Saudi MCIT and TONOMUS Announce I.D.E.A. Initiative

The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and TONOMUS announced The Immersive Digital Environments and Assets (I.D.E.A.) Initiative. (SPA)
The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and TONOMUS announced The Immersive Digital Environments and Assets (I.D.E.A.) Initiative. (SPA)
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Saudi MCIT and TONOMUS Announce I.D.E.A. Initiative

The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and TONOMUS announced The Immersive Digital Environments and Assets (I.D.E.A.) Initiative. (SPA)
The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and TONOMUS announced The Immersive Digital Environments and Assets (I.D.E.A.) Initiative. (SPA)

The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and TONOMUS, the NEOM-born cognitive technology company, announced The Immersive Digital Environments and Assets (I.D.E.A.) Initiative.
The initiative, originally showcased during a keynote presentation at LEAP 2024, is envisioned to propel the Saudi immersive technology sector among the leading nations and fuel the Kingdom’s digital economy ambitions as part of economic diversification, realizing Saudi Arabia’s vision 2030, the Saudi Press Agency said.
Through the initiative, MCIT, TONOMUS, and partners will work closely to activate a national partner network to engage policymakers, researchers, technology providers, and end users in the participatory design of ecosystem interventions.
The initiative will create a unified strategic plan and activation roadmap across public- and private-sector partners to jumpstart immersive tech economy development as well as to develop a comprehensive solution blueprint for national immersive tech developments and establish standards to unite a diverse array of technology stakeholders.
MCIT and TONOMUS have already onboarded more than 15 potential partners across Saudi Arabia’s tech landscape and have issued a call to interested organizations to engage.
I.D.E.A. spans immersive experiences, virtual collaboration spaces, industrial digital twin and metaverse applications enabled by the convergence of several emerging technologies, including mixed reality, artificial intelligence (AI), three-dimensional (3D) modeling, and spatial computing, among others.
“The launch of this initiative is a testament to The Kingdom’s ambition to harness technology in building a thriving digital society and economy,” said MCIT Undersecretary for Technology Mohammed Alrobayan.
“For MCIT, this initiative is directly aligned with our objectives of growing the technology sector and supporting localized technology development. The involvement of TONOMUS and our plan for this partner network reinforces MCIT’s support for collaboration across the public and private sectors. We want to be at the forefront of immersive technology and accelerate a new wave of digital transformation”, he added.
“At the core,” said TONOMUS chief commercial officer Yousef Khalili,” this initiative is an effort to develop a local immersive tech ecosystem by driving technology adoption and supporting next-generation tech solutions. This partnership has been more than a year in the making and is based on a shared vision at the intersection of MCIT’s goal to unlock more value for the Kingdom through technology, and TONOMUS’ ambition to be a home-grown cognitive technology champion. TONOMUS is committed to developing innovative, next-generation technology solutions to propel Saudi organizations into the future”.



DeepSeek Faces Expulsion from App Stores in Germany

FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
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DeepSeek Faces Expulsion from App Stores in Germany

FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

Germany has taken steps towards blocking Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from the Apple and Google app stores due to concerns about data protection, according to a data protection authority commissioner in a statement on Friday.

DeepSeek has been reported to the two US tech giants as illegal content, said commissioner Meike Kamp, and the companies must now review the concerns and decide whether to block the app in Germany, Reuters reported.

"DeepSeek has not been able to provide my agency with convincing evidence that German users' data is protected in China to a level equivalent to that in the European Union," she said.

"Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies," she added.

The move comes after Reuters exclusively reported this week that DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations.

DeepSeek, which shook the technology world in January with claims that it had developed an AI model that rivaled those from US firms such as ChatGPT creator OpenAI at much lower cost, says it stores numerous personal data, such as requests to the AI or uploaded files, on computers in China.