Some kids spend their summers swimming and building campfires. This year thousands will head to university and high school campuses to program robots, write software, and design video games. Artificial intelligence--the increasingly ubiquitous technology routing delivery trucks, sifting through job applicants' resumes, and making small business lending decisions--is now a summer camp experience for ages five to 18. At least 447 AI summer camps opened across 48 states in the US this year, according to an August report from Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Because US schools typically don't cover the subject, these camps may offer one of the only chances for middle and high-school students to study AI, the report notes.

This year thousands will head to university and high school campuses to program robots, write software, and design video games.

The British University in Dubai has launched a bachelors degree in Artificial Intelligence, the first of its kind in the country. The programme has been developed in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and is open to both Emiratis and expatriates. Emiratis on the course will receive scholarship from the ICT fund, while expatriates can apply for scholarships to British University in Dubai. The ICT Fund was launched by Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in 2007 to achieve rapid development within the information and communication technology sector in UAE. The four-year degree course will be starting at the end of September.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is going to save the UAE billions of dirhams - and could help save lives - when it becomes fully integrated by the government. That was the message from Omar Sultan Al Olama, minister of state for Artificial Intelligence, who was speaking at the launch of the UAE's first-ever AI summer camp, which is taking place in Dubai over the next two months. For some people artificial intelligence is the domain of clichéd science-fiction novels and movies with computers becoming self-aware and overthrowing humanity, but that could not be further from the case, said Mr Olama who said that AI will become a force for good that eventually improves lives across the whole world. More than 2,200 students have registered for the summer camp, which Mr Al Olama believes will help educate the next generation to transform all sectors of life here in the UAE. One area in which Mr Al Olama believes it will show immediate benefits for the government is in efficiency.