The future tech helping to uncover hidden secrets of Saudi Arabia’s past

Ghanem team at KAUST has trained AI models, using satellite data and images of known historical sites, to assist them in the identification of undiscovered sites across the country. (AN/File)
Ghanem team at KAUST has trained AI models, using satellite data and images of known historical sites, to assist them in the identification of undiscovered sites across the country. (AN/File)
Short Url
Updated 11 September 2024
Follow

The future tech helping to uncover hidden secrets of Saudi Arabia’s past

The future tech helping to uncover hidden secrets of Saudi Arabia’s past
  • Researchers at KAUST are developing AI models to help archaeologists and researchers in many other academic fields

RIYADH: Far from fearing a future powered by AI, researchers at King Abdulah University for Science and Technology are using it to uncover long-hidden secrets about Saudi Arabia’s past.

Prof. Bernard Ghanem, a specialist in computer vision and machine learning, said that in particular, AI is helping to discover archaeological sites that have yet to be unearthed.

“AI has applications in every part of our lives: analyzing the present, the future as well as the past,” Ghanem told Arab News.

His team at KAUST has trained AI models, using satellite data and images of known historical sites, to assist them in the identification of undiscovered sites across the country, he said. The resultant findings have fueled further archaeological research and are helping to preserve the Kingdom's rich cultural heritage.

However, archaeology is just one of the many areas of study in which Ghanem’s team is exploring the potential benefits of AI technology.

At the Image and Video Understanding Lab, for example, researchers are focusing on four main applications of AI, mostly rooted in machine learning, a branch of AI in which systems use existing data to help them solve problems using statistics and algorithms.

The first involves building machine-learning models specifically for use with video to harness the popularity and power of streaming.

“Video is the biggest big data out there; more than 80 percent of the internet traffic that we see is because of video,” said Ghanem, whose team is developing tools to analyze, retrieve, and even create videos, thereby leveraging the ubiquity of video in new AI applications.

The second application, which uses machine learning and deep learning to aid automation, is investigating the ways in which two-dimensional simulation data can be translated into the 3D world, with potential applications in gaming, robotics and other real-world scenarios.

“How do you, for example, play a game in the simulated world and then have that … work in the real world?” Ghanem said.

The third is exploring the foundations of machine learning, with a focus on identifying weaknesses in generative AI models and finding ways to improve them and prevent failures.

Ghanem compared this process to building immunity, whereby the AI models are deliberately “broken” to help understand vulnerabilities so that can be addressed and the models strengthened.

The fourth application involved the use of AI for science, specifically its use in efforts to advance chemical research.

Ghanem said his team is developing AI models able to act as virtual chemistry assistants by predicting the properties of molecules and perhaps discovering new compounds. Such innovations, he added, could play a critical role in the study and research of topics such as catalysis and direct air capture, thereby boosting efforts to combat climate change.

Ghanem also highlighted the environmental potential of AI, and the new Center of Excellence for Generative AI at KAUST, which he chairs. The center, which is due to open on Sunday, will explore four key pillars of research relating to: health and wellness; sustainability; energy and industrial leadership; and future economies.

“That’s where we’re going to focus on GenAI methods for sustainability,” Ghanem said.


Internet Archive reels from ‘catastrophic’ cyberattack, data breach

Internet Archive reels from ‘catastrophic’ cyberattack, data breach
Updated 11 October 2024
Follow

Internet Archive reels from ‘catastrophic’ cyberattack, data breach

Internet Archive reels from ‘catastrophic’ cyberattack, data breach
  • The assault on the San Francisco-based nonprofit was claimed by a shadowy group that experts described as a pro-Palestinian “hacktivist”

WASHINGTON: The Internet Archive, an online repository of web pages, was offline Thursday after its founder confirmed a major cyberattack that exposed the data of millions of users and left the site defaced.
The assault on the San Francisco-based nonprofit, claimed by a shadowy group that experts described as a pro-Palestinian “hacktivist,” lays bare the perils of cybersecurity breaches ahead of the November 5 US presidential election.
Brewster Kahle, the Internet Archive’s founder and digital librarian, acknowledged a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks — aimed at disrupting a website or server — since Tuesday and said the organization was working to upgrade security.
The assault led to the “defacement of our website” and a breach of usernames, emails and passwords, Kahle wrote on X, formerly Twitter, late Wednesday.
In a new post early Thursday, Kahle said the attackers had returned, knocking down both the Internet Archive’s main site and its “Open Library,” an open source catalogue of digitized books.
The Internet Archive’s data “has not been corrupted,” he wrote in a subsequent post.
“We are working to restore services as quickly and safely as possible,” he added.

