Author: Art Ryan

Anthropic is reportedly exploring a new custom AI chip with Samsung, a move that says plenty about where the artificial intelligence race is heading now. It is no longer just about who has the best chatbot, the biggest model, or the cleanest enterprise pitch. The harder fight is happening underneath all of that, inside the hardware stack. According to a TechCrunch report citing The Information, Anthropic has been in contact with Samsung about a possible collaboration around a future custom chip. The company has not yet decided what the chip would be used for, how it would fit into servers,…

Meta’s AI spending has been hard to ignore. Huge data center plans, massive compute needs, and an investor base that keeps asking the same uncomfortable question: when does all this money start coming back? Now Meta may have an answer, or at least the beginning of one. The company is reportedly exploring a cloud business that would allow it to sell excess artificial intelligence computing capacity. The idea is simple on the surface. Meta has been building enormous AI infrastructure for its own models and products. If some of that compute is not being used, why let it sit idle?…

South Korea is putting serious money behind physical AI, and this is not the usual soft policy announcement that disappears after a press briefing. The country is planning around $10.3 billion in financing for physical AI sectors, with the expansion of LS Cable’s subsea cable project selected as the first project under the effort. The plan is tied to South Korea’s National Growth Fund, which is being used to back strategic industries seen as important for the country’s next phase of economic growth. This matters because physical AI is not only about chatbots, apps, or software platforms. It is AI…

Artificial intelligence has become faster, bigger, and more deeply embedded in business and government operations. That progress comes with a cost, and the industry is now being forced to look at it more directly. At Global AI Show Riyadh 2026, the fireside chat “Greener Algorithms, Greater Responsibility: Governing AI Ethically” brought this issue into focus. The session was moderated by Abeer Abdalla, Managing Editor at The Saudi Times, and featured Nishanth Kumar Pathi, Director – Cyber Security & Governance at Gulf Air, Ayman Alhabib, CRO at D360 Bank, and Thamer Alrowidhan, CISO at a Government Entity. The discussion looked at…

AI is everywhere now. That is the easy part. The harder part, and the one many companies are still quietly struggling with, is execution. At Global AI Show Riyadh 2026, the panel discussion “AI Is Accessible vs Execution Isn’t: The Infrastructure, Security & Systems Challenge of Intelligence at Scale” looked at the uncomfortable gap between having access to AI and actually making AI work inside large organizations. The discussion was not about hype, demos, or another polished promise that AI will transform everything overnight. It was about what breaks when intelligence has to operate at scale. The session was moderated…

At Global AI Show Riyadh 2026, “HumanOS 2.0: Upgrading the Workforce for an Intelligent World” looked at one of the more uncomfortable questions inside companies right now: what happens to human work when AI agents stop being tools and start acting more like coworkers? The session was moderated by Youssef El Jabri, Digital Transformation Advisor at Saudi Food & Drug Authority, with insights from Fady Sleiman, Group Chief Information & Digital Officer at AlBawani Holding, and Daniel Hill, Chairman & CEO at AQUIVIO. The discussion was not about replacing people in the usual dramatic way. It was more practical than…

AI has moved far beyond the innovation team. That much was clear during the panel discussion “The AI Boardroom: How CIOs, CTOs, CDOs & CISOs Will Lead Together” at Global AI Show Riyadh 2026. The session looked at something many companies are still trying to figure out quietly: who actually leads AI inside the enterprise? Is it the CIO because AI touches systems and operations? The CTO because architecture and engineering matter? The CDO because data is the fuel? Or the CISO because one weak model, one exposed dataset, or one careless integration can open the door to serious risk?…

The panel discussion “VC’s Unfiltered: The Toughest Founder Questions, Answered Live” at Global AI Show Riyadh 2026 brought the kind of conversation founders usually wish they could hear before walking into an investor meeting. For anyone interested in AI startup funding, this was not the polished version. Not the soft encouragement. The real one. The session looked at what venture capital actually wants from AI startups now that foundation models, AI agents, and compute-heavy products are changing the rules. Everyone talks about opportunity. This panel focused more on the uncomfortable part: what is still worth funding, what makes investors hesitate,…

Dubai has taken another serious step into AI-powered city planning with the launch of the Dubai Digital Twin Platform, a project designed to create a living digital version of the emirate. His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum witnessed the launch, marking what Dubai officials described as a new strategic milestone in the city’s digital transformation journey. This is not just another government tech platform with a polished name. The Dubai Digital Twin Platform is built to help authorities see, test, and plan the city before decisions move into the real world. Roads, buildings, infrastructure, public assets,…

Anthropic’s Claude is no longer just sitting in the familiar chatbot and API conversation. It is moving deeper into the enterprise infrastructure layer, this time through Microsoft Foundry with support from NVIDIA’s Blackwell GPU systems. The move brings Claude models into Microsoft’s Azure-centered AI ecosystem, giving organizations another route to build and deploy advanced AI agents inside a more controlled enterprise environment. Not just “use a model.” That part is old news now. The bigger story is how AI models are being packaged with compute, cloud infrastructure, security design, and deployment tools. That is where this announcement gets more interesting.…

