AI played 'big role' in approach to pandemic, says UAE artificial intelligence minister

AI leads to'great return on investment' in dealing with pandemic The UAE approached the COVID-19 pandemic "as a scientist," said Omar Al Olama, the UAE's Minister of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications. Al Olama was appointed by the UAE as the first artificial intelligence (AI) minister in the world in 2017, when he was just 27 years old. That year, his ministry launched a strategy "to become one of the world leaders in AI by 2031." The COVID-19 pandemic, it turns out, may have accelerated the UAE's applications of AI to governance and public health, and to establishing the Emirates as a world leader in AI, as Al Olama, now 31, explained in an exclusive Zoom interview with Al-Monitor on Nov. 18. Al Olama describes a policy response to the pandemic by the UAE that has been data- and analytics-driven and characterized by openness to different ideas, nimbleness in response to changing events, and willingness to accept calculated risks. "We actually were very open to many different solutions, and many different theories out there," he said. "And we worked with everyone, from the East and the West, to try to find the right solutions that can be deployed in the UAE to make us go back to living a relatively normal life. Not the normal life that we're used to. People still need to wear masks. There's still a lot of focus on the general community's safety, but AI played a big role in getting us to this point."