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Saudi Arabia’s Use of AI Tools Surges to 45.2%, More Than Doubling in a Year

AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. (Reuters)
AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. (Reuters)
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Saudi Arabia’s Use of AI Tools Surges to 45.2%, More Than Doubling in a Year

AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. (Reuters)
AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. (Reuters)

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has grown rapidly, with the fifth edition of the Saudi Internet Report, issued by the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), showed that 45.2% of internet users use AI tools, more than double the rate recorded in the previous year, coinciding with the Kingdom’s launch of the "Year of Artificial Intelligence 2026."

The report showed variations in the use of AI tools across demographic groups. Usage among females stood at 52.8%, compared with 39.4 % among males. The 20–29 age group recorded the highest rate at 55.7%, followed by those aged 10–19 at 53.4%.

The rate then declined progressively with age, reaching 27.4% among those aged 50–59 and 14.8% among those aged 60–74.

ChatGPT ranked first among the most-downloaded AI applications in Saudi Arabia, followed by Google Gemini and then DeepSeek. The list also included the national HUMAIN platform, SPA reported.

The growth in the adoption of new technologies coincided with a narrowing of the digital divide among older people, with internet usage among those aged 60–74 rising from 88.9% in 2024 to 92.8% in 2025, an increase of 3.9% points in one year.

The rapid growth in the use of AI tools and the wider reach of internet access reflect the development of the digital environment in Saudi Arabia, supported by government and regulatory efforts to adopt best practices and keep pace with global technological changes.

Saudi Arabia ranked first globally in the Digital Readiness Framework 2025 issued by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), strengthening its position in the digital transformation journey regionally and globally, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.

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Technology

China Says US Accusations of AI Theft Are ‘Groundless’

A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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China Says US Accusations of AI Theft Are ‘Groundless’

A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. (Reuters)

China said on Wednesday that US accusations of Chinese labs stealing the capabilities of American models were "groundless", as the two countries race for tech supremacy. 

The US cyber defense agency released an advisory on Tuesday accusing top Chinese AI labs including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI of systematically stealing the capabilities "through industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns". 

It came ahead of an expected meeting this month between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the White House, where AI could be an important discussion topic. 

China hit back on Wednesday, calling the accusations "groundless". 

"The US approach is a typical case of using the crackdown on distillation as a pretext to achieve industrial monopoly," the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. 

The US accusations are a "case of double standards", it added. 

Distillation is where an AI model is trained to mimic the output of a larger, more capable one. 

The method is widely used across the industry, but Washington says Chinese firms have deployed it at scale to illicitly copy American systems. 

The US advisory also detailed how DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun and Z.AI allegedly used millions of exchanges and requests to steal the capabilities of US models from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI. 

Chinese companies that adopt this strategy "see significantly shorter AI development timelines and reduced financial expenditures in training a frontier model", the advisory said. 

These actions, taken "likely with Chinese government awareness", have occurred since at least late 2024, it said. 

AFP contacted the Chinese companies apart from StepFun, which was not immediately reachable. Moonshot AI declined to comment. 

Trump is under pressure to respond to the increasing success of Chinese AI models that many companies prefer to the more powerful, but pricier, US versions from Anthropic or OpenAI. 

In July, dozens of startups wrote a letter to the Trump administration urging it to think twice against any outright ban or strict curbs on foreign-made AI models, saying this should only be considered for government use of the technology. 

That month, Beijing also turned the tables by accusing US AI of using Chinese examples to train their models. 

Asked about the accusations at a regular briefing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the United States should "refrain from making unfounded accusations against and smearing China". 

"The development of artificial intelligence in China is the result of achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology," she said. 

"Both China and the United States are major countries in the field of AI. We should strengthen cooperation." 

