A new survey reveals that employees in the region are using artificial intelligence more, seeing greater benefits, and feeling more optimistic about the technology than their counterparts elsewhere, fueled by strong government strategies and a workforce leaning into change. Across the Middle East, artificial intelligence is not a looming specter on the horizon; it is a present-day colleague. Employees are integrating AI tools into their daily tasks at a remarkable clip, reporting significant boosts in productivity, creativity, and even job security—and doing so with a level of confidence and optimism that surpasses global averages, according to a major new survey.

KUWAIT CITY — In a significant push to align with Kuwait’s long-term economic vision, Microsoft convened government officials, industry leaders, and technologists here on Sunday for an AI Summit aimed at accelerating the nation’s digital transformation. The event, themed “Kuwait’s AI Ambition,” served as a platform to underscore the strategic partnership between the Kuwaiti government and the tech giant, focusing on building cloud infrastructure, fostering responsible artificial intelligence innovation, and developing local talent in line with Kuwait’s “Vision 2035” goals for a knowledge-based economy.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — In a bid to transform its economy from an oil giant into a digital powerhouse, Saudi Arabia is championing a novel and legally untested concept: the “data embassy.” The initiative represents the Kingdom’s latest attempt to capitalize on the global rush for sovereign artificial intelligence and data security. The model, whereby a nation’s data is stored on foreign soil but governed exclusively by its own laws—akin to a diplomatic mission—is exceedingly rare.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia has pledged to significantly expand its high-technology cooperation with China, a move that underscores the kingdom’s strategy of balancing its decades-old security partnership with the United States against its deepening economic ambitions with Beijing. The commitment was announced during a meeting on Sunday between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.

A new study from the African Development Bank (AfDB) projects that artificial intelligence could add $1 trillion to Africa’s economy by 2035, but only if the continent rapidly coordinates investments in digital infrastructure, skills, and regulation. The report, titled “Africa’s AI Productivity Gain,” argues that AI presents a “generational opportunity” for the world’s youngest and fastest-growing continent. It forecasts that strategic adoption could boost Africa’s GDP by nearly one-third over a baseline projection, creating 35 to 40 million new digital jobs and generating an estimated $150 billion in additional annual tax revenue.

ACCRA, Ghana — In a modest digital lab in Accra’s Chorkor neighborhood, young Ghanaians are tapping on keyboards, many for the first time. The lesson is about basic digital literacy, but the ambition behind it is part of a much larger, continent-wide experiment: preparing Africa’s enormous youth population for a future shaped by artificial intelligence. “Technology is the future. This is where the jobs are,” said Patricia Wilkins, an American social entrepreneur whose organization, Basics International, runs the lab.

JOHANNESBURG — The United Arab Emirates on Saturday pledged a $1 billion investment to deploy artificial intelligence infrastructure and services across Africa, positioning itself as a key external partner in the continent’s race to harness the transformative technology. The initiative, announced by Emirati Minister of State Saeed Bin Mubarak Al Hajeri at the G20 leaders’ summit here, aims to channel A.I.

JOHANNESBURG — The United Arab Emirates on Saturday pledged a $1 billion investment to deploy artificial intelligence infrastructure and services across Africa, positioning itself as a key external partner in the continent’s race to harness the transformative technology. The initiative, announced by Emirati Minister of State Saeed Bin Mubarak Al Hajeri at the G20 leaders’ summit here, aims to channel A.I.

ACCRA, Ghana — In a modest digital lab in Accra’s Chorkor neighborhood, young Ghanaians are tapping on keyboards, many for the first time. The lesson is about basic digital literacy, but the ambition behind it is part of a much larger, continent-wide experiment: preparing Africa’s enormous youth population for a future shaped by artificial intelligence. “Technology is the future. This is where the jobs are,” said Patricia Wilkins, an American social entrepreneur whose organization, Basics International, runs the lab.

A new study from the African Development Bank (AfDB) projects that artificial intelligence could add $1 trillion to Africa’s economy by 2035, but only if the continent rapidly coordinates investments in digital infrastructure, skills, and regulation. The report, titled “Africa’s AI Productivity Gain,” argues that AI presents a “generational opportunity” for the world’s youngest and fastest-growing continent. It forecasts that strategic adoption could boost Africa’s GDP by nearly one-third over a baseline projection, creating 35 to 40 million new digital jobs and generating an estimated $150 billion in additional annual tax revenue.