On Wednesday, users reported a pop-up message claiming the site had been hacked and the data of 31 million accounts breached.
“Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach?” said the pop-up, apparently posted by the hackers.
“It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!“
HIBP refers to site called “Have I been Pwned,” a site that allows users to check whether their emails and passwords have been leaked in data breaches.
In another post on X, HIBP confirmed that 31 million records from the Internet Archive had been stolen, including email addresses, screen names and passwords.

Kahle did not respond to a request for comment about the scale of the data breach.
A hacker group called “SN_BLACKMETA” claimed responsibility for the attack on X.
“The Internet Archive has and is suffering from a devastating attack,” the group wrote on the platform Wednesday.
“They are under attack because the archive belongs to the USA, and as we all know, this horrendous and hypocritical government supports the genocide that is being carried out by the terrorist state of ‘Israel.’“
In a threat advisory in July, Radware, a cybersecurity solutions provider, described the group as a “pro-Palestinian hacktivist with potential ties to Sudan” and possibly operating from Russia.
Radware called the group a “rising cyber threat” with a “strong ideological stance and a strategic approach to cyber warfare.”
The Internet Archive, a nonprofit that is not known to have any ties to the US government or Israel, was founded in 1996 and advocates for a free and open Internet.
It operates a web archive called the Wayback Machine, which has captured snapshots of millions of Internet pages.
Like other archival sites, the Wayback Machine is a crucial resource for fact-checkers, who use it to trace deleted web pages and ensure that the evidence cited in articles is permanently available to readers.
It can also be used to document changes made to online content over time and helps researchers and scholars find historical collections that exist in digital formats.
 


Podcast firm Sowt rebrands, launches children’s channel Shamandar

Podcast firm Sowt rebrands, launches children’s channel Shamandar
Updated 11 October 2024
Follow

Podcast firm Sowt rebrands, launches children’s channel Shamandar

Podcast firm Sowt rebrands, launches children’s channel Shamandar
  • Rebrand to reflect shift in content, business strategy, says CEO, co-founder Ramsey Tesdell

DUBAI: Podcast firm Sowt has announced a rebrand, which includes a new logo, color palette, and visual identity, to reflect the company’s growth and evolution.

The rebrand also marks a shift in strategy for Sowt, which is on the cusp of a transformation, said Ramsey Tesdell, its co-founder and CEO.

Sowt is known for its original podcasts centered around storytelling, but it also has an affinity toward journalism and wants to provide listeners with multiple perspectives from different sources, combined with historical and cultural context which would help them “navigate an increasingly complicated world,” Tesdell told Arab News.

Content consumption habits have changed, and so content production methods must reflect those changes in order for the content to not only reach audiences but also engage them, he added.

Therefore, as part of Sowt’s content strategy, the company will incorporate more videos, interviews, and a more diverse set of hosts and guests. It will also place more emphasis on localizing content and “rebase ourselves in (the) community,” Tesdell said.

In terms of its business strategy, Sowt will be offering more geographic insights to advertisers to help tailor their ad campaigns.

Until now, the company created audience segments for advertisers based on personas or behaviors, regardless of geography. However, “advertisers don’t seem to really understand” that behaviorally profiled audience segments “can be a powerful target group,” he said.

And although Sowt still believes in continuing its approach, it is “adapting to understand that we have a large reach and a big audience in specific geographic communities,” he added.

Sowt is also looking at specific “verticals” or communities that are niche, which does not mean they are small, but rather very specific. The company’s research found that “there are these niche communities that we can address and create products that are specifically targeted for that community,” he said.

One such vertical is children’s content, specifically Arabic audio content for youngsters, which is currently missing in the market, he added.

Enter Shamandar, a new Arabic-language podcast channel featuring children’s stories.

