Where things happened
Our articles and news, placed on the country or city they are about. Narrow the list by date, topic or country. If you share the page link, your choices go with it.
20 items with a place
News · 20 October 2026
UAE tourist VAT refunds now take one business day, tax authority saysTourists leaving the UAE can now receive their VAT refund in one business day instead of about nine days, the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) said on 20 October 2026. It launched a new AI-supported refund
Abu Dhabi, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesNews · 19 October 2026
Emirates NBD to use OpenAI models processed inside the UAEEmirates NBD said on 19 October 2026 that it will deploy OpenAI’s GPT models using in-country inference infrastructure in the UAE. Inference is the stage at which a trained model answers requests, so
Dubai, United Arab EmiratesNews · 14 October 2026
Dubai launches GenDubAI, a free guide for parents on children’s use of AIDubai has launched Generation DubAI (GenDubAI), a free website that helps parents guide their children’s use of AI. It was announced on 14 October 2026 by the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence
Dubai, United Arab EmiratesArticle · 28 September 2026
AI in everyday life in the Gulf: health, learning, getting around, and dealing with governmentHow AI is already showing up in ordinary life across the GCC, from virtual hospitals and genome programmes to robotaxis and digital government, with an honest note on what still needs care.
United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi ArabiaArticle · 28 September 2026
Fears vs Reality: Will we lose control of AI?Some researchers worry that future AI systems could pursue goals we didn't intend, in ways we can't easily stop. Today's systems can't do this, but researchers are studying the warning signs now, whil
United Arab Emirates, Dubai, DubaiArticle · 28 September 2026
Fears vs Reality: Will AI take my job?AI will change a large share of jobs, and some roles will shrink. So far the evidence shows no drop in overall employment, but there are early signs of pressure on entry-level work. Here is what is kn
United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, DubaiArticle · 28 September 2026
Exponential Organizations explained: MTP, SCALE and IDEAS (ExO 1.0 and 2.0)A calm, precise guide to the Exponential Organizations (ExO) framework created by Salim Ismail and colleagues and developed by OpenExO. It covers where the idea came from (2014), what changed in the 2
Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Sharjah, DammamArticle · 28 September 2026
What OpenExO means by ExO 3.0, and a Gulf lens on agentic organisationsExO 3.0 is a published framework by Salim Ismail and OpenExO, set out in The Organizational Singularity (v25, June 2026). This page explains it accurately and with credit (the MTP as a protocol, the f
United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, Saudi ArabiaArticle · 28 September 2026
Illustrative archetypes: what agentic organisations could look like in the GulfFive fictional, composite organisations (a Dubai trading SME, a Riyadh clinic group, a Kuwaiti family retailer, a Muscat government service unit and a Doha professional-services firm) show how the ide
Muscat, Kuwait, Dubai, RiyadhArticle · 28 September 2026
Anatomy of an agentic organisation: a plain-language mapWhat are the parts of an organisation where AI agents do much of the routine work and people stay in charge? This page offers the platform's own simple map (purpose, people, agents, data and a governa
United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, BahrainArticle · 28 September 2026
Future organisations: from Exponential Organizations to ExO 3.0, with a Gulf lensA calm introduction to how organisations are changing as AI agents take on routine work. It explains the Exponential Organizations lineage (2014, 2023 and OpenExO's 2026 ExO 3.0), makes clear what is
United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Bahrain, MuscatArticle · 28 September 2026
Sector opportunity maps: AI in eight Gulf industriesA sector-by-sector look at where AI is genuinely useful in the GCC (real estate, logistics, finance, energy, government, retail, health and education), with sourced regional context, practical use cas
United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Abu DhabiArticle · 28 September 2026
AI readiness checklist for Gulf businessesThirty plain-language questions across eight areas (strategy, data, processes, people, technology, governance and law, security and resilience, and customers and trust) with a simple 0–2 score, calm g
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, DubaiArticle · 28 September 2026
From paper to agents: a staged digitisation and AI adoption roadmap for Gulf businessesA six-stage framework (foundations, digitise, connect data, automate, augment with AI, agentic operations) with a clear 'gate' before each move, plus what each stage needs in data, governance, skills
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, QatarArticle · 28 September 2026
Business in the age of AI: where to focus in the Gulf, and how existing businesses can adapt calmlyA practical, reassuring guide for people and companies in the GCC. It covers the real demand signals (government programmes, adoption, regulation and investment), where individuals, SMEs and larger fi
United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, Saudi ArabiaArticle · 28 September 2026
AI Camps: Risks, and the conditions they would needA calm look at the main risks people raise about AI (jobs, misuse, loss of control, concentration of power, surveillance, misinformation and accidents). For each one: what would have to happen for it
