ATHKA Olympiad Achieves Record Enrolment in Kingdom with over 260,000 Saudi Students

ATHKA Olympiad Achieves Record Enrolment in Kingdom with over 260,000 Saudi Students
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ATHKA Olympiad Achieves Record Enrolment in Kingdom with over 260,000 Saudi Students

ATHKA Olympiad Achieves Record Enrolment in Kingdom with over 260,000 Saudi Students

National Olympiad for Programming and Artificial Intelligence (ATHKA) has set a record with over 260,000 Saudi male and female students from intermediate and secondary levels participating.

Representing over 10,000 schools in the Kingdom, this makes it the largest national Olympiad to reach such extensive participation. The surge in involvement indicates a significant rise in the Kingdom's youth awareness and interest in programming and AI technologies, SPA reported.

The substantial engagement with ATHKA highlights the successful collaboration between the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), the Ministry of Education, and the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba).

Together, they aim to bolster ATHKA as a national initiative nurturing a generation proficient in programming and AI, aligning with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 for human capacity development.

In April 2023, the Kingdom secured the second position globally in societal awareness of AI. This achievement follows a survey demonstrating increased confidence among Saudi citizens in utilizing AI products and services.

The Artificial Intelligence Index's sixth edition report by Stanford University indicates a high level of trust among Saudi citizens in embracing AI within the Kingdom.



Global Tech Outage to Cost Air France KLM Close to $11 mln

Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Saturday, April 7, 2018. Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Saturday, April 7, 2018. Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
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Global Tech Outage to Cost Air France KLM Close to $11 mln

Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Saturday, April 7, 2018. Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Saturday, April 7, 2018. Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Air France KLM faces a hit of about 10 million euros ($10.85 million) from last week's global technology outage, finance chief Steven Zaat said on Thursday.

The group is one of the first airlines to disclose a cost linked to the disruption, Reuters reported.

"The expectation is that it will cost us around 10 million (euros)," Zaad said in a press call, adding that KLM and Transavia bore the brunt of the disruptions while Air France was not seriously affected.

A software update by global cybersecurity company CrowdStrike triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking last Friday.

Delta Air Lines has been the slowest among major US carriers to recover from the outage. The carrier has cancelled more than 6,000 flights since Friday and analysts estimate the hit to its bottom line could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. ($1 = 0.9213 euros)