Palestinian PM
  • Meeting discussed the outcomes of a recent summit in Jeddah on issues relating to Palestine

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh while visiting the Egyptian capital Cairo, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

During the meeting, they discussed the outcomes of a recent summit in Jeddah on issues relating to Palestine, including Arab efforts to promote international support for the recognition of the Palestinian state.

They also agreed on the importance of working diplomatically to highlight the Israeli government’s approach to dealing with Palestinian issues.
 


Eritrea releases 166 Yemeni fishermen held for months 

Eritrea releases 166 Yemeni fishermen held for months 
Updated 31 May 2023

Eritrea releases 166 Yemeni fishermen held for months 

Eritrea releases 166 Yemeni fishermen held for months 
  • First group of 115 released fishermen arrived in the Red Sea town of Khokha on Tuesday
  • Second group of 51 arrived on the same day in the coastal region south of the port city of Mocha

AL-MUKALLA: Eritrean authorities have released 166 out of 267 detained Yemeni fishermen, but have refused to hand back their vessels or their personal belongings.

Locals said on Wednesday that the first group of 115 released fishermen arrived in the Red Sea town of Khokha on Tuesday, while a second group of 51 arrived on the same day in the coastal region south of the port city of Mocha.

The fishermen were detained by the Eritrean authorities five months ago while working in international waters.

A local fisherman, who requested anonymity, told Arab News: “We sent boats (to Eritrea) to transport the freed fisherman home because the Eritrean authorities refused to return their seized boats and other property. Their sole possession is the clothing they wear.”

The Yemenis have demanded that the authorities free the remaining 101 fishermen currently being held.

Hundreds of Yemeni fishermen have been jailed in Eritrea in recent years for allegedly violating Eritrean waters, a claim rejected by the Yemenis.

The dispute between Yemen and Eritrea over water rights in the Red Sea erupted into a brief conflict in 1995 over the island of Greater Hanish. A ruling later determined that the territory belonged to Yemen.

Separately, foreign envoys in Yemen and human rights organizations have condemned the Iran-backed Houthis for abducting 17 members of the Baha’i religious minority after attacking its gathering in Sanaa last week.

US Ambassador to Yemen Steven Fagin said in a tweet: “We condemn the May 25 Houthi raid on a peaceful gathering of Baha’i in Sanaa resulting in the forced disappearance of at least 17 people.

“We stand with the people of Yemen and their right to freedom of religion, expression, and association.”

Human Rights Watch also condemned the action while urging the Houthis to set those held free and refrain from persecuting religious minorities.

Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement: “The Houthis have systematically violated the rights of minorities in Yemen and show no sign of letting up on the pressure.

“The international community should stand in solidarity with the Baha’i community and exert pressure on the Houthi authorities to release the detained people immediately.”

Yemeni organizations, including the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms, also strongly condemned the actions of the Houthis.


Iran further escalates breaches of 2015 deal limits: IAEA

Iran further escalates breaches of 2015 deal limits: IAEA
Updated 31 May 2023

Iran further escalates breaches of 2015 deal limits: IAEA

Iran further escalates breaches of 2015 deal limits: IAEA
  • IAEA said that Iran’s estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached more than 23 times the limit set out in nuclear deal