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, United StatesArticle · 28 September 2026
AI Camps: The accelerationistsAccelerationists and techno-optimists believe faster technological progress, including AI, is the surest route to longer, richer and freer lives, and that slowing it down carries real human costs. Her
United Arab Emirates, Dubai, DubaiArticle · 28 September 2026
AI Camps: Abundance, and what it would takeSome of the most credible people in AI believe it could make expert help, scientific progress, learning and clean energy far more widely available. Here is that hopeful case in their own words, the re
United Arab Emirates, United States, Saudi Arabia, Abu DhabiTracker claim · Emerging · 28 September 2026
50% of UAE federal government sectors, services and operations to run on agentic AI "for autonomous execution and decision-making" within two years; every federal employee trained.UAE Government · 23 Apr 2026
United Arab Emirates, Dubai, DubaiTracker claim · Emerging · 28 September 2026
25% of Dubai trips autonomous by 2030.Dubai RTA, Self-Driving Transport Strategy
Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Gulf-wide and not tied to a place
76 items are about the Gulf as a whole or have no single place. Hide them
Article · Gulf-wide · 28 September 2026
Fears vs Reality: an honest series about the worries people have about AIArticle · No single place · 28 September 2026
AI Camps: 'Doomers' and the p(doom) debateArticle · No single place · 28 September 2026
AI Camps: a calm map of the AI debateTracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Frontier AI is concentrated and becoming less transparent: industry produced 90%+ of notable models in 2025; transparency index average fell from 58 to 40.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Misinformation/disinformation ranked 2nd most severe global risk (2-year); adverse outcomes of AI 5th (10-year).Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
UN to establish an Independent International Scientific Panel on AI (40 experts) and a Global Dialogue on AI Governance.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
EU high-risk (Annex III) rules apply from 2 Dec 2027; Annex I from 2 Aug 2028.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
EU AI Act high-risk rules to apply from 2 Aug 2026.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
EU AI Act obligations for general-purpose AI models apply from 2 Aug 2025.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Frontier models may give meaningful bio/chem uplift to novices; developers added safeguards because they could not exclude it.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
AI lowers the barrier to sophisticated, largely autonomous cyberattacks.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Masdar/EWEC round-the-clock project (5.2GW PV + 19GWh storage, 1GW continuous) operational in 2027; "world-first" (Masdar).Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
AI will raise total factor productivity by no more than 0.66% over ten years.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Generative AI could raise global GDP by about 7% over ten years.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"The cost to use a given level of AI falls about 10x every 12 months."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
The end of disease: "within reach. Maybe within the next decade or so".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
AGI "in the next five to ten years".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
AI can produce science recognised at the highest level.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
The length of tasks AI agents can complete doubles roughly every 7 months.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"By the end of the century … we will still be wondering if the singularity is near."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"I'll be surprised if this event occurs before 2005 or after 2030."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Large language models as "stochastic parrots": risks of size, cost, bias and documentation.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Worrying about evil killer AI is like worrying about "overpopulation on Mars".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Deep learning is "hitting a wall"; scaling laws are "mere observations that might not hold forever".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Existential-risk probabilities "lack meaningful epistemic foundations".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
AI's impacts will unfold over decades, like electricity, as institutions adapt.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
LawZero will develop "Scientist AI", a non-agentic system to act as a guardrail.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Extinction from AI by 2100: superforecasters median 0.38%, AI experts median 3%.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"25% chance that things go really, really badly"; 75% really, really well.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
10–20% chance AI leads to human extinction within three decades.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"Pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
*If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies*: argues building superintelligence would lead to human extinction; says creation "can still be prevented".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Call for an indefinite, worldwide moratorium on large training runs, enforced by international agreement and monitoring of hardware.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"The most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI, under anything remotely like the current circumstances, is that literally everyone on Earth will die."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"In the 2030s, intelligence and energy… are going to become wildly abundant."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"2027 may see the arrival of robots that can do tasks in the real world."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"2026 will likely see the arrival of systems that can figure out novel insights."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
