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SDAIA Inaugurates Excellence Center for Generative AI

SDAIA inaugurates the Center of Excellence for Generative Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with NVIDIA. (SPA)
SDAIA inaugurates the Center of Excellence for Generative Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with NVIDIA. (SPA)
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SDAIA Inaugurates Excellence Center for Generative AI

SDAIA inaugurates the Center of Excellence for Generative Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with NVIDIA. (SPA)
SDAIA inaugurates the Center of Excellence for Generative Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with NVIDIA. (SPA)

The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) inaugurated the Center of Excellence for Generative Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with the global technology company NVIDIA and launched the pilot version of the ALLAM application, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday.

This step is the first of its kind in the region for its importance in achieving the benefit of AI, enhancing the Kingdom's position in the field, and supporting cognitive capabilities.

Several ministers and officials in the public and private sectors, Saudi universities, hospitals, specialists in technology companies, and those interested in the fields of artificial intelligence from within the Kingdom along with foreign participants attended the event.

These accomplishments are in line with the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030 – led by Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SDAIA – reflecting his unlimited support for efforts to make the Kingdom a global technological hub for the latest advanced technologies related to AI.

The innovative projects adopted by SDAIA in AI are part of the authority's capacity as the national reference for data and AI in all related aspects of the Kingdom.

The projects are receiving support from Crown Prince Mohammed in recognition of the role they play in improving data and AI, stimulating their growth and utilizing them to serve humanity and lead the Kingdom's efforts to become a global leader in AI.

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Technology

Google Announces Gemini 4 Flagship AI Model After Months of Delays

The Google logo is displayed during a press conference in Berlin, Germany, November 11, 2025. (Reuters)
The Google logo is displayed during a press conference in Berlin, Germany, November 11, 2025. (Reuters)
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Google Announces Gemini 4 Flagship AI Model After Months of Delays

The Google logo is displayed during a press conference in Berlin, Germany, November 11, 2025. (Reuters)
The Google logo is displayed during a press conference in Berlin, Germany, November 11, 2025. (Reuters)

Alphabet's Google on Wednesday announced a new top-tier artificial intelligence model to anchor its Gemini 4 generation of models in a fresh bid to catch up to rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI race.

The new model, "Argon", is larger in size than Google's previous line of advanced "Pro" models, a company spokesperson said.

"It's our most performant model yet built for complex workloads, and we see it comparable ‌to frontier ‌models like (OpenAI's) Astra and (Anthropic's) Opus on ‌key ⁠coding and cyber benchmarks," ⁠the spokesperson said.

Google said it was providing the model to select cybersecurity partners and was participating in the Trump administration's voluntary process for pre-release model access. It did not provide a timeline for the model's public release.

The model posted better marks than Astra and Opus ⁠in terms of self-reported performance on several ‌industry benchmarks, per a company ‌press release. Still, Argon remained behind on certain other metrics, ‌including two of the four coding-related benchmarks Google included ‌in the release.

Google no longer plans to release Gemini 3.5 Pro, which CEO Sundar Pichai originally said would be released in June, according to the company spokesperson.

In the intervening ‌time, Google overhauled its DeepMind AI lab, with its founder and CEO Demis ⁠Hassabis stepping ⁠aside and several leaders of its Gemini model leaving the company.

The months of delays to its AI model have caused the company to fall behind Anthropic and OpenAI, which continued to push the research frontier with new releases to its top models.

Pichai in July pushed back on the notion that Google was losing ground in the AI race. But Google in recent months has shifted its messaging from touting Gemini's cutting-edge capabilities to highlighting its cost advantage compared to competitor models.

Technology

Altman Unveils ‘Always-On’ AI Agent After OpenAI Shelves Another Model Over Security Concerns

An OpenAI display welcomes attendees as they arrive for an OpenAI developers conference at Fort Mason on September 29, 2026, in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
An OpenAI display welcomes attendees as they arrive for an OpenAI developers conference at Fort Mason on September 29, 2026, in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Altman Unveils ‘Always-On’ AI Agent After OpenAI Shelves Another Model Over Security Concerns

An OpenAI display welcomes attendees as they arrive for an OpenAI developers conference at Fort Mason on September 29, 2026, in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
An OpenAI display welcomes attendees as they arrive for an OpenAI developers conference at Fort Mason on September 29, 2026, in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images/AFP)

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman introduced a “remarkably capable, always-on” artificial intelligence agent at an appearance Tuesday, a day after the company halted the rollout of a more advanced model over security concerns.

