- Written by- Khalidh Rizwan
According to the Saudi Press Agency, Saudi Arabia was placed top in the world in the “government strategy” section in a newly published artificial intelligence report that evaluated more than 60 countries. Germany and China took second and third place, respectively.
The Global AI Index, one of the indicators of the international classification of artificial intelligence published by the UK based news website Tortoise Media, includes more than 100 indicators divided into seven sub pillars: government strategy, research and development, talent, infrastructure, operating environment, and commercial.
The Kingdom scored 100 percent in the government strategy category thanks to its establishment of the National Strategy for Data and AI, the presence of a dedicated government authority for artificial intelligence, the allocation of funding and budget for AI initiatives and the formulation and monitoring of national targets for artificial intelligence.
The Kingdom has shown a strong commitment to developing artificial intelligence since its inception, and in 1979, a royal order was issued to establish the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) as the central authority in charge of organizing, developing, and overseeing all AI-related matters.
In order to fulfill the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and the aspirations of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who serves as chairman of the SDAIA Board of Directors, the SDAIA spearheaded the national plans for data and artificial intelligence.
This achievement by the Kingdom is consistent with the aspirations of Vision 2030, which aspires to place the country prominently in global indicators across a variety of disciplines.