Dubai: In the future, the definition of literacy will change.
An ‘illiterate’ will be one who cannot understand AI and not someone who cannot read or write, said Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, the UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs. “AI will determine the position of future governments – it’s adoption is inevitable, not optional,” he said during the keynote address on the first day of the World Government Summit.
‘Unprecedented’
The Minister also said that the world will undergo five significant transformations that will affect its future - climate change, changing economic world map, population growth, and the change in understanding literacy in light of artificial intelligence. “Since our first edition in 2013, the world has changed drastically. Our reality, expectation and understanding of the future have changed. We have witnessed events that have changed the global landscape. We have seen natural disasters, a pandemic, and geopolitical changes.”
WGS 2023 in Dubai
Al Gergawi said those who own data will own the future.
A new dawn of AI
Gergawi stressed the rise of generative AI apps and said, “This is just the beginning. With such applications, we all can become writers and researchers.”
Citing examples of how media companies use generative AI applications, Gergawi said, “An international PR organisation is using the app to write about 30,000 press releases per month. And as time progresses, more than 90 per cent of the PRs and op-eds will be produced by AI and not by journalists and writers.
“However, this is just media. The technology will be used in consulting, research, law, and medicine, among other sectors.”
To prove his point, Gergawi played an audio clip of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Tenth symphony, which the German composer left incomplete due to deteriorating health. “Almost 200 years after his death, a generative AI app was able to complete it after analysing Beethoven’s oeuvre,” he said.
Future of governance
The Minister said government crises are not caused by a lack of resources but due to a lack of sound governance. “We have moved from the concept of ‘globalisation’ to a ‘multi-polar’ world. The pandemic cost us millions of lives, and now we are witnessing the highest inflation and highest food prices the world has seen in years.”
He also said that the economy of Emerging 7 (E7) countries - China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Mexico and Indonesia - will be double that of G7 nations by 2050. This will create clusters, resulting in divisive economic, technological and geopolitical decisions.