Tesdell said the name was symbolic. It means beetroot in Arabic, which as a root vegetable symbolizes a grounded identity, while its sweet taste and nutritional value reflect the content, which is both entertaining and educational, so overall, it is a “pretty nice metaphor for what we're trying to create with the channel,” he explained.

The company’s research revealed that parents are incredibly busy and seeking safe, family-friendly content that can be consumed in different ways, and that the majority of children’s content is ad-supported whether on TV or YouTube, while the rest exists primarily in video formats on streaming platforms.

He said: “The other thing that we kept hearing was ‘There’s no good Arabic audio content for kids’ or ‘Where’s the content for kids from our region?’

“We stopped asking this question and said we’re going to do something about that and produce some of that content.”

Tesdell is not against video content, and added: “Obviously, it’s a very powerful medium and we all are watching and consuming a lot of video (content).

“(But a) screenless component is a very important part of the development process and we want to provide that alternative.”

Shamandar is accessible on Apple Podcasts and other platforms for a monthly fee of $3.99.

The paid model helps Sowt create high-quality content both in terms of the stories as well as the sound design and production, and keep the environment ad-free and avoid “brand creep” in which children memorize ads more than names of fruits or vegetables, Tesdell said.

In addition to original content, Sowt will collaborate with content creators such as Adam Wa Mishmish, a children’s platform that blends music and education, and Dar Al Salwa, an independent publishing house dedicated to publishing books for Arabic children and young adults.

The rebrand and the launch of Shamandar are both initiatives aligned with Sowt’s mission of creating “high-quality content that will reach a lot of people,” Tesdell said.

The quality of the content is determined by high editorial and production standards and the relevance of the content to audiences in their preferred format and on their platform of choice, he said.

For the content to be relevant, he added, it first needs to reach “a lot of people.”

He said: “We are highly focused on developing and expanding our audiences and that means producing different types of content.”

Sowt aims to generate revenue through these initiatives so that it “can grow and continue to provide a high-quality service for our audience and for those who love and consume our content,” Tesdell said.


Associated Press and German news agency launch Arabic news service

Associated Press and German news agency launch Arabic news service
Updated 10 October 2024
Follow

Associated Press and German news agency launch Arabic news service

Associated Press and German news agency launch Arabic news service
  • The Global Arabic News Service, set to go live on Oct. 15, will file more than 200 stories a day covering the Middle East, Europe, the US and other parts of the world
  • It is ‘an important step toward serving this increasingly influential and growing region with independent, accurate and nonpartisan reporting,’ says AP chief

LONDON: The Associated Press and German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur will launch a wire service next week to distribute stories from both agencies in Arabic.

The Global Arabic News Service, which is due to go live on Oct. 15, will file more than 200 stories a day from the agencies, covering the Middle East, Europe, the US and other parts of the world.

“AP and dpa have a longstanding and important relationship grounded in a shared commitment to fact-based journalism,” said Daisy Veerasingham, AP’s president and CEO.

“This innovative service is an important step toward serving this increasingly influential and growing region with independent, accurate and nonpartisan reporting at an even greater scale.”

Peter Kropsch, the CEO of dpa, said: “The fact that we are expanding and deepening our long-standing, good cooperation with AP with this new service is an important signal for the Arab market. Two leading independent agencies are joining forces to provide a new service that underlines the strengths of both partners.”

The German agency’s editor-in-chief, Sven Gosmann, said the partnership builds on dpa’s “strong roots and extensive network of correspondents” in the region, and that “together with AP we want to further strengthen this position and expand it journalistically.”

All stories distributed through the new service will be clearly labeled to indicate the originating agency and ensure transparency.

The service is the latest expansion into the Middle East by news agencies, reflecting the growing significance of the region in global news coverage.

US platform Semafor launched a Gulf service in September to cover the increasing role the region plays in shaping global financial, business and geopolitical trends. Its regional coverage also includes cultural developments, investment opportunities, infrastructure news, climate issues and technological advances in Gulf states.