At Global AI Show Riyadh 2026, the panel discussion “AI Meets Human Touch: Redefining Efficiency, Engagement & Experience” explored one of the more uncomfortable truths in enterprise AI: automation is powerful, but customers still know when something feels cold, careless, or disconnected. The session was moderated by Omar Turjman, Chief Information Officer at Al Rajhi Medicine, with insights from Kamal Farag, Chief Technology Officer at HelloApp, Amro Shawli, Chief Governance, Risk & Control Officer at Bupa Arabia, Sami Sarhan, Chief Advisor at the National Industrial Development Center, and Hamdan. The conversation did not treat AI as a magic customer service…

Cities used to wait for problems to show up. Traffic builds up, then officials respond. Pipes break, then repair teams arrive. Housing pressure grows, then planners try to catch up. But AI in urban innovation is beginning to change that rhythm, making the old reactive approach feel outdated. At the Smart Infra fireside chat “Smart Cities, Smarter Citizens: AI’s Role in Urban Innovation,” the conversation focused on a different kind of city model. One where artificial intelligence helps urban systems act earlier, respond faster, and understand citizen needs in real time. The session was moderated by Mostafa Kol, Chief Technical…

Apple is moving faster with iPhone security updates, and the reason is not just another routine bug fix. The company is responding to a cybersecurity environment where artificial intelligence is making attacks quicker, sharper, and harder to predict. For years, software updates followed a familiar rhythm. Companies bundled fixes, tested them, released them on schedule, and users installed them whenever the notification appeared. That old rhythm is starting to look slow. Maybe dangerously slow. AI has changed the timing. Security flaws that once took skilled attackers longer to study can now be scanned, compared, and reverse-engineered much faster with AI-assisted…

Magna AI used Global AI Show 2026 in Riyadh to introduce MagnaVERSE, a unified AI software platform built for enterprises and governments that are trying to move AI beyond experiments and into daily operations. The launch happened in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where AI is no longer being treated as a side discussion. It is tied to economic growth, national competitiveness, enterprise transformation, and the bigger Vision 2030 push. Magna AI, established through a partnership between Trend Micro and Wistron Digital Technology Holding Company, and powered by NVIDIA, positioned MagnaVERSE as a platform for organizations that need more than…

Edge AI Moves Past the Demo Stage Avnet is bringing a wide technology ecosystem together in Singapore as companies across Southeast Asia try to do something harder than talking about AI: actually deploy it. The company announced its Edge & Beyond Tech Day in Singapore, a gathering focused on helping enterprises move edge AI from experiments into real-world use. The event will take place on July 10, 2026, at Sheraton Towers Singapore, with additional Avnet Edge & Beyond Tech Days scheduled across Vietnam, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, in July 2026. That sounds like a normal industry event…

AI’s Big Promise for the Philippines Artificial intelligence could unlock $79 billion in productive capacity for the Philippines by 2030, according to Accenture, placing AI at the center of the country’s next economic growth story. That number is not small. It is roughly equal to about one-fifth of the Philippines’ 2022 GDP, based on figures cited by Accenture from the International Monetary Fund. Globally, AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to GDP by 2030, the company said. But there is a catch. A familiar one. The Philippines will not benefit from AI just because the technology exists. The country…

Intelligence Is No Longer Just a Digital Tool The conversation around artificial intelligence is no longer limited to tools, automation, or smarter digital services. At the panel discussion “From AI to AGI: Should Nations Build Intelligence as Critical Infrastructure?”, the debate moved into a much bigger space: whether intelligence itself should now be treated as part of a nation’s core infrastructure. The session was moderated by Nate Busa, Director – AI, Automation at NEOM, with insights from panelists Manus Ward, Director of Operations for the National Transformation Institute at KAUST, Adel Miran, Director General of Administration & Facilities Management at…

AI Vision 2030 brought a clear message to the stage: digital transformation is no longer the finish line. The conversation is quickly shifting toward AI transformation in enterprise leadership and what it means for the future. For years, enterprises focused on becoming digital-first. They moved services online, modernized systems, automated basic processes, and invested in platforms that made operations faster and more connected. That work still matters. But the conversation has changed. During the opening keynote, “From Digital Transformation to AI Transformation: The Next Evolution of Enterprise Leadership,” Nezar Al Turki, Chief Information Officer at the Ministry of National Guard,…

AI in healthcare is not just about faster reports or smarter dashboards anymore. The rise of AI health tech is transforming patient care in ways we’ve never seen before. That part is already happening. The harder question now is this: how does AI actually become useful at the point of care? Not in a boardroom. Away from the demo stage. Beyond the slide deck. Inside the hospital, beside the clinician, when a decision has to be made. That was the heart of the panel discussion “Predict, Diagnose, Act: AI’s Revolution in Healthcare Outcomes.” The session brought together healthcare technology leaders,…

Buying AI is no longer just a technology decision for governments. It is becoming a policy decision, a security decision, and in many cases, a national infrastructure decision. That was the core theme of the panel discussion “Buying AI: Procurement Playbook for Governments & Public Services.” The session brought together government technology leaders and public sector advisors to discuss how countries and public institutions can purchase, deploy, and govern AI without losing control of their data, systems, or long-term digital direction. The discussion has already taken place, but the questions raised remain highly relevant as governments around the world accelerate…