The goal is to make intelligence and energy extremely cheap (manifesto).Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"We believe Artificial Intelligence can save lives – if we let it." "We believe any deceleration of AI will cost lives."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
NLLB-200 improves translation quality by an average of 44% (BLEU) over prior state of the art, across 200 languages.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Seha Virtual Hospital is the world's largest virtual hospital (Guinness World Records).Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
MBZUAI is "the world's first graduate-level, research-based AI university".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Omar Al Olama was the world's first minister for AI (Oct 2017).Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
First 200MW phase "in place and ready at some point in the third quarter" of 2026.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Data-centre electricity roughly doubles from 485 TWh (2025) to 950 TWh (2030), about 3% of global demand.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
AI-based fault detection can cut outage durations by 30–50%.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"Concerns that AI could accelerate climate change appear overstated, as do expectations that AI alone will address the issue."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Data-centre electricity about 415 TWh (1.5% of global) in 2024, rising to about 945 TWh by 2030.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"Early evidence shows no effect on overall employment, but some signs of declining demand for early-career workers in some AI-exposed occupations."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
170m jobs created and 92m displaced by 2030, net +78m; 22% of jobs change.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
About 40% of global jobs exposed to AI (about 60% in advanced economies); roughly half of exposed advanced-economy jobs may benefit, half may see lower demand. Risk of wider inequality.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Neuralink: 21 trial participants; "zero serious device-related adverse events" so far.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Content Credentials are "not a cure-all for misinformation". They show provenance, not truth.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Eventually an IAEA-like international authority may be needed for systems above a capability threshold.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Experimental evidence of "alignment faking" in Claude 3 Opus under artificial conditions (12% prompted; 78% alignment-faking reasoning after RL). Authors: does not show malicious goals.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
12 companies published or updated frontier AI safety frameworks in 2025.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
On loss of control: "Current systems lack the capabilities to pose such risks, but they are improving in relevant areas." Models increasingly distinguish test from deployment.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
More than half of researchers say misinformation, authoritarian control and worsening inequality warrant substantial or extreme concern.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Median researcher: 5% chance of "extremely bad outcomes (e.g. human extinction)". 38–51% give at least 10%. About 68% think good outcomes more likely than bad.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Human-level AI / AGI by 2029; the Singularity (a "millionfold" expansion of intelligence) by 2045.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Superintelligence: "any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
AI progress to 2030 could plateau, continue or accelerate. Capabilities are "jagged".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Full automation of all occupations at 50% probability around 2116.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
Aggregate forecast: 50% chance that unaided machines outperform humans at every task by 2047; 10% by 2027.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"There's absolutely no way … that autoregressive LLMs, the type that we know today, will reach human intelligence." Scaling "is saturating".Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
After powerful AI arrives, AI could compress "the next 50-100 years of biological progress" into 5–10 years.Tracker claim · No single place · 28 September 2026
"Powerful AI" (smarter than a Nobel laureate across most fields, able to act autonomously for days) "could come as early as 2026, though there are also ways it could take much longer."Article · No single place · 16 July 2026
July 2026: an evaluation agent, a leaky sandbox, then Hugging FaceArticle · No single place · 9 July 2026
GPT-5.6 Sol: the flagship released in July 2026Article · No single place · 7 August 2025
GPT-5: one system that chooses when to thinkArticle · No single place · 27 February 2025
GPT-4.5: a larger chat model, not a reasoning modelArticle · No single place · 12 September 2024
o1: models that take longer to thinkArticle · No single place · 13 May 2024
GPT-4o: the same family, faster, and on the free tierArticle · No single place · 14 March 2023
GPT-4: the first big step after ChatGPT