The discussion of artificial intelligence has changed in recent years from speculative fiction to strategic policy. Although most people still think of artificial intelligence (AI) in terms of chatbots, recommendation engines, and digital assistants, the field is quickly moving toward something much more revolutionary: superintelligent AI. Saudi Arabia, which is not only getting ready for the upcoming AI wave but is also putting itself in a position to influence it, is at the core of this excitement.
Superintelligent AI, or ASI, has far-reaching consequences. ASI would constitute a paradigm shift, in contrast to existing systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and DALL·E, which represent narrow AI capable of spectacular but domain-limited outputs. In many domains, from science and technology to creativity, emotion, and governance, it would perform far better than human intellect. Furthermore, superintelligence would be able to reason generally, learn adaptively, and be creative in ways that are much beyond our current understanding, in contrast to today's AI models, which mostly rely on pattern recognition within constrained datasets.Saudi Arabia understands that taking decisive, early action is necessary to achieve such a breakthrough in capabilities. Humain, the Kingdom's recently announced program, is a calculated statement of intent. Supported by the influential Public Investment Fund (PIF), Humain wants to create a homegrown AI ecosystem from the bottom up rather than merely implementing international AI advancements. The Kingdom is making a significant wager on artificial and strategic intelligence with plans to build a multimodal Arabic language model, build sovereign cloud infrastructure, and spur regional AI innovation.
Saudi Arabia's hardware investment is among the most obvious signs of its commitment. More than 18,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, some of the most potent AI training chips on the market, will power the Humain project. Collaborations with US tech giants like AMD, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services further reinforce the scale of ambition. AWS alone plans to invest $5 billion in building an “AI Zone” in the Kingdom, a move that signals a convergence of infrastructure, policy, and capital in preparation for a post-oil economy.
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