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IBM Announces Agreement with Amazon Web to Fuel Innovation, Cloud Adoption Across Middle East 

The announcement of the agreement was made in Riyadh on Monday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The announcement of the agreement was made in Riyadh on Monday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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IBM Announces Agreement with Amazon Web to Fuel Innovation, Cloud Adoption Across Middle East 

The announcement of the agreement was made in Riyadh on Monday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The announcement of the agreement was made in Riyadh on Monday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

IBM announced on Monday an expanded strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate secure cloud adoption and digital transformation across the Middle East. The agreement will leverage IBM Consulting’s deep industry expertise, AI and hybrid cloud technology leadership, alongside the cloud capabilities of Amazon, to accelerate digital transformation, said IBM in a statement.

The demand for cloud services is rapidly growing, driven by emerging use cases in generative AI (GenAI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Across the Middle East, the cloud computing market is booming, with sectors such as e-government, public, healthcare, retail, banking, and manufacturing leading the charge.

In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, bold digital transformation agendas such as Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE Digital Economy Strategy are driving both governments and enterprises to accelerate cloud adoption, invest in GenAI, and modernize national infrastructure. The goal is to boost productivity, enable new business models, and enhance customer experiences.

As a result, organizations are increasingly turning to public cloud providers and trusted partners with a proven track record to help accelerate their digital transformation and maximize business value.

The collaboration between IBM and AWS is designed to accelerate technology transformation across the region, combining deep industry expertise with joint investments in go-to-market and delivery capabilities. Building on IBM Consulting’s Global AWS Practice and its strong credentials including market-leading competencies in cloud migration, data platform modernization, and responsible GenAI across multiple industries, the collaboration with AWS aims to help regional clients modernize their operations and unlock new value.

As part of the collaboration, the companies will explore the establishment of the first IBM-AWS joint Innovation Hub in Riyadh, designed to showcase the companies’ combined capabilities. The intended hub will enable customers to explore proofs of concept, identify new transformational opportunities, and gain hands-on experience with the latest cloud technologies and industry solutions, including IBM’s advanced technologies, such as watsonx.

The Innovation Hub in Riyadh would build on successful global models that IBM and AWS have established in India and Romania, and will be tailored to the needs of public and private sector innovators in the Middle East.

IBM intends to invest in expanding its AWS Practice capabilities across technical and delivery skills across the region, including talent development in Saudi Arabia and UAE and the certification of local practitioners. This expanded pool of skilled professionals will be crucial in helping organizations navigate complex cloud transformations, from initial strategy through to implementation and optimization.

To catalyze growth in the Middle East, AWS will support IBM in developing new solutions on AWS and localizing impactful global offerings such as Contact Center Intelligence, Autonomous Security Compliance, Supply Chain Ensemble, Oil & Gas analytics, Smart Government, and AI-powered citizen engagement tools. These solutions will help organizations align with national priorities around economic diversification and sustainability, while accelerating cloud adoption through targeted migrations, modernization initiatives, and industry-specific use cases.

The collaboration will also focus on sustainability initiatives aligned with key regional priorities such as the Saudi Green Initiative and the UAE’s sustainability vision. Through IBM’s global expertise and localized solutions such as IBM Consulting’s Sustainability Disclosure Assist and Sustainable Product Ledger for Oil & Gas, organizations can modernize IT infrastructure while advancing net-zero and environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG) mandates.

“This collaboration represents a significant milestone in IBM’s commitment to helping organizations across the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, realize their digital transformation ambitions,” said Lula Mohanty, Managing Partner - Middle East and Africa at IBM Consulting. “Our partnership with AWS will help organizations leverage the power of cloud technologies while building critical technical capabilities in the region.”

“Our collaboration with IBM will enable businesses and governments across the Middle East to adopt breakthrough technologies at scale, while reinventing core processes with AI,” said Tanuja Randery, Managing Director and Vice President EMEA at AWS. “This will enable organizations to access new levels of agility and resilience through the cloud.”

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EU Vows AI Rules Will Protect Europeans. Will They?

Humanoid and quadruped robots attend a demonstration calling for the regulation of AI development in Warsaw in September. Sergei GAPON / AFP/File
Humanoid and quadruped robots attend a demonstration calling for the regulation of AI development in Warsaw in September. Sergei GAPON / AFP/File
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EU Vows AI Rules Will Protect Europeans. Will They?

Humanoid and quadruped robots attend a demonstration calling for the regulation of AI development in Warsaw in September. Sergei GAPON / AFP/File
Humanoid and quadruped robots attend a demonstration calling for the regulation of AI development in Warsaw in September. Sergei GAPON / AFP/File

AI agents going rogue and ever-louder doomsday warnings have led many in Europe to wonder: are the EU's artificial intelligence rules enough to protect against the potential dangers?

The European Union insists that, yes, its law known as the AI Act is powerful enough since it forces companies to assess and mitigate risks, under threat of massive fines or even bans, AFP said.

EU lawmakers, officials and experts appear more skeptical, pointing to gaps in the rules and questioning whether Brussels has the stomach for a fight with AI labs.

The EU agreed its sweeping AI legislation in 2024 but delayed part of its implementation, and enforcement has only been possible since August this year.

Nonetheless, EU spokesman Thomas Regnier says the rules are "fully fit for purpose".

"You can feel safe at home in Europe, precisely because we have put all these safeguards in place," he said.

So far the EU has sent over 30 requests for information -- a preliminary step that can lead to investigations -- to companies on issues from copyright to cybersecurity and safety.

Brussels says its rules are working since they have already forced AI providers to cough up information to regulators, though Regnier declined to give details.