Technology

OpenAI Says Working with Samsung on Next-Generation Chips, Deepening Cooperation

The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. (Reuters)
The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. (Reuters)
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OpenAI Says Working with Samsung on Next-Generation Chips, Deepening Cooperation

The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. (Reuters)
The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. (Reuters)

OpenAI is deepening cooperation with Samsung Electronics as the ChatGPT maker develops its own chips, expanding ties with the South Korean technology giant across semiconductors and enterprise AI services.

"One of the areas where we have made the most progress and gained the most recognition with Samsung Electronics is our joint production and research on the next-generation chips we are developing," Harrison Kim, General Manager of OpenAI Korea, said at a press ‌conference in Seoul ‌on Wednesday, without elaborating.

Kim also said Samsung Electronics was "one ‌of ⁠the largest-scale deployments of ⁠ChatGPT globally," saying the company's employees in Korea and overseas use ChatGPT for work across research and development, marketing and sales.

Samsung Electronics said in a statement that it could not confirm information related to customers.

In June, OpenAI unveiled its first custom artificial intelligence chip designed with Broadcom. OpenAI's engineers designed the chip, called Jalapeno, together with Broadcom for a task known as AI inference, the ⁠process of crunching data to answer queries in applications ‌such as ChatGPT.

OpenAI at that time said that ‌Taiwan's TSMC would manufacture the chips.

Last year, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix signed letters ‌of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI's Stargate data center project.

Kim ‌said demand for memory chips would continue to grow as more advanced chips were needed to enable faster and more complex computing, making cooperation with South Korean semiconductor suppliers a priority for OpenAI's local office.

The cooperation comes as Samsung broadens its ‌use of generative AI. The company said in June that workers in its Device eXperience division, which oversees mobile ⁠phones, televisions and home ⁠appliances, would be allowed to use ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude internally.

OpenAI said the number of ChatGPT Enterprise users at South Korean companies and institutions had surged about 28-fold as of the end of August from a year earlier, as businesses broadened their use of artificial intelligence from individual tasks to company-wide operations.

Companies were increasingly using AI across functions including legal, sales, finance, marketing and operations, OpenAI said. The company declined to provide absolute user numbers.

South Korea had the largest number of paying ChatGPT subscribers outside the United States as of late last year, according to OpenAI.

OpenAI expects adoption to accelerate following the September 4 launch of GPT-6 Astra, its latest model, which it said offered improved performance in computer use, professional work, science, coding and cybersecurity.

Technology

Communications Minister Discusses Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s AI Partnerships in Silicon Valley

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha's meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies. (SPA)
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha's meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies. (SPA)
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Communications Minister Discusses Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s AI Partnerships in Silicon Valley

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha's meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies. (SPA)
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha's meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies. (SPA)

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha held a series of meetings with leaders of global technology and investment companies during the first day of his visit to Silicon Valley in California, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday.

The meetings focused on strengthening investments and partnerships in artificial intelligence (AI), computing capabilities, and deep technologies, as well as supporting the growth of Saudi startups and their expansion into global markets.

Alswaha met with Co-Founder and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz Ben Horowitz to discuss expanding the firm’s investments in the Kingdom and in Saudi startups. The meeting also addressed connecting companies within its investment portfolio with HUMAIN’s computing capabilities to support their expansion in the Kingdom and the region, while enabling Saudi companies to access global markets.

He met with Partner at Sequoia Capital Alfred Lin to discuss increasing the firm’s investments in Saudi AI and deep-tech companies, connecting companies within its investment portfolio with HUMAIN’s computing capabilities, and supporting the growth and global expansion of Saudi companies.

In the field of advanced technologies, Alswaha met with CEO and Co-Founder of TenX Semi Dr. Suk Hwan Lim to discuss the use of AI agents in chip design and verification, accelerating development cycles, and applying autonomous design technologies to support the development of advanced semiconductor design capabilities in the Kingdom.

These meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies, while supporting the growth and global expansion of Saudi startups, reinforcing the Kingdom’s position and boosting the competitiveness of its digital economy globally.