SAUDI DATA AND AI AUTHORITY AND ALIBABA CLOUD ANNOUNCE MOU FOR Driving KSA Smart Cities Innovation through Artificial Intelligence
SDAIA and Alibaba Cloud will partner on transforming Saudi Arabia’s cities with AI and intelligence-driven smart city technology
- Riyadh, October xx, 2020: Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) and Alibaba Cloud have announced an MoU to partner on driving KSA Smart Cities Innovation through Artificial Intelligence and empowering Saudi cities with intelligence-driven smart city solutions.
The partnership will support Saudi Arabia’s journey to develop world-class smart cities. It will focus on Driving KSA Smart Cities Innovation through Artificial Intelligence by empowering KSA cities to effectively and efficiently respond to the citizens needs while improving the quality of life, and to transform KSA to become more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable. It will also utilize data and AI to make the cities smarter while improving their safety and security.
SDAIA and Alibaba Cloud will be working collaboratively to develop digital and AI solutions in several areas including: safety and security, mobility, urban planning, energy, education, health, etc. by leveraging the power of Alibaba Cloud’s AI Platform to empower KSA cities to intelligently manage city services and to create new smart solutions that will make them more resilient and responsive to the needs of the citizens.
The MoU was announced during the Global AI Summit 2020. His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Bin Sharaf Alghandi, President of SDAIA, said: “Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has clear goals to transform KSA cities into smart ones by unlocking the value of city data as a national asset to realize Vision 2030 aspirations. Our journey to creating smart cities that rank among the smartest in the world is already well underway with Riyadh City. This partnership with Alibaba Cloud will support the acceleration of the transformation of our cities, through enabling intelligence-driven technologies and AI techniques that will fuel sustainable economic development and a high quality of life to our citizens.”
“We are very pleased to join hands with SDAIA and get an opportunity to contribute to the development of this world-class digital transformation project. We are proud to bring Alibaba Cloud’s proven cloud and AI products as well as our global experiences and to combine these with the expertise from SDAIA.
We look forward to bringing positive changes to the lives of Saudis and to make our humble contribution to the realization of Vision 2030,” said Phillip Liu, General Manager of Middle East and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. The MoU is in line with SDAIA’s objective to facilitate KSA’s National Data and AI strategy, and to increase AI innovation and smart cities capabilities to transform the Kingdom into a leading data-driven economy by 2030. SDAIA and Alibaba Cloud capabilities will deliver fruitful results for scientific research, technological development, innovation, and digital transformation of traditional industries in Saudi Arabia.
The Global AI Summit, organized by the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), is the world’s premier platform for dialogue that brings together stakeholders from public sector, academia and private sector, including technology companies, investors, entrepreneurs and startups, to shape the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The inaugural edition of the Summit takes place virtually on 21 and 22 October 2020. The Global AI Summit is a unique opportunity to explore what the new global era means to AI, how AI’s transformational potential can best be used to create a better future for all, and what this means for policy and decision makers interested in leveraging the potential of AI for the good of humanity.
About SDAIA
The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) was established in 2019 as the owner of Saudi Arabia’s national and artificial intelligence agenda, mandated with unlocking the value of data and artificial intelligence to elevate Saudi Arabia as a pioneering nation among the elite league of data-driven economies.
SDAIA delivers on its mandate through three executional arms: 1) the National Data Management Office (NDMO) which is the main regulator and enabler of national data policies and best practices, 2) the National Information Center (NIC) which is the main operator of government data infrastructure, advanced analytics and AI-powered insight platforms, and G-Cloud services, and 3) the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) which drives the national AI strategy execution, AI innovation and capabilities building. SDAIA’s Board of Directors reports to the Prime Minister and is chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister.
