Rise of the Robots as Saudi Arabia Underscores Global Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Aspirations with Deepfest Debut at LEAP23

RIYADH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, February 8, 2023/ — The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia enhanced its game-changer status in the global data and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors with the opening instalment of DeepFest – a new co-located event held in partnership with the Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) – on the side-lines of LEAP23 (www.OneGiantLEAP.com), the world’s most visionary tech event.

The inaugural DeepFest has gathered drivers of the global AI ecosystem to unveil multi-sector initiatives in a three-day thought-leadership conference with sector-specific tracks, trainings, live-demos, and startup pitches.

Complemented by a dedicated exhibition featuring companies transforming the world we live and work in, the DeepFest conference program – themed AI Beyond Imagination – homes in on AI implementation in areas such as clean tech, the Metaverse, women in technology, and more – including robotics.

Rise of the Robots as Saudi Arabia Underscores Global Data and AI Aspirations with Deepfest Debut at LEAP3

Robots and avatars take centre-stage in future vision of human-robot symbiotic society

Amid the assembled pool of change-makers, big tech pioneers, data scientists, innovators, enterprises, academia, startups, and innovative business entrepreneurs, famed roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro delivered an inspired session titled Avatar and the Future Society.

Ishiguro, the director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory – part of the Department of Systems Innovation in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Japan’s Osaka University – has been pioneering advancement in humanlike robotics since 1997. The 59-year-old has also been creating eerily realistic androids for over 15 years, including Geminoid HI-1 – the roboticist’s own virtual twin, who joined him on stage at DeepFest.

Having spent his career dissecting the nature of what it means to be human, Ishiguro outlined how advances in robotics and avatars are narrowing the separation between human and humanoid.

“By 2050, we want to realise a society in which people are free from the constraints of the body, brain, space, and time. The technology is being developed already; with our automated robotic tech, we can create avatars that anyone can use easily. I believe we can create avatars that will allow anyone – from children to the elderly, and everyone in between – to play an active role in society. With avatars, I believe we can change the world. We can choose to work, study, and socialise with real-life robotic or computer graphic (CG) avatars. Many companies in Japan are already using CG avatars for customer service – not in place of humans, but with humans controlling their own avatars. In Japan, we have an aging population problem, and we need to find solutions that allow people to work – this can be solved by using avatars and advanced robotic technology,” said Ishiguro.

Other sessions in the day one DeepFest agenda included Neural-Symbolic AI Driving Progress Toward Artificial General Intelligence with Dr. Benjamin Goertzel, CEO of the SingulaityNET Foundation; Generative AI Revolution with Leonid Zhukov, Director of Boston Consulting Group’s Global AI Institute; How Technology is Inspiring the Future Workforce with Beverly Rider, CCO of Tonomous and CEO Tonomous VentureStudio, and more.

For more information on LEAP23 please visit https://www.OneGiantLEAP.com. For more information on the DeepFest conference, please visit www.DeepFest.com

About LEAP:
Saudi Arabia is putting itself at the forefront of emerging tech through large-scale adoption and ambitious pilot projects. Its ambition will be showcased on a global stage and the Kingdom will become a hub that connects three continents. LEAP is a manifestation of this ambition. A seismic event that accelerates the adoption of technology and transforms Saudi Arabia’s economy. Together with LEAP, the Kingdom will see mass tech adoption, a shift away from oil as the principal strategic economic resource, and instead become a regional hub for both traditional and emerging technology.

Saudi Arabia has an endless ambition to shoot for something beyond that thought possible, to achieve a significant impact from game-changing tech and globally disruptive projects and to always keep one eye on the stars.

About Tahaluf:
Headquartered in Riyadh, Tahaluf brings together strategically important commercial communities from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the wider Gulf region and from around the world at a portfolio of world class exhibitions and digital platforms.

Tahaluf is a joint venture partnership between the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) and Informa PLC, the world’s largest tradeshow organiser.

Through 2023 and 2024, Tahaluf will build on its award-winning events LEAP (www.OneGiantLEAP.com) and Black Hat Middle East (www.BlackHatMEa.com) to launch new, large scale business-to-business events.

New Tahaluf events include the Artificial Intelligence event DeepFest (www.DeepFest.com) 6-9 February 2023; food and hospitality show, Feast (www.OneGiantFeast.com) 24-26 October 2023; beauty industry festival Cosmoprof Middle East; international real estate show Cityscape Global (www.CityscapeGlobal.com) 10-13 September 2023 and the Middle East edition of the leading pharma brand, CPHI Middle East (www.CPHI.com) 15-17 January 2024.

For more information about Tahaluf, visit https://Tahaluf.com.