Saudi Arabia to Host First International AI Olympiad

SDAIA will hold the first international edition of the International AI Olympiad (IAIO) between September 8-12
SDAIA will hold the first international edition of the International AI Olympiad (IAIO) between September 8-12
TT

Saudi Arabia to Host First International AI Olympiad

SDAIA will hold the first international edition of the International AI Olympiad (IAIO) between September 8-12
SDAIA will hold the first international edition of the International AI Olympiad (IAIO) between September 8-12

The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) will hold the first international edition of the International AI Olympiad (IAIO) between September 8-12, in which some 25 countries are expected to take part.

The event will be held in collaboration with the International Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Ethics (ICAIRE) and the International Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) in Slovenia, under UNESCO auspices.

SDAIA aims to establish this international Olympiad as a premier platform for AI competitions, nurturing talent, and fostering skill development. The event will be a forum for scientists and enthusiasts from around the world to exchange ideas, enhance capabilities, and explore the latest advancements in the field.

Moreover, SDAIA envisions IAIO as a catalyst for future global expansions, serving as a powerful motivator for young men and women the world over to engage in activities pertaining to AI.

This initiative aims to cultivate a new generation equipped with a profound understanding of the transformative technologies that have become an integral part of humanity's daily lives and business systems.

In preparation for the Olympiad, SDAIA conducted a series of virtual lectures on AI, on the Olympiad website, designed to qualify international teams for the competition and empower interested students from various countries to expand their knowledge in this crucial domain.

The lectures spanned five weeks and covered diverse topics such as Introduction to AI, Social Impact of AI (ethics, fairness), Kernel Methods, Working with Data, Deployed Deep Generative Models, Supervised Learning, AI-Search, Learning Evaluation, Reinforcement Learning, and Unsupervised Learning.

Each participating country fielded a team of up to four students, who will compete individually over two days during the third edition of the Global AI Summit. The first day is slated to focus on scientific questions, while the second involve solving scientific problems using AI technologies through a specially designed platform.

IAIO aligns with SDAIA's commitment to raising the Kingdom's global standing, making it a leading force in data and AI. It also contributes to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the UN by raising awareness about the significance of advanced technologies and equipping communities with the knowledge and skills necessary to master them.



Musk Says He’ll Withdraw $97.4 Billion Bid for OpenAI If ChatGPT Maker Remains Nonprofit

The OpenAI logo is seen in front of an Elon Musk photo in this illustration taken March 11, 2024. (Reuters)
The OpenAI logo is seen in front of an Elon Musk photo in this illustration taken March 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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Musk Says He’ll Withdraw $97.4 Billion Bid for OpenAI If ChatGPT Maker Remains Nonprofit

The OpenAI logo is seen in front of an Elon Musk photo in this illustration taken March 11, 2024. (Reuters)
The OpenAI logo is seen in front of an Elon Musk photo in this illustration taken March 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company.

“If OpenAI, Inc.’s Board is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the ‘for sale’ sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid,” lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday.

“Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets.”

Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago.

OpenAI is controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. Now a fast-growing business, it unveiled plans last year to formally change its corporate structure.

Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to acquire the nonprofit’s controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary. The purpose, they said, would be to revert it back to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media and told questioners at a Paris summit on AI that the company is not for sale. The chair of OpenAI's board, Bret Taylor, echoed those remarks at an event Wednesday.

Musk and Altman helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it before Musk resigned from the board in 2018. They've been in a long-running and bitter feud over the startup.

Musk again criticized Altman's management on Thursday during a videocall to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, describing it as akin to a nonprofit aimed at saving the Amazon rainforest becoming a “lumber company that chops down the trees.”

Altman has repeatedly countered that Musk's legal challenges to OpenAI are motivated by his role as a competitor.

Musk has asked a California federal judge to block OpenAI's for-profit conversion on allegations ranging from breach of contract to antitrust violations. The judge has expressed skepticism about some of Musk's arguments but hasn't yet issued a ruling.