Preparations are underway in Saudi Arabia to hold the first-ever event to the future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in the Kingdom.
The forum will be organized by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Nine ministries and representatives from international organizations will be attending the event. The Kingdom’s ministers of Energy, Communications and Information Technology, Environment, Water and Agriculture, Industry and Mineral Resources, Health, Transport are set to attend.
Moreover, the heads of the Kingdom’s Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA) and KACST will also be present.
The two-day forum begins on Wednesday and ends on Thursday.
Under the theme “Harnessing the 4IR in Saudi Arabia”, it will tackle four pillars centered on industrial transformation, technical governance, government transformation and technological limits.
The conference will tackle the impact of emerging technologies on the future of transportation, building resilient healthcare systems in the face of crises, clean energy transitions, building smart cities in the future, restoring the ecosystem and the future of finance.
Additionally, the forum highlights the role of the 4IR Center in the Kingdom as part of the network of WEF centers focused on utilizing technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, self-driving cars, drones, the internet of things, and smart cities for the benefit of all societies.
The forum’s primary mission is to be a global platform for multi-stakeholder collaboration across the public and private sectors.
It aims to maximize technological benefits to society and minimize the risks associated with 4IR technologies in the Kingdom through facilitating the co-design, in-depth analysis, and expert involvement of governance protocols and policy frameworks.
More so, the forum envisions enabling the responsible development of 4IR technology governance for the greater good of humanity.