VIENNA: Iran has significantly increased its stockpile of enriched uranium in recent months, continuing its nuclear escalation, a confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog on Wednesday seen by AFP said.
The agency, however, noted progress in its cooperation with Iran and has decided to close the file on the presence of nuclear material at one of three undeclared sites, an issue which has poisoned relations between the two parties.
The reports came days before the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to meet to review progress in addressing the watchdog’s remaining concerns.
The nuclear watchdog said in its report that Iran’s estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached more than 23 times the limit set out in the landmark 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers.
As of 13 May, Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile was estimated at 4,744.5 kilograms (10,459 pounds). The limit in the 2015 deal was 202.8 kilograms.
The report also said that Iran is continuing its enrichment of uranium to levels higher than the 3.67 percent limit in the deal.
Efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal — which was left in tatters by the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in 2018 — have currently stalled.
The stockpile of uranium enriched up to 20 percent is now believed to be 470.9 kilograms — up 36.2 kg since the last report in February — while the amount enriched up to 60 percent stands at 114.1 kilograms, an increase of 26.6 kg.
Enrichment levels of around 90 percent are required for use in a nuclear weapon.
In a separate report, the IAEA said it has decided to close the file relating to the presence of nuclear material at one undeclared site after receiving a “possible explanation” from Iran.
The watchdog “has no additional questions... and the matter is no longer outstanding at this stage,” the report said of the site at Marivan in Abedeh county.
The IAEA had reported the discovery of traces of radioactive material at three sites not declared by Iran, in a blow to efforts to restore the 2015 deal.
The Marivan site in the southern province of Fars is the first to be addressed under a work plan agreed by Iran and the IAEA in March.
The other two sites are Varamin and Turquzabad.
Iran has always denied any ambition to develop a nuclear weapons capability, insisting its activities are entirely peaceful.


Lebanon judge questions central bank chief over Munich arrest warrant

Lebanon judge questions central bank chief over Munich arrest warrant
Updated 31 May 2023

Lebanon judge questions central bank chief over Munich arrest warrant

Lebanon judge questions central bank chief over Munich arrest warrant
  • Salameh has been the subject of a series of judicial probes both at home and abroad
  • Lebanese judge Imad Qabalan questioned Salameh over accusations of "money laundering, fraud, embezzlement and illicit enrichment"

BEIRUT: A Lebanese judge questioned central bank chief Riad Salameh on Wednesday after Beirut received a second Interpol Red Notice targeting him, this time following an arrest warrant from Munich, a judicial official said.
Salameh has been the subject of a series of judicial probes both at home and abroad into the fortune he has amassed during some three decades in the job.
France earlier this month issued an arrest warrant for Salameh after he failed to appear for questioning in Paris.
On Wednesday, Lebanese judge Imad Qabalan questioned Salameh over accusations of “money laundering, fraud, embezzlement and illicit enrichment,” the judicial official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Two days earlier, Lebanon received an Interpol Red Notice pursuant to the arrest warrant issued in absentia by Munich’s public prosecutor, according to the judicial official.
Last week Qabalan had questioned Salameh, banned him from traveling, confiscated his French and Lebanese passports and released him pending investigation, after receiving the first Interpol Red Notice, issued following the French arrest warrant.
An Interpol Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant but asks authorities worldwide to provisionally detain people pending possible extradition or other legal actions.
Lebanon does not extradite its nationals but Salameh could go on trial in Lebanon if local judicial authorities decide the accusations against him are founded, an official previously told AFP.
Qabalan on Wednesday again banned Salameh from travel and released him pending investigation, the judicial official said.
He also requested Salameh’s file from the judiciary in Munich and noted that “only the Lebanese judiciary has the authority to try him,” the official added.
In March 2022, France, Germany and Luxembourg seized assets worth 120 million euros ($130 million) in a move linked to a probe into Salameh’s wealth.
In February, Lebanon charged Salameh with embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion as part of its own investigations.
The domestic probe was opened following a request for assistance from Switzerland’s public prosecutor looking into more than $300 million in fund movements by Salameh and his brother.
Salameh, who was questioned for more than an hour on Wednesday, again “denied all charges against him” and said wealth came from private sources, the official added.
Salameh continues to serve as central bank governor. His mandate ends in July.
Activists say the travel ban helps shield him from being brought to justice abroad — and from potentially bringing down others in the entrenched political class, which is widely blamed for endemic corruption in the crisis-hit country.
His brother Raja was due to appear for questioning in France on Wednesday, but his lawyer said he was unable to attend due to medical reasons and the judge postponed the session for two months, the official added.