It's the latest artificial intelligence program the UAE has launched amid the surging coronavirus pandemic.

Flight departures from Dubai International, which handled around 90 million passengers last year, were suspended between 10:13 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. The incident, a Dubai official said, was caused by "a guy in the desert" operating a drone. It wasn't immediately clear if the person was apprehended. Although operating a drone without a license is illegal, individuals often fly their drones in the open space of the desert, in part to take pictures in the often scenic setting. The suspension came only weeks after U.S. regulators halted flights at Newark Liberty International Airport after a drone was spotted near another New Jersey airport.

Dubai: Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), self-driving electric vehicles may soon turn up at Dubai International airport to help airside crew run its operations. The "robocars" would help the mega-facility run more smoothly, and cement the airport's status the world's busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic in 2016, and en route to hitting 89 million passengers this year. Not only that, AI may soon also help airline passengers pick their on-board meals, too, or schedule a pickup by an airport taxi chauffeur -- or guide passengers through last-minute duty-free shopping. These are some of the AI-driven future projects now being developed by Emirates, it was announced on Saturday. The AI projects were highlighted during the visit of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to the Emirates Airline's lab at the Dubai Future Accelerators facility in Emirates Towers.

A lot of passengers come and go through Dubai airports and by 2020, they're expected to play host to some 124 million people. So in an effort to increase the efficiency of security checkpoints, Dubai International Airport is installing a tunnel outfitted with 80 facial recognition and iris scanning cameras, The National reports. The tunnel's walls can display things like virtual aquariums or deserts as well as advertisements and passengers would just have to walk through as they normally would. At the end of the tunnel, a display will either tell the passenger to have a nice trip or will alert officials to take another look. "The tunnel has not come out of nowhere, without any foundation," Obaid Al Hameeri, the deputy director general of Dubai residency and foreign affairs, told The National.