There are, however, questions about Europe getting access to the latest models: it took months for the EU to test Anthropic's Mythos following US export control orders.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an EU official admitted such an issue could arise again.

- 'Dangerous experiments' -

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has proposed talks with the main frontier labs to "pace" the technology's growth, arguing the AI Act puts Europe "in the position to shape global efforts" at regulation.

But that is a tall order without buy-in from the United States -- where President Donald Trump firmly opposes regulating the sector.

And not everyone is convinced the EU law has what it takes.

Four EU lawmakers including lead AI Act negotiator Brando Benifei warn of "legislative gaps" after the EU shelved plans for AI liability rules.

Such rules would have made it easier to hold AI providers accountable for harm caused by their tools.

The lawmakers argue current rules do "not apply to the research, testing or development phase" leaving Europeans "unprotected".

The European Commission rejects the claim.

The law can be "enforced against any provider, starting from the testing phase, if they experience a loss of control that affects the EU's internal market," including cyberattacks and biological or chemical misuse, Regnier said.

Researcher Harshvardhan Pandit echoed lawmaker concerns about liability in the bloc.

"We are missing these pieces of accountability, and if we don't fix this now and we get more of these incidents, this is only going to get worse," said Pandit, of AI Accountability Lab in Trinity College Dublin.

If a model ends up hacking a website, once AI providers have sold their tools, Pandit said "we don't know" who is ultimately responsible.

But he also said the AI Act requires developers "to have addressed" safety risks by the time a model reaches the market, noting that recent incidents including with OpenAI agents happened during testing.

And he noted the EU has other laws to counter risks, including on cybersecurity and data protection.

- US influence -

EU lawmaker Benifei said the AI Act correctly anticipated the threat of agents going rogue, but raised concerns about enforcement -- including that staffing levels at the EU's AI Office are nowhere near enough to match the risks.

"The European Commission must guarantee the office political backing, operational independence, resources, and technical staff to quickly deliver decisive enforcement," Benifei told AFP.

Analyst Pandit agreed the AI office needed "far more people and technical expertise".

The office currently employs around 125 staff.

And there is the question of whether the EU has the appetite for taking on AI providers, most of which are US-based.

Brussels has already drawn Washington's ire with probes under different laws, culminating in fines worth billions of dollars.

The EU official admitted the bloc may think twice before enforcing its full powers against American firms, considering Europe's dependence on US tech.

One way to have greater influence over AI safety, the official said, was to build its own technology.

"Europe must also build capabilities, from chips and cloud to a publicly funded CERN for AI," Benifei echoed, referring to the European physics lab in Switzerland that seeks to unravel the universe's composition.

He also said the EU, as von der Leyen pledged last month, should "work more closely with middle powers like Canada, which share an interest in rules that no power or company can dictate".

Technology

Nvidia-Backed Reflection Unveils First AI Model to Take on Chinese Open Models

An NVIDIA logo appears in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
An NVIDIA logo appears in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Nvidia-Backed Reflection Unveils First AI Model to Take on Chinese Open Models

An NVIDIA logo appears in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
An NVIDIA logo appears in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Nvidia-backed Reflection ‌AI debuted its first open-weight model named Beam on Monday, as the startup aims to compete with lower-cost Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Kimi in coding and agentic tasks.

Reflection said Beam is competitive with Chinese AI startup Z.ai's GLM-5.2 and is closing in on Qwen3.8-Max on coding and agentic ‌tasks.

The startup ‌said ⁠that Beam contains ⁠501 billion total parameters, or variables that determine how an AI system processes information, but activates only 23 billion for each task to make the model faster and cheaper to ⁠run by using only part of ‌its network for ‌each task.

Comparatively, Z.ai's GLM-5.2 has ‌about 744 billion total parameters with 40 ‌billion active parameters.

The launch comes as US tech firms are trying to fend off competition from Chinese open-weight ‌models that are cheaper, more customizable and capable of generating code ⁠nearly ⁠as well as leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Founded in 2024 by former DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, Reflection develops tools that automate software development, a fast-growing use case for AI.

Earlier this year, Reflection signed a deal with SpaceX for additional computing capacity at the Elon Musk-led company's Colossus 2 data center.

Technology

Pinterest Taps Amazon Veteran James Dibbo as CFO

A display for image sharing and social media service Pinterest is seen at the Collision conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 23, 2022. (Reuters)
A display for image sharing and social media service Pinterest is seen at the Collision conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 23, 2022. (Reuters)
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Pinterest Taps Amazon Veteran James Dibbo as CFO

A display for image sharing and social media service Pinterest is seen at the Collision conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 23, 2022. (Reuters)
A display for image sharing and social media service Pinterest is seen at the Collision conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 23, 2022. (Reuters)

Pinterest ‌said on Monday it has appointed Amazon executive James Dibbo as its chief financial officer, effective October 26.

Dibbo, 56, who will succeed Julia Donnelly at Pinterest, has led finance for the e-commerce giant's Ads, Prime ‌Video and Amazon ‌MGM Studios businesses ‌among ⁠others.

Shares of Pinterest were down about 1% in extended trading.

"James has led complex global businesses at scale, helped build ⁠high-performing teams and ‌understands the ‌intersection of consumer experience, shopping, advertising ‌and technology," Pinterest CEO Bill ‌Ready said.

The company had said in August that Donnelly would depart on October ‌30.

Donnelly, who is leaving to pursue a ⁠new ⁠opportunity at a private, early-stage company, joined Pinterest in 2023.

The image-sharing platform had forecast slower third-quarter revenue growth as it navigates a highly competitive digital advertising market dominated by larger players such as Meta's Instagram and Facebook.