BEIJING — China has activated what researchers describe as the world’s largest distributed artificial intelligence computing pool, linked by a groundbreaking high-speed data network developed over more than a decade, state media reported last week. The new system, known as the Future Network Test Facility, officially began operations on Dec. 3. It connects top computing centers scattered across 40 Chinese cities with over 34,000 miles of dedicated optical fiber, allowing them to operate with near-seamless efficiency as a unified, continent-scale supercomputer.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia has pledged to significantly expand its high-technology cooperation with China, a move that underscores the kingdom’s strategy of balancing its decades-old security partnership with the United States against its deepening economic ambitions with Beijing. The commitment was announced during a meeting on Sunday between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — In a bid to transform its economy from an oil giant into a digital powerhouse, Saudi Arabia is championing a novel and legally untested concept: the “data embassy.” The initiative represents the Kingdom’s latest attempt to capitalize on the global rush for sovereign artificial intelligence and data security. The model, whereby a nation’s data is stored on foreign soil but governed exclusively by its own laws—akin to a diplomatic mission—is exceedingly rare.

KUWAIT CITY — In a significant push to align with Kuwait’s long-term economic vision, Microsoft convened government officials, industry leaders, and technologists here on Sunday for an AI Summit aimed at accelerating the nation’s digital transformation. The event, themed “Kuwait’s AI Ambition,” served as a platform to underscore the strategic partnership between the Kuwaiti government and the tech giant, focusing on building cloud infrastructure, fostering responsible artificial intelligence innovation, and developing local talent in line with Kuwait’s “Vision 2035” goals for a knowledge-based economy.

Researchers from leading academic institutions have been secretly embedding prompts in preprint papers to manipulate artificial intelligence tools into giving them favorable reviews, according to an investigation by Nikkei and corroborated by Nature. The practice, which involves hiding instructions in white text or tiny fonts, was found in 17 papers uploaded to the preprint server arXiv. The studies—mostly in computer science—originated from 14 institutions across eight countries, including Waseda University in Japan, KAIST in South Korea, Peking University in China, and Columbia University in the United States.

Advent Health Shawnee Mission Hospital has filed a lawsuit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC), accusing the insurer of using artificial intelligence to wrongfully deny more than $2 million in claims and override physicians’ medical judgments. The lawsuit, now in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, alleges that Blue KC relied on an AI-powered clinical validation tool to reject…

Google is enhancing its Search with AI tools, featuring Gemini 2.5 Pro for complex inquiries and Deep Search for comprehensive reports. New agentic AI performs tasks, signaling a transformative shift toward intelligent digital collaboration.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have agreed to strengthen cooperation on artificial intelligence governance and innovation, signing a memorandum of understanding to align standards, research, and ethical development in the emerging field of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT). The agreement, signed between Saudi Arabia’s Artificial Intelligence Governance Association (AIGA) and Kuwait’s Association of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AAIOT), aims to promote knowledge exchange, support scientific research, and foster responsible AI policies across the Gulf region.

Advent Health Shawnee Mission Hospital has filed a lawsuit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC), accusing the insurer of using artificial intelligence to wrongfully deny more than $2 million in claims and override physicians’ medical judgments. The lawsuit, now in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, alleges that Blue KC relied on an AI-powered clinical validation tool to reject…

Researchers from leading academic institutions have been secretly embedding prompts in preprint papers to manipulate artificial intelligence tools into giving them favorable reviews, according to an investigation by Nikkei and corroborated by Nature. The practice, which involves hiding instructions in white text or tiny fonts, was found in 17 papers uploaded to the preprint server arXiv. The studies—mostly in computer science—originated from 14 institutions across eight countries, including Waseda University in Japan, KAIST in South Korea, Peking University in China, and Columbia University in the United States.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed plans on Monday to invest "hundreds of billions of dollars" into artificial intelligence infrastructure, including the development of massive supercomputing clusters designed to train advanced AI models. The company’s first supercluster, named Prometheus, is set to go online next year, with even larger facilities in the works. In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg framed the effort as a bid to establish Meta as the leader in AI research capabilities.

A federal judge ruled late Monday that Anthropic, the Amazon-backed artificial intelligence company, did not violate copyright law by using books to train its AI model Claude, delivering a significant victory to the tech industry in a closely watched legal battle. In a decision that could shape the future of AI development, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco found that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted material was “transformative” and constituted “fair use” under U.S.

The Georgia Court of Appeals has imposed the maximum penalty on an Atlanta divorce attorney after finding that she cited nonexistent legal cases in a court filing, an error that judges suggested may have been the result of artificial intelligence "hallucinations." The attorney, Diana Lynch, was fined $2,500 after a panel of appellate judges determined that her motion included references to multiple cases that either did not exist or were irrelevant to her argument.

A Turkish court on Wednesday ordered a ban on access to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, after it allegedly generated offensive content targeting Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The decision came after Grok, developed by Musk’s xAI, responded to users’ queries on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, with vulgar insults against Erdoğan, his late mother, and other public figures, according to Turkish media reports.

Microsoft will eliminate as many as 9,000 jobs in its latest round of layoffs this year, the tech giant confirmed on Friday, marking its fourth workforce reduction in 2025 as it shifts focus toward artificial intelligence. The cuts, which amount to about 4% of Microsoft’s 228,000 global employees, will affect multiple divisions, including its Xbox gaming unit. According to internal memos obtained by…