Lillian Pierson is a CEO & data leader that supports data professionals to evolve into world-class leaders & entrepreneurs. To date, she's helped educate over 1.3 million data professionals on AI and data science. Lillian has authored 6 data books with Wiley & Sons Publishers as well as 8 data courses with LinkedIn Learning. She's supported a wide variety of organizations across the globe, from the United Nations and National Geographic, to Ericsson and Saudi Aramco, and everything in between. She is a licensed Professional Engineer, in good standing.

Saudi's state-owned oil company announced today its plan to support artificial intelligence (AI) research in the kingdom. Aramco signed a memorandum of understanding with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology north of Jeddah to create a new research center for AI at the educational institution. The center will focus on research, development and marketing of AI technologies, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. The center will "provide a joint framework for working with Saudi Aramco in a close way to develop proper and quick solutions for the needs of the energy sector, among other relevant sectors," said university vice president Donal Bradley. Why it matters: Saudi Arabia is seeking to diversify its economy and rely less on oil as per the Vision 2030 initiative. The kingdom has had some success in this regard.

Energy giant Saudi Aramco says its 2021 net profit soared by more than 120 percent due to higher crude oil prices, as global economic growth recovered from a pandemic induced downturn. The announcement came on Sunday hours after Yemen's Houthi rebels – against whom Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition – targeted several locations, including Aramco facilities, in cross-border armed drone attacks. Aramco, Saudi Arabia's cash cow, did not say if the attacks caused any damage. "Aramco's net income increased by 124 percent to $110bn in 2021, compared to $49bn in 2020," the company said in a statement. Aramco achieved a net income of $88.2bn in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic hit global markets, resulting in huge losses for the oil and aviation sectors, among others.

RIYADH, March 9, 2022 – Pasqal, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum technology, and ARAMCO announced the signing of an MoU to collaborate on quantum computing capabilities and applications in the energy sector. Objectives include accelerating the design and development of quantum based machine learning models as well as identifying and advancing other use cases for the technology across the Saudi Aramco value chain. To that end, both companies plan to explore ways for collaborating and cultivating the quantum information sciences ecosystem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Quantum computing can be used to address a wide range of upstream, midstream and downstream challenges in the oil and gas industry including network optimization and management, reaction network generation and refinery linear programming. The collaboration will explore potential applications for quantum computing and artificial intelligence in these areas as well.

Saudi Arabia has appealed to the United States and its allies in Europe and the Gulf for resupplies of ammunition it uses to defend the kingdom against drone and missile attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday (paywall), citing US and Saudi officials. Riyadh has been using its Patriot surface-to-air missile system over the past several months to thwart weekly ballistic missile and drone attacks launched by Houthi rebels based in Yemen, the officials told the WSJ. But the kingdom's stock of Patriot missiles to intercept aerial attacks has run dangerously low. The call for resupplies comes after the US has scaled back a large of portion its military presence in the Middle East that shored up the kingdom's security as the administration of President Joe Biden pivots to counter China's growing prowess on the global stage. Though the US is expected to approve the Saudi request for more Patriot interceptors, Saudi officials told the Journal they are concerned that insufficient stocks could result in a successful missile or drone attack, costing lives in the kingdom or harming the Saudi economy by damaging its critical oil infrastructure.

Watch'The Lost Calls of 9/11' Sunday, Sept. 5 at 10 p.m. ET on Fox News. President Biden on Friday signed an executive order calling for the review of classified information related to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and the ultimate declassification of some documents. The president's move was lauded by families of victims who died on that fateful day nearly 20 years ago, and was seen as a supportive gesture toward many who have long sought the records in hopes of implicating the Saudi government. The order, coming little more than a week before the 20th anniversary of the attacks, is a significant moment in a yearslong tussle between the government and the families over what classified information about the run-up to the attacks could be made public. That conflict was on display last month when some 1,800 relatives, survivors and first responders came out against Biden's participation in 9/11 memorial events if the documents remained declassified.

Around 70% of 96 strategic goals under Vision 2030 are related to data and AI. - The growing investment toward smart cities in Saudi Arabia results in massively increasing adoption of AI solutions along with 5G and software, such as predictive analytics. In 2021, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans to build The Line, a 105-mile-long belt of hyper-connected communities in the kingdom's northeast that will feature no cars, no streets, and carbon emissions but will have smart infrastructure costing up to USD 200 billion.

US-headquartered IQVIA is the latest health information technology and clinical research company to partner with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), it has been announced. The multinational – described as "a leading global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry" – has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Saudi government agency to "explore opportunities of mutual interest and support innovation in the field of health data in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)." According to the country's official news agency, both parties will reportedly collaborate on joint ideas and research in data and artificial intelligence (AI), build a centre for "innovation and knowledge", and develop training programmes that can make use of this data and AI in the health sector. The agreement was co-signed by Majid Mohammed Al-Tuwaijri, supervisor of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) at the SDAIA; and Mohamed Mostafa Elbadawy, IQVIA's General Manager for KSA and Egypt. "This MoU will contribute towards creating opportunities for development and growth in the health sector, supporting the goals of Vision 2030," said Al-Tuwaijri.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is promising to build a network of smart cities that won't have any cars or roads. It's called The Line, due to its arrangement of "hyper-connected future communities," and will form part of NEOM, a $500 billion project announced in October 2017. According to the prince, the development will offer "ultra-high-speed transit," autonomous vehicles and an urban layout that ensures basic facilities, such as schools and medical clinics, are never more than a five-minute walk away. "It is expected no journey will be longer than 20 minutes," the project's organizers claimed in a press release today. One million people are supposed to live inside The Line.

Saudi Arabia is planning to invest more than 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) in artificial intelligence by 2030, Chairman of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) Abdullah Bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi announced yesterday. "We aim to train 20,000 specialists in artificial intelligence by 2030," Al-Ghamdi told reporters on the sidelines of the media centre program of the G20 summit, which is currently being held in the kingdom's capital city of Riyadh. The Saudi official pointed out that the kingdom was the third country in the world to use technology to combat the coronavirus, stressing that artificial intelligence was a: "Source of savings and an additional source of income worth investing." This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.