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.

LONDON: A data and artificial intelligence (AI) summit will be held in Saudi Arabia in October, it was announced on Friday. The Global AI Summit, under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and organized by the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), will take place on October 7-8 with the theme "AI for the Good of Humanity." SDAIA said the summit will be a virtual one due to the ongoing precautionary measures put in place by the Saudi government to tackle the spread of COVID-19. The summit will discuss how AI trends can assist the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, some inspirational insights about future requirements for regulators, investors, and companies in the field of AI as well as how AI will develop in the future. Among the participants will be many distinguished speakers and global experts from different countries, who will cover a range of topics divided into four sectors: 'Shaping the New Normal,' 'AI and Governments,' 'Governing AI' and'The Future of AI.' According to a SDAIA statement, the event will tackle global changes and their impact on the transformation of AI and review how AI technologies can be used to create a better future for all, in addition to highlighting the most prominent technical challenges facing the global AI community today and how to develop AI technologies safely and ethically in various applications that affect human life.

Yet another country has gone to release the potential of artificial intelligence to fuel its economic growth plans. One of the largest oil manufacturing nations, Saudi Arabia, has now formulated and launched a nation-wide policy on AI. The project has been signed with approval from King Salman and aims to add the market value of up to 500 billion riyals (US$133 billion) in the country's GDP by 2030. The policy formulation had begun last year when the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) was established through a royal decree in August 2019 to lead the charge of the nation's transformation into a data-driven economy. Besides, the body is working on implementing a cloud platform, intending to build one of the biggest cloud frameworks in the Middle East by connecting 83 data centres controlled by over 40 government bodies.

The writing is on the wall. Every major global governmental agency is warning of the imminent tipping point towards catastrophic climate change, even the world's largest oil company Saudi Aramco is now talking about reaching peak oil within the next 20 years, and the International Energy Agency projects that it will happen in more like 10. Solar and wind are cheaper than ever, and large-scale solar mega-projects are quickly becoming the norm. It makes sense, then, that even the supermajor oil companies are diversifying their portfolios and investing in their own demise--also known as the renewable energy sector. Way back in July, 2017 Oilprice reported that France's Total S.A. was "leading the charge on renewables". At the time, Total's website boasted: "For Total, contributing to the development of renewable energies is as much a strategic choice as an industrial responsibility. We are doing our part to diversify the global energy mix by investing in renewables, with a strategic focus on solar energy and bioenergies."

The writing is on the wall. Every major global governmental agency is warning of the imminent tipping point towards catastrophic climate change, even the world's largest oil company Saudi Aramco is now talking about reaching peak oil within the next 20 years, and the International Energy Agency projects that it will happen in more like 10. Solar and wind are cheaper than ever, and large-scale solar mega-projects are quickly becoming the norm. It makes sense, then, that even the supermajor oil companies are diversifying their portfolios and investing in their own demise--also known as the renewable energy sector. Way back in July, 2017 Oilprice reported that France's Total S.A. was "leading the charge on renewables". At the time, Total's website boasted: "For Total, contributing to the development of renewable energies is as much a strategic choice as an industrial responsibility. We are doing our part to diversify the global energy mix by investing in renewables, with a strategic focus on solar energy and bioenergies."