MBZUAI-trained UAE executives use AI in diverse areas of their daily work

Abu Dhabi / WAM

Executives working in the UAE government and private sectors have begun to use artificial intelligence (AI) in diverse areas of their daily work, thanks to an Executive Programme hosted by Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in Abu Dhabi, according to a senior official.
Sultan Al Hajji, vice president of public affairs and alumni relations at MBZUAI, told the Emirates News Agency (WAM) that participants in the MBZUAI Executive Programme (MEP) came from diverse backgrounds.
“Towards the end of the three-month programme, participants took up a challenge to produce something that can apply in their own domains. The participant executives undertook some research projects under the supervision of our faculty and postdoctoral fellows and already began applying the research findings in their daily work,” Al Hajji revealed in an interview.
Citing the example of diplomats, he said, “when they went back to their own entities, they told me they had started to see things differently after using AI applications in their work.”
As collecting data and analysing them are a major part of all sectors, which is the core business of AI, they can now do their work faster, easier, and more efficiently, he pointed out.
Launched in September 2021, the MEP equips leaders with the knowledge and support they need to help their organisations harness potential of AI to meet national challenges.
In March 2022, MBZUAI celebrated the graduation of its inaugural cohort consisting of 41 participants. The university concluded the second edition of the MEP in August 2022. The second cohort was comprised of 43 leaders such as CEOs, directors general, and executive directors from various public and private organisations across the UAE.
The programme had 12 rigorous weeks of coursework, lectures, and collaborative project work. The essential topics included an introduction to the past, present, and future of AI and machine learning; AI, machine learning and the economy; lingual cognition and intelligence; visual cognition and intelligence; AI ethics and policymaking; and the
future of robotics.
Cohort two capstone projects included an approach to early cancer detection; an AI-based platform to mitigate fraud; a weather forecasting system; a unified customer-service platform; a Web3-driven, financial-management platform; an energy-management platform; a supply-chain prediction platform; and a smart threat-alert system.
“We have created an AI community where current and past participants play a crucial role in communicating, collaborating, and cooperating with each other to advance UAE industry,” the official stated.
Pioneer in Arabic NLP, genome sequencing
President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan established MBZUAI in 2019 as part of the UAE’s efforts to become a global leader in AI, the official pointed out.
Currently, the university is offering master’s and PhD programs in machine learning (ML), computer vision (CV) and natural language processing (NLP), with additional master’s and doctoral degree programmes planned.
The university is expanding its research in NLP, which is a vast area, as “we would like to be a pioneer in Arabic language NLP, an advanced application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand Arabic language and its dialects,” the official stressed.
NLP is a subfield of linguistics, computer science (CS), and AI and helps machines process and understand human language so that they can automatically perform repetitive tasks. Everyday examples include machine translation, automatic summarisation, automatic spelling correction, and voice-controlled personal assistants on smartphone.
“Using machine learning and computer vision, we are also pioneering in genomic sequencing [a scientific process to decipher the genetic material found in an organism or virus] because we have the capabilities and the expertise of globally renowned AI scientists,” Al Hajji said.
Global ranking
Within two years of its founding, the university has achieved global recognition. CSRanking — a metrics-based ranking of top global computer science institutions — ranks MBZUAI among the top 25 globally in areas of focus: AI, computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing.
“Achieving a top global ranking in just two years is a really big achievement in the academic and research world,” Al Hajji stressed.