Air pollution remains a leading global health and environmental risk, particularly in regions vulnerable to episodic air pollution spikes due to wildfires, urban haze and dust storms. Accurate forecasting of particulate matter (PM) concentrations is essential to enable timely public health warnings and interventions, yet existing models often underestimate rare but hazardous pollution events. Here, we present SynCast, a high-resolution neural forecasting model that integrates meteorological and air composition data to improve predictions of both average and extreme pollution levels. Built on a regionally adapted transformer backbone and enhanced with a diffusion-based stochastic refinement module, SynCast captures the nonlinear dynamics driving PM spikes more accurately than existing approaches. Leveraging on harmonized ERA5 and CAMS datasets, our model shows substantial gains in forecasting fidelity across multiple PM variables (PM$_1$, PM$_{2.5}$, PM$_{10}$), especially under extreme conditions. We demonstrate that conventional loss functions underrepresent distributional tails (rare pollution events) and show that SynCast, guided by domain-aware objectives and extreme value theory, significantly enhances performance in highly impacted regions without compromising global accuracy. This approach provides a scalable foundation for next-generation air quality early warning systems and supports climate-health risk mitigation in vulnerable regions.

Accurate weather and climate modeling is critical for both scientific advancement and safeguarding communities against environmental risks. Traditional approaches rely heavily on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models, which simulate energy and matter flow across Earth's systems. However, heavy computational requirements and low efficiency restrict the suitability of NWP, leading to a pressing need for enhanced modeling techniques. Neural network-based models have emerged as promising alternatives, leveraging data-driven approaches to forecast atmospheric variables. In this work, we focus on limited-area modeling and train our model specifically for localized region-level downstream tasks. As a case study, we consider the MENA region due to its unique climatic challenges, where accurate localized weather forecasting is crucial for managing water resources, agriculture and mitigating the impacts of extreme weather events. This targeted approach allows us to tailor the model's capabilities to the unique conditions of the region of interest. Our study aims to validate the effectiveness of integrating parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) methodologies, specifically Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) and its variants, to enhance forecast accuracy, as well as training speed, computational resource utilization, and memory efficiency in weather and climate modeling for specific regions.

He overcame surrender and did not despair despite his projects having been rejected, at the beginning of his career, but eventually became an entrepreneur in technology across Middle East-wide through his company "WideBot," which specializes in artificial intelligence "AI" and its influential role in customer relationship management (CRM) and digital business management. He is "Mohamed Nabil," a 35-year-old, from Alexandria who graduated from the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, Mansoura University in 2007. Immediately after graduation, he began to think seriously about how to start his own business, he had already set up companies, some companies have failed miserably and some have succeeded, but it was not a great and overwhelming success. During Mohamed's struggle, he supported him and stood by his side, Ahmed was his college friend, and he is also with his technical co-founder. And their work on that idea took about two years, they presented their idea to more than one large supermarket in Egypt and abroad, but unfortunately, it was not successful enough and the idea of their project was very new to the market.

Dubai: In the last decade the MENA region has proved to be one of the world's most lucrative fields for the deployment of AI technologies. Realiste, a leading AI developer in the real estate market has finally launched in the Middle East, changing the real-estate and housing landscape using the latest advanced technologies within all operations. Realiste is an AI-based real estate market development company committed to providing users with accurate and timely market value appraisals. The company's mission is to digitize the real estate market of every major city across the world, while offering free access to appraisals and personalized recommendations. Since launching in December 2021 they have established operations in Riyadh, Dubai, London, New York, and Moscow and are planning more expansions in the next year.

The financial services and banking sector is predicted to become the highest spender on artificial intelligence technology in the Middle East and North Africa, according to Google. The sector will have a share of almost 25 per cent of all AI investments in the region, with the use of the technology in banking alone expected to contribute up to 13.6 per cent to the region's gross domestic product by 2030, the Alphabet-owned company said in the Future of AI in the Mena report. "This would take shape through a range of applications, such as deep learning for algorithmic trading, fraud analysis and investing, as well as smart portfolio management and customer profiling," the report said. The overall potential effect of AI on the region's economic growth is significant, with the Mena region estimated to accrue $320 billion by 2030 from the value added by the technology. This is mostly from costs saved through automating processes, as well as improving products and services across the region's industries, the report said.

The artificial intelligence (AI) race between the global powers has countries everywhere hurriedly rummaging up AI applications. A quick glance at magazine headlines, popular culture, and even peer-reviewed academic literature shows the many grand predictions about AI and the eventual winner of its race. But is that race something to be celebrated or feared? And where does the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region stand? Today, algorithms, deep learning and AI have emerged as unparalleled forces of power and have made their way into the everyday world.

Global technology company OPPO announced that the OPPO Research Institute has officially released its first 6G white paper - "6G AI-Cube Intelligent Networking". As one of the global and MENA region's telecommunications industry's first in-depth reports on how artificial intelligence (AI) can empower 6G network architecture, the white paper proposes a more detailed vision for the design of next-generation communication networks. OPPO has established a pre-research team to conduct preliminary research on 6G service and technology requirements, key technologies, and system features. The global smartphone leader believes that 6G will reshape the way people interact with AI, as it is utilised to serve the public through a myriad of applications. In June 2021, UAE telecoms provider Etisalat announced plans for 6G – stating that the network is expected to be even faster and support applications such as augmented and virtual reality, as well as AI infrastructure.

O LIVE, is focusing on the innovative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to impact everyday lives in the MENA region. At GITEX 2019, BIGO will be demonstrating its use of AI-enabled processes across applications such as its facial detection and recognition system as well as its content management system to ensure high levels of quality content served to its millions of users across the region. AI is one of the mega-trends at GITEX 2019, the region's leading technology event. Under the theme, 'Synergising the mind and technology economy', the 2019 edition of the technology showcase will spotlight the wide impact of AI across every sphere, calling it'the brain at the core of all emerging technology'. Offering a suite of entertaining and interactive video applications that are popular across the MENA region, BIGO has built AI into core areas of its technology portfolio.

IQ Fulfillment, the Middle East and North Africa region's first robotic fulfillment centre, has opened in Dubai. Launched by IQ Holding, the centre provides full back-end solutions using the latest in robotics, AI and software platforms to support the supply chain and logistics industry. The robotic technologies used at the centre help process 12,000 robotic orders daily, delivering a 99.9 percent accuracy rate, and three times the human output, a statement said. It added that the key features are robotic picking, end to end track & trace, intelligence storage, package protection, gift wrapping and seasonal packing. IQ Fulfillment said it supports the needs of small and medium enterprises, incubators, accelerators and e-commerce players, enabling them to accelerate their business growth.