The Global Artificial Intelligence (GAIN) Assembly commenced today, Wednesday, May 14, 2024, in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Session was organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) in partnership with the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and the United Nations Advisory Committee on Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General (DG), headed the Organization’s delegation to the Event, with the attendance of a host of high-level officials, experts, and researchers.

In his opening address, Dr. AlMalik praised the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the field of artificial intelligence, acknowledging the keen interest of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister, in supporting SDAIA and chairing its board of directors, reaffirming ICESCO’s commitment to building close cooperation with it.

ICESCO DG announced that the official launch of the initial results of the Islamic World Charter for Artificial Intelligence, being prepared by ICESCO, will take place during the 3rd Global AI Summit, to be held by SDAIA in September.

Furthermore, His Excellency explained that the clear future direction is the continued adoption of artificial intelligence in development in the coming years, presenting a set of statistics and figures related to the tremendous progress in this field and the changes that the labor market will witness by 2025, where forecasts indicate the disappearance of 85 million jobs and the emergence of 97 million new jobs, resulting in a net gain of 12 million jobs.

Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, President of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), spoke about the importance of hosting the Riyadh Global AI Summit, which SDAIA will organize in September 2024, and within which falls the international consultation session on artificial intelligence governance. He emphasized the importance of partnership with ICESCO to exchange views and knowledge in the field of international governance of artificial intelligence.

In the business session dedicated to exploring the future of artificial intelligence governance in the Islamic world and beyond, Dr. Qais Al-Hamami, Head of the ICESCO Center for Foresight and Artificial Intelligence, spoke about the collaborative approach in preparing the Islamic World Charter on Artificial Intelligence, which ICESCO is working on, and its foresight dimension, highlighting the future variables that may affect artificial intelligence systems and the associated risks.

Mr. Mohamed Hedi Shili, Head of ICESCO’s Legal Affairs and International Standards Department, presented an overview of the ethical principles of artificial intelligence systems, especially in the countries of the Islamic world, explaining the necessity of developing policies and legislation related to this field, which the Organization seeks to highlight in the AI Charter.

The session discussed the unveiling of the results of the standardization phase of the Charter and concluded with a speech by Mr. Hani Mansi, Advisor to the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture, and Science, emphasizing the necessity of international cooperation to harness the potential of artificial intelligence.