Former US adviser suspended from X after urging Israel to ‘drop Napalm’ on Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon

Former US adviser suspended from X after urging Israel to ‘drop Napalm’ on Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon
Updated 10 October 2024
Follow

Former US adviser suspended from X after urging Israel to ‘drop Napalm’ on Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon

Former US adviser suspended from X after urging Israel to ‘drop Napalm’ on Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon
  • Matthew Brodsky sparked outrage for his inflammatory remarks, raising concerns about promotion of extremist views in US political circles
  • Irish PM Simon Harris says that Brodsky’s attack is ‘disgusting’

LONDON: Former White House adviser Matthew Brodsky has been suspended from X (formerly Twitter) after posting a tweet suggesting that Israel should “drop napalm” on Irish peacekeeping forces stationed in Lebanon.

Brodsky, a senior fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy and former director of policy at the Jewish Policy Center, sparked outrage with his inflammatory remark: “Israel should carpet bomb the Irish area and then drop napalm over it.”

The tweet, which has since been removed, included a map showing the location of Irish peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon, who recently refused to comply with Israeli Defense Forces evacuation orders.

The former adviser to the Trump administration’s Middle East peace team and the White House’s Israeli-Palestinian peace team has been widely criticized for the comments, raising concerns about the influence of hard-line Zionist ideologues on US foreign policy.

Brodsky, who has lived and studied in Israel, has previously suggested the use of napalm, a firebomb mixture notoriously used by US forces during the Vietnam War, against both Lebanese forces and the Houthis.

His repeated advocacy for the use of such weapons has been condemned as promoting extreme views and fostering further polarization within US political circles.

Critics argue that his statements are an attempt to promote Jewish supremacism, with fears they could inflame tensions and undermine American diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.

Brodsky is currently working with two Republican candidates running for US Congress in Minnesota — Dalia Al-Aqidi and John Nagel. While Al-Aqidi has distanced herself from Brodsky’s comments, Nagel has yet to issue a statement.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, who was in Washington DC, meeting US President Joe Biden, condemned Brodsky’s remarks as “the most disgusting thing” and “entirely inappropriate.”

He described the comments as “despicable,” particularly in light of the recent escalation in violence near the peacekeepers’ base.

“Our peacekeepers are doing an extraordinary job, and have been for many decades. I think everybody in Ireland is very proud of them,” Harris said.

On Thursday, the UN issued a statement confirming that two UNIFIL peacekeepers were injured after an IDF tank fired at an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqura, southern Lebanon.

The statement also noted that other areas were targeted and that IDF soldiers deliberately disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras.


Oversight Board urges Meta to strengthen rules on child marriage-related content

Oversight Board urges Meta to strengthen rules on child marriage-related content
Updated 10 October 2024
Follow

Oversight Board urges Meta to strengthen rules on child marriage-related content

Oversight Board urges Meta to strengthen rules on child marriage-related content
  • Board agrees with Meta to take down Instagram post of 14-year-old girl getting ready for her wedding

DUBAI: The Meta Oversight Board announced on Thursday that it agreed with Meta’s decision to take down an Instagram post showing a beautician in Iran preparing a 14-year-old girl for her wedding.

However, the board disagreed with Meta’s reason for removal, which was “a spirit of the policy allowance under the human exploitation policy,” according to a statement.

In January, a video was posted on Instagram showing a beautician offering make-up advice to a 14-year-old girl in preparation for her wedding. The young girl confirmed her age in the video and the text said that she was the youngest bride of the year, while the caption provided information about the salon and its beauty services.

The post was viewed about 10.9 million times and reported by 203 users over a month.

The board said that Meta’s human exploitation policy does not specifically prohibit support for child marriage; instead, its goal is to remove all forms of “exploitation of humans,” which Meta believed should include “support” for child marriage.

However, the board disagrees with Meta’s reasoning because it believes “the beautician’s actions were a form of facilitation” and therefore, the content clearly violates the human exploitation community standard rule “for facilitation of child marriage by materially aiding this harmful practice.”

In Iran, child marriage is allowed, with legal ages set at 13 for girls and 15 for boys, although in some cases marriage is permitted even before children reach the set ages.

The UN defines child marriage as “any marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age” and it is considered a form of forced marriage, both of which are human rights violations.

The Oversight Board, therefore, recommended that Meta modify the human exploitation policy to explicitly state that forced marriages include child marriage, and to define child marriage in line with international human rights standards.

It also advised Meta to expand the “definition of ‘facilitation’ in internal guidelines to include the provision of any type of material aid (which includes ‘services’) to enable exploitation.”