FII7 Highlights Importance of AI

The seventh Future Investment Initiative (FII7) forum kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. (FII)
The seventh Future Investment Initiative (FII7) forum kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. (FII)
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FII7 Highlights Importance of AI

The seventh Future Investment Initiative (FII7) forum kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. (FII)
The seventh Future Investment Initiative (FII7) forum kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. (FII)

The seventh Future Investment Initiative (FII7) forum kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday under the theme “The New Compass,” focusing on Artificial Intelligence on its first day.

The conference presented a comprehensive overview of AI reality and several recommendations and solutions to ensure its safe and responsible use.

One of the conference’s sessions discussed the rapidly evolving AI models and how they shape the global economy, enabling small teams to develop science and technology and advance humanity.

The developments are driven by rapid advances in computing power, exponential growth in the volume of labeled data, significant reductions in training costs, increased capital directed toward developing AI, and democratized access to its advanced models.

Artificial intelligence faces short and medium-term global challenges, including the use of AI for disinformation, cyber-attacks and biological weapons.

However, the impact of AI challenges and the level of preparedness to confront them remains the major challenge, as world leaders must be ready to act within the framework of appropriate governance and policies.

The session presented recommendations to governments and the private and investment sectors:

- Boosting AI alignment: all AI companies must document and disclose how they are committed to implementing AI alignment, developing a set of basic requirements for releasing AI models, and supporting the development of early warning systems.

AI developers must conduct comprehensive model assessments before release, make the assessment results publicly available, and increase funding for top-level AI alignment research.

- Establish a unified and inclusive governance regime for AI: global challenges associated with AI can only be addressed through a global approach, including appropriate representation of emerging markets.

- Prepare for the transition: active investment in skills development and social safety net to ensure a just transition for workers displaced by AI.

Recommendations for the private sector and investment sector:

- Promote transparency and accountability: ensuring a greater commitment, transparency, and accountability to AI alignment by establishing plans detailing the strategies and processes that will be implemented to deliver it.

- Reducing artificial intelligence challenges: governments should cooperate to develop sufficient global response capacity, adopt a safety-based approach to developing AI, and ensure the security of its modern facilities and systems.

The initiative seeks to become a leading global platform through its commitment to working on solutions that everyone can adopt, building a shared understanding of this technology, and investing to increase global response capacity.

FII will establish an AI Coalition, bringing together investors, corporations, government leaders, and academics from developed and emerging markets to engage in a frank and candid dialogue on the critical issue of AI alignment.



Lebanon Appoints Karim Souaid as New Central Bank Governor

A woman walks outside of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
A woman walks outside of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
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Lebanon Appoints Karim Souaid as New Central Bank Governor

A woman walks outside of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
A woman walks outside of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo

Lebanon on Thursday named asset manager Karim Souaid as its new central bank governor. He will be expected to restructure the banking sector and fairly distribute losses from Lebanon's 2019 financial collapse, which erased the savings of ordinary Lebanese, tanked the currency and sparked an economic crisis.

In announcing Souaid's appointment, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam urged the new governor to focus on talks with the International Monetary Fund, restructuring banks, tightening banking secrecy laws and prioritizing depositors' rights.

"The governor, whoever he is and whatever the reservations about his selection, must commit from today to the financial policies of our reformist government," Salam said following a cabinet vote on the appointment.

Souaid, who holds a degree from Harvard Law School and founded asset management firm GrowthGate Capital in 2007, won the support of 17 ministers in the 24-member cabinet, two sources with direct knowledge of the vote told Reuters.

Salam and President Joseph Aoun have both pledged to prioritize reforms to help secure funds desperately needed to kickstart the economy and rebuild the country following the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah.

But they were split over who to appoint as central bank governor, with Aoun backing Souaid and Salam against him, according to two Lebanese government officials, two sources familiar with the dispute and a Western diplomat.

The incoming governor will replace interim chief Wassim Mansouri, who has been overseeing the bank since longer-serving governor Riad Salameh's tenure ended in disgrace in 2023 due to the financial implosion.

In the wake of the crisis, Lebanon was placed on a financial watchdog's "grey list" for failing to address concerns about terrorism financing and money laundering through its financial system.