Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and International Business Machines (IBM), an American multinational technology company, have signed a strategic agreement to drive the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the carbon capture and industrial domains across the Kingdom.
The announcement came at the second Global AI summit in the Kingdom. The first use case under this agreement will be in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy in Saudi Arabia. SDAIA, the Ministry of Energy and IBM will use AI technology to detect, map, and eventually reduce carbon emissions across the country.
As part of the agreement, IBM will work with SDAIA to identify high-value applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve challenges in public and private sector organizations in the Kingdom, with a focus on supporting the Kingdom’s sustainability and industrialization objectives.
Majid Altuwaijri CEO – National Center for AI Saudi Arabia
“This agreement with IBM will contribute to creating opportunities by addressing key challenges in the circular carbon economy, petrochemical and industrial domains, through the development of innovative solutions in the field of data and artificial intelligence, and the exchange of shared experiences and investment opportunities in this vital area to support achieving the goals of Vision 2030.”
“This agreement would allow us to leverage IBM’s expertise in technologies like artificial intelligence, which will play a key role in promoting the adoption of the Circular Carbon Economy, achieving the goals announced during the Saudi Green Initiative,” Eng. Ahmed Al-Zahrani, Ministry of Energy’s Assistant Minister for Development and Excellence, said.
“The management of greenhouse gas emissions is critical to the Kingdom’s reaching its objective of net zero. Using multiple satellites and different types of imaging technologies, we will train an AI model to recognize and pinpoint different forms of gas across the entire country. By doing so, this will help with earlier and better visibility of the problem which has not been possible with conventional measurement approaches,” said Ms. Dina Abo-Onoq, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting Saudi Arabia.
