RIYADH: As Saudi Arabia plans to build 200 smart cities, it has launched a new challenge called “SMARTATHON” with an aim to extend the usage of Artificial Intelligence in creating smarter, safer, and healthier cities.
“We today announce the launch of SMARTATHON, the smart cities challenge,” said Abdullah Al Ghamdi, head of Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, during the Global AI Summit in Riyadh on Sept. 14.
This comes as Majid Al Hogail, minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, revealed the plans to unveil a number of smart cities in the Kingdom in partnership with SDAIA and the Royal Commission for Riyadh City.
Our dream is to have more than 200 smart cities in Saudi Arabia using AI, in areas of parking, special planning and the most important is the citizens’ engagement, and how that will improve the quality of service in our country,” Al Hogail stated.
The Global AI Summit, which runs from Sept. 13 to Sept. 15, is exploring the impact of AI on topics as crucial as economic mobility, health care, human capability development, and smart cities.
