SDAIA, UNESCO Discuss ICAIRE Efforts

SDAIA President Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi met with UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences Gabriela Ramos. (SPA)
SDAIA President Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi met with UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences Gabriela Ramos. (SPA)
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SDAIA, UNESCO Discuss ICAIRE Efforts

SDAIA President Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi met with UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences Gabriela Ramos. (SPA)
SDAIA President Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi met with UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences Gabriela Ramos. (SPA)

Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi met with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences Gabriela Ramos, SPA said on Wednesday.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Global Forum on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) organized by UNESCO and Slovenia’s Ministry of Digital Transformation under the theme "Changing the Landscape of AI Governance."
During the meeting, participants reviewed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's efforts in supporting UNESCO and its targets across various fields, including AI.
They also addressed efforts to enhance the role of the International Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Ethics (ICAIRE), which was classified under the second category of UNESCO, and SDAIA's efforts in this regard, such as organizing workshops on AI ethics in collaboration with the Arab League, the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the ICAIRE.
Additionally, SDAIA's efforts in the field of data and AI were discussed.



Ozempic Hailed as 'Fountain of Youth' that Slows Aging

The is available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic (Photo by Reuters)
The is available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic (Photo by Reuters)
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Ozempic Hailed as 'Fountain of Youth' that Slows Aging

The is available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic (Photo by Reuters)
The is available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic (Photo by Reuters)

The anti-obesity drug Ozempic could slow down ageing and has “far-reaching benefits” beyond what was imagined, researchers have suggested.

Multiple studies have found semaglutide (available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic) reduced the risk of death in people who were obese or overweight and had cardiovascular disease without diabetes, The Independent reported.

Responding to research published in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, Professor Harlan M Krumholz from the Yale School of Medicine, said: “Semaglutide, perhaps by improving cardiometabolic health, has far-reaching benefits beyond what we initially imagined.”

He added: “These ground-breaking medications are poised to revolutionise cardiovascular care and could dramatically enhance cardiovascular health.”

Multiple reports also quoted Professor Krumholz saying: “Is it a fountain of youth?”

He said: “I would say if you’re improving someone’s cardiometabolic health substantially, then you are putting them in a position to live longer and better.

“It’s not just avoiding heart attacks. These are health promoters. It wouldn’t surprise me that improving people’s health this way actually slows down the ageing process.”

The studies, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Conference 2024 in London, were produced from the Select trial which studied 17,604 people aged 45 or older who were overweight or obese and had established cardiovascular disease but not diabetes.

They received 2.4 mg of semaglutide or a placebo and were tracked for more than three years.

A total of 833 participants died during the study with 5 percent of the deaths were related to cardiovascular causes and 42 per cent from others.

Infection was the most common cause death beyond cardiovascular, but it occurred at a lower rate in the semaglutide group than the placebo group.

People using the weight-loss drug were just as likely to catch Covid-19, but they were less likely to die from it – 2.6 percent dying among those on semaglutide versus 3.1 per cent on the placebo.

Researchers found women experienced fewer major adverse cardiovascular events, but semaglutide “consistently reduced the risk” of adverse cardiovascular outcomes regardless of sex.

Dr Benjamin Scirica, lead author of one of the studies and a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Harvard Medical School, said: “The robust reduction in non-cardiovascular death, and particularly infections deaths, was surprising and perhaps only detectable because of the Covid-19-related surge in non-cardiovascular deaths.

“These findings reinforce that overweight and obesity increases the risk of death due to many etiologies, which can be modified with potent incretin-based therapies like semaglutide.”

Dr Jeremy Samuel Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, praised the researchers for adapting the study to look at Covid-19 when the pandemic started.

He said the findings that the weight-loss drug to reduce Covid-19 mortality rates were “akin to a vaccine against the indirect effects of a pathogen.”