Saudi Arabia's stc Group and Research, Development, and Innovation Authority Partner to Launch AI Lab 

Saudi Arabia's stc Group and Research, Development, and Innovation Authority Partner to Launch AI Lab 
TT

Saudi Arabia's stc Group and Research, Development, and Innovation Authority Partner to Launch AI Lab 

Saudi Arabia's stc Group and Research, Development, and Innovation Authority Partner to Launch AI Lab 

stc Group and the Research, Development, and Innovation Authority signed on Tuesday a cooperation agreement to establish the stc Group Artificial Intelligence Lab. The strategic partnership aims to support and empower pioneering projects in Saudi Arabia.

The agreement was signed by Research, Development, and Innovation Authority acting Supervisor-General Dr. Mohammed Al-Otaibi and stc Group chief technology officer Eng. Haitham Al-Faraj on the sidelines of the Global Artificial Intelligence Summit, which is being held in Riyadh. The summit focuses on developing effective mechanisms to support national projects aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.

The partnership will provide the necessary capabilities to foster innovative ideas and projects that contribute to a knowledge-based economy and solidify Saudi Arabia's position as a global technology hub.

It represents a significant step towards creating a supportive environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, driving sustainable economic growth, and developing national capabilities in various technical fields.

The stc Group's artificial intelligence (AI) lab will serve as a platform for testing and developing innovative technical solutions. It will provide an integrated environment to support ideas and transform them into products and services that enhance Saudi Arabia's global competitiveness and achieve national targets.

This includes increasing the number of startups, supporting entrepreneurs, providing a conducive environment for innovation, and increasing research and development spending through collaboration between government agencies and private-sector companies.

The lab will also contribute to increasing the number of patents, creating new job opportunities, and supporting the transformation of ideas into inventions at the global level.



Trump Expected to Shift Course on Antitrust, Stop Google Breakup

The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 10, 2024. (Reuters)
The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 10, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Trump Expected to Shift Course on Antitrust, Stop Google Breakup

The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 10, 2024. (Reuters)
The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 10, 2024. (Reuters)

Donald Trump will likely dial back some of the antitrust policies pursued under the administration of President Joe Biden, potentially including a bid to break up Alphabet's Google over its dominance in online search, experts said.

Trump is expected to continue cases against Big Tech, several of which began in his first term, but his recent skepticism about a potential Google breakup highlights the power he will hold over how those cases are run.

"If you do that, are you going to destroy the company? What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it's more fair," he said at an event in Chicago in October, Reuters reported.

The US Department of Justice is currently pursuing two antimonopoly cases against Google - one over search and another over advertising technology, as well as a case against Apple . The US Federal Trade Commission is suing Meta Platforms and Amazon.com.

The DOJ has laid out a range of potential remedies in the search case, including making Google divest parts of its business such as the Chrome Web browser and ending agreements that make it the default search engine on devices like Apple's iPhone.

But the trial over those fixes will not happen until April 2025, with a final ruling likely in August. That gives Trump and the DOJ time to change course if they choose, said William Kovacic, a law professor at George Washington University.

"He is certainly in the position to control the DOJ's disposition of the remedies phase," said Kovacic, who chaired the Federal Trade Commission under then-president George W. Bush.

Trump is also likely to pull back on some policies that have irritated dealmakers under the Biden administration, attorneys said. One is a reluctance to settle with merging companies, which was previously common and let companies address competition problems that agencies raised about deals by taking actions like selling part of the business.

The FTC and DOJ would likely scrap merger review guidelines crafted under Biden, said Jon Dubrow, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery.

"The 2023 merger guidelines were very hostile to mergers and acquisitions," he said, echoing a view widely held on Wall Street.

The FTC's ban on most noncompete clauses in employer-employee contracts could be more vulnerable to a lawsuit brought by the US Chamber of Commerce, if the FTC votes not to defend it.

About 30 million people, or 20% of US workers, have signed noncompetes, according to the FTC. The agency is currently appealing a court ruling that blocked the rule.

But such actions to dismantle the work of FTC Chair Lina Khan will depend on a Trump-appointed replacement being confirmed to give the bipartisan five-member commission a Republican majority.

Khan's initiatives focused on what she saw as societal harms caused by unchecked corporate consolidation, drawing praise from both Democrats and some Republicans, including Vice President-elect JD Vance. But some in the business and legal communities have criticized her approach as too aggressive.

Trump is not expected to drastically curtail antitrust enforcement, however. A similar number of merger cases was brought under his first term as during the first two years of the Biden administration, according to an analysis by the Sheppard Mullin law firm.