‘To the Future’: Saudi Arabia Spends Big to Become an A.I. Superpower

1 week ago 7
  • Harvesting Data for A.I.
  • A.I. Data Race, Explained
  • What Is ‘Synthetic Data’?
  • Key Figures successful the Field
  • A.I. Faces Quiz
  • U.S.
  • World
  • Business
  • Arts
  • Lifestyle
  • Opinion
  • Audio
  • Games
  • Cooking
  • Wirecutter
  • The Athletic

You person a preview presumption of this nonfiction portion we are checking your access. When we person confirmed access, the afloat nonfiction contented volition load.

On a Monday greeting past month, tech executives, engineers and income representatives from Amazon, Google, TikTok and different companies endured a three-hour postulation jam arsenic their cars crawled toward a mammoth league astatine an lawsuit abstraction successful the desert, 50 miles extracurricular Riyadh.

The lure: billions of dollars successful Saudi wealth arsenic the kingdom seeks to physique a tech manufacture to complement its lipid dominance.

To bypass the congestion, frustrated eventgoers drove onto the road shoulder, kicking up plumes of godforsaken soil arsenic they sped past those pursuing postulation rules. A fortunate fewer took vantage of a peculiar freeway exit dedicated to “V.V.I.P.s” — very, precise important people.

“To the Future,” a motion work connected the attack to the event, called Leap.

Image

A presumption    astatine  nighttime  from supra  a metropolis  lit up   with lights.
A presumption of Riyadh from Al-Faisaliah Tower.Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Image

One of the booths astatine the Leap conference, which was attended by executives, engineers and salespeople from Google, Amazon, TikTok and others.Credit...Iman Al-Dabbagh for The New York Times

More than 200,000 radical converged astatine the conference, including Adam Selipsky, main enforcement of Amazon’s unreality computing division, who announced a $5.3 cardinal concern successful Saudi Arabia for information centers and artificial quality technology. Arvind Krishna, the main enforcement of IBM, spoke of what a authorities curate called a “lifetime friendship” with the kingdom. Executives from Huawei and dozens of different firms made speeches. More than $10 cardinal successful deals were done there, according to Saudi Arabia’s authorities property agency.


Thank you for your patience portion we verify access. If you are successful Reader mode delight exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for each of The Times.


Thank you for your patience portion we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want each of The Times? Subscribe.

Read Entire Article