At the company’s annual developer conference, Altman made a slew of product announcements and updates, including OpenAI's new agents, called Dots. The agents, designed to complete ongoing tasks proactively on behalf of users, are a competitor of Meta's personal agent Muse, which exploded in popularity after Meta's own conference last week.

Dot agents will be “like an AI helper that always has your back, inspired by the cool versions of what we all watched in movies growing up," Altman said.

On Monday, OpenAI said it was holding off on releasing the other model because of concerns raised by its researchers. That followed broader calls within the industry to decelerate the pace of the technology’s advance to let safety measures catch up.

Altman avoided making references to security concerns around the shelved model during his keynote address, but said during a question-and-answer session that the company was investing more in safety, security and monitoring of AI agents.

The AI boom should be considered more like a period of renaissance than an industrial revolution, he said.

“The best version of AI is not about making people cogs in a giant machine, ever whirring faster and faster. There are some parts of life that we cannot and should not automate,” Altman said. “AI should be about giving people more power over their own lives, more tools to create, learn, discover, expand knowledge.”

The company also announced the release of GPT-6.1 Sol, an upgraded version of its model GPT-6 Sol, and a premium speed tier called “Ultrafast," among other launches and updates.

OpenAI's announcements came as Altman's industry peers were meeting with President Donald Trump Tuesday. While many in Silicon Valley have called for the government to help establish guardrails for the technology, Trump has pushed back against the idea of greater government oversight of AI.

While Altman didn't attend, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman was at the White House, along with Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Several other industry leaders joined them, along with senior administration officials and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Technology

OpenAI Cancels Release of Newest Model Due to Safety Concerns

A man walks past an OpenAI booth at Moscone Center during the Dreamforce 2026 technology summit in San Francisco, California, US, September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
A man walks past an OpenAI booth at Moscone Center during the Dreamforce 2026 technology summit in San Francisco, California, US, September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
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OpenAI Cancels Release of Newest Model Due to Safety Concerns

A man walks past an OpenAI booth at Moscone Center during the Dreamforce 2026 technology summit in San Francisco, California, US, September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
A man walks past an OpenAI booth at Moscone Center during the Dreamforce 2026 technology summit in San Francisco, California, US, September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

OpenAI will not release its newest artificial intelligence model, known as Astra 6.1, after internal testing by the ChatGPT-maker revealed it did not meet safety standards, the company confirmed Monday.

The news comes one day before the AI giant hosts an annual developer conference known as OpenAI DevDay in San Francisco, where the company is expected to make several announcements -- though it is unclear if a new version of Astra will be among them.

Astra 6.1 was an improvement over previous models in some aspects, but "it didn't quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization, and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it's done," Saachi Jain, OpenAI's head of safety systems, said in a statement, according to AFP.

"We want to make sure our model development is safe no matter whether that's in the company, or when we ship it to users. But when we ship it to users, we have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment," Jain continued.

Concerns about AI safety have escalated in recent months after models developed by OpenAI and rival lab Anthropic were involved in security incidents during testing.

Agents built with OpenAI's models have inappropriately accessed websites maintained by US federal agencies, an Australian government health statistics portal and Hugging Face, a repository of AI models.

OpenAI apologized Monday for not properly responding to the Australia incident, which involved its AI models accessing government websites without authorization.

"We are sorry and working to do better in the future," OpenAI said in a blog post, adding that the company would explain "what we know, what we have changed, and what we will do to rebuild trust with the Australian people."

"Our aim was to give affected agencies a detailed account once our investigation was complete," the ChatGPT-maker said. "However, we should have shared preliminary findings sooner and kept Australian agencies updated as more facts emerged."

OpenAI, Anthropic and other major AI developers have promised to prioritize making models that have safety guardrails to mitigate risks and that are also aligned with human values.

American chip making giant Nvidia announced on Monday that it created a system designed to stop autonomous AI programs from straying beyond what they were instructed to do.

"I believe it's an engineering problem...and we all need to hope that's an engineering problem," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told broadcaster CNBC on Monday.

"If it's not an engineering problem, it's not solvable," he added.

The AI Security Institute (AISI), an initiative under the UK government, published a study on Monday showing that GPT-6 Astra went off the rails more often during testing than its predecessors, GPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-5.5.

In simulations, GPT-6 spontaneously carried out cyberattacks at rates significantly higher than those observed for the other two interfaces.