How the Iran war has disrupted Abu Dhabi's AI strategy
Key takeaways
- Abu Dhabi's ambitions to turn the United Arab Emirates into a global hub for digital infrastructure and artificial Intelligence face pressure after the Iran war.
- Only six years later, Al Olama was listed on TIME magazine's inaugural TIME100 AI list and Abu Dhabi was well underway in implementing its digital strategy.
- The news magazine The Conversation reportedthat the war also raised questions about the safety of undersea cables which are essential for data centers and other digital infrastructure.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Abu Dhabi's ambitions to turn the United Arab Emirates into a global hub for digital infrastructure and artificial Intelligence face pressure after the Iran war. But the country is also known for its business resilience.
https://p.dw.com/p/5G7Cq The United Arab Emirates strives to become a global hub for AI, but the war in Iran has disrupted its strategy Image: Olaf Schuelke/IMAGOAdvertisement When the United Arab Emirates appointed Omar Sultan Al Olama as the world's first minister of state for artificial intelligence in 2017, he promised to turn the United Arab Emirates into the world's most prepared country for AI. Only six years later, Al Olama was listed on TIME magazine's inaugural TIME100 AI list and Abu Dhabi was well underway in implementing its digital strategy.
However, after the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February, the UAE became one of Iran's key targets: Over the course of the war, thousands of Iranian missile and drone strikes were aimed at local offices and data centers operated by global companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia.