(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM)) DUBAI, 23rd July, 2023 (WAM) -- Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications and Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office, affirmed that the UAE, guided by the visionary leadership of President His Highness sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the proactive approach of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has embraced the transformative potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to shape the future of economy, foster entrepreneurship, and generate new opportunities that contribute to the advancement, development, and sustainable growth, thereby ensuring a brighter future for coming generations.
This came during Al Olama's visit to DEWA's building in Al Hudaiba, where he was welcomed by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). During the visit, Al Tayer highlighted DEWA's roadmap in generative AI and discussed its efforts to build a safe and reliable digital environment.
He also highlighted DEWA's projects in the field of digital transformation and AI applications. The meeting was attended by Marwan Bin Haidar, Executive Vice President of Innovation and The Future at DEWA; and Waleed Bin Salman, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Excellence at DEWA, and other DEWA officials.
Al Olama said that the UAE seeks to be a leader in the Generative AI field, and to enable individuals, entities and society to innovate in advanced technology, which contributes to the design of new solutions at an accelerated pace, indicating that Generative AI is a key element of the digital transformation journey, and a critical factor in the country's leapfrogging in industries and empowering society with unprecedented capabilities.
Al Olama stressed that expanding investment in the areas of Generative AI calls for strengthening cooperation with various leading entities in the UAE, continuously developing legislative frameworks related to these field and formulating policies and regulations to ensure the responsible use of these technologies to achieve a balance between innovation and society's well-being, which establishes the UAE's pioneering position in adopting new and advanced technologies.
Al Tayer said that DEWA started using AI in 2017 by developing a roadmap to enrich the experiences of its customers, employees and other stakeholders. It is now working to enhance its services with Generative AI. DEWA was also the first utility globally and the first UAE government entity to use ChatGPT technology to improve its services.
During the visit, DEWA officials showcased the Cybersecurity Innovation Lab, which was designed to enable and streamline DEWA's digital transformation through research, exploration, innovation, design and testing of cybersecurity controls and deployment in its environment. The lab aims to save time and cost and increase DEWA's return on investment in information and cyber security.
DEWA officials also showcased Waee Cybersecurity Centre, which provides a virtual environment for comprehensive technical training and exercises using scenarios and tools to simulate cybersecurity attacks and defence mechanisms to enhance employee skillsets and raise awareness through virtual experiences designed to improve national skills in cybersecurity.
Furthermore, DEWA officials explained the main features of the Identity Intelligence Centre. The Centre is the first of its kind in DEWA, with an adaptive intelligence capability that gathers identity-related data from various sources to proactively secure DEWA identities and enable advanced Identity & Access Management controls to enrich the user experience and ensure secure access to DEWA's environment.
During the event, officials from Moro Hub (Data Hub Integrated Solutions), a subsidiary of Digital DEWA, the digital arm of DEWA, showcased Moro's experience in developing digital services and smart management of data that is hosted at the state-of-the-art Moro Hub's data centres, complying with data residency and cyber security requirements of the UAE.