Google announced on Friday, November 1, the AI Opportunity Initiative for the Middle East and North Africa, its largest initiative in artificial intelligence (AI) in the region.
Under the initiative, the global tech giant will provide essential AI skills, research funding and access to helpful AI products.
Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, is planning to contribute $15 million between this year and the end of 2027, through funding to organisations across the region to ensure the opportunities created by AI reach everyone.
The search engine giant said its latest initiative will build on the company’s long-standing commitment to the region, where it has trained three million people on core digital skills since 2018.
This new initiative aims to further empower half a million individuals within two years with critical AI skills.
Significantly, the initiative coincides with recent research indicating the need to accelerate AI and digital literacy to help more people become competitive in an AI-first economy and workforce.
According to the Economist Impact, the potential economic impact of AI on MENA’s economic growth is an estimated $320 billion by 2030.
Google expands AI skills
The tech giant’s AI Opportunity Initiative for MENA will include AI skills building, research, products and infrastructure.
Under AI skills building, Google will announce new educational programmes and curriculums, including in Arabic, covering AI and safety skills.
The tech giant will also provide a grant to Village Capital, a nonprofit organisation that unlocks early-stage social and financial capital for entrepreneurs developing solutions to environmental, social, and economic challenges, to equip Business Support Organisations.
The programme will focus on reaching women, youth, migrants, and those in rural areas across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Bahrain, and Iraq.
As for initiatives in Arabic, Raspberry Pi Foundation, a global charity, will use grant funding from Google.org to train teachers on AI Literacy, to equip their students in the region, aged 11-14 years, with AI safety skills to better understand and navigate the challenges of AI technologies.
Google fuels MENA AI growth
In the UAE and Saudi Arabia this will be run in partnership with Amideast.
In MENA, the search engine giant will also support the development of helpful AI solutions by local universities and startups: Google.org will also offer a grant to startAD, the startup accelerator powered by Tamkeen and anchored at New York University Abu Dhabi, to identify and develop AI-powered applications that help provide healthcare access for vulnerable populations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Google also announced plans for its continued investment in cloud infrastructure in the region to meet customer demands for Cloud services through Google Cloud data regions in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.
Google Cloud announced a partnership with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia to expand the existing Dammam Google Cloud region with an AI hub to support global customers.
Additionally, the partnership will advance AI research in Arabic-language models and will provide AI and digital upskilling programmes to help create highly skilled jobs and opportunities for global businesses to fuel growth through cloud adoption.
Speaking at the Google AI Connect Event, Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer for Alphabet and Google, said the company’s long-standing investments in MENA have helped equip people and organisations with the connectivity, innovation, and skills required to thrive in the global digital economy.
“AI is estimated to contribute $320 billion in economic growth for the Middle East by 2030, and Google is working to ensure that people and communities throughout the region have the skills needed to capture the upside of this emerging technology,” he said.
