Elie Azar (editor) - Artificial Intelligence in the Gulf: Challenges and Opportunities

Cover illustration: @Buena Vista Images/GettyImages

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

This volume is based on a selection of papers presented at the Artificial Intelligence in the Gulf: Prospects and Challenges workshop, which was held on July 1518, 2019 at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The co-editors would like to extend a warm thank you to all participants of the workshop, who convened over three days to present academic papers and discuss the prospects of Artificial Intelligence in the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states. The discussions held during the event greatly enriched the chapters of this volume and helped the co-editors and authors together define a number of overarching themes, challenges, and solutions relating to the topic.

The co-editors are also deeply grateful to the organizers of the 2019 Gulf Research Meeting of the Gulf Research Centre Cambridge, under the auspices of which the workshop took place. In particular, we would like to thank Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Chairman and Founder of the Gulf Research Centre (GRC), Dr. Oskar Ziemelis, Director of Cooperation at the GRC, Dr. Christian Kokh, Director of the GRC Foundation Geneva, as well as Ms. Aileen Byrne and Ms. Sanya Kapasi at the GRC, for their tireless work and support.

United Arab Emirates

June 2021

Although the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) has appeared in literature as early as the mid-1950s (Grudin ).

Fast forward two decades, AI has now evolved from being driven by the development of computer games to complicated systems that are required for the functioning of our daily lives. As defined in a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) (PwC ).