IBM, SDAIA announce partnership to boost sustainability initiatives in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and IBM said on Tuesday they had inked a strategic agreement to drive adoption of artificial intelligence in the carbon capture and industrial domains across Saudi Arabia.

The first use case under the agreement will be in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy in Saudi Arabia, the entities said.

IBM, SDAIA and Ministry of Energy will employ artificial intelligence technology to detect, map and eventually reduce carbon emissions across the Kingdom.

As part of the agreement, IBM is to cooperate with SDAIA to identify high value applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to find resolution to challenges in public and private sector organizations in Saudi Arabia, while aiming to support the Kingdom’s sustainability and industrialization objectives.

“This agreement with IBM will contribute to creating opportunities by addressing key challenges in circular carbon economy, petrochemical and industrial domains, through the development of innovative solutions in the field of data and artificial intelligence, and the exchange of shared experiences and investment opportunities in this vital area to support achieving the goals of Vision 2030,” Majid Al-Tuwaijri, Chief Executive Officer for the National Center for AI, said in a press release.

“The management of greenhouse gas emissions is critical to the Kingdom’s reaching its objective of net zero,” Dina Abo-Onoq, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting Saudi Arabia, said.

“Using multiple satellites and different types of imaging technologies, we will train an AI model to recognize and pinpoint different forms of gas across the entire country. By doing so, this will help with earlier and better visibility of the problem which has not been possible with conventional measurement approaches.”