RIYADH: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered the opening remarks in a virtual speech at the 19th edition of the organization’s Internet Governance Forum, held in Riyadh on Sunday.
Over 10,000 people from 160 countries are expected to attend the conference, which runs from Dec. 15 to 19, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The forum covers a range of topics from cybersecurity and data privacy to artificial intelligence in more than 300 sessions and workshops.
Other notable speakers included Saudi Communication Minister Abdullah Alswaha and UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua.
Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi, moderator of the forum, told Arab News: “Definitely, IGF 2024 came at a very critical time in the global digital world.”
He went on to say: “This year is the first year that we dedicate a full track for businesses. So, IGF has a history of being developed in different countries with tracks for government, academia, and parliaments, but for business; it was missing.
The forum covers a range of topics from cybersecurity and data privacy to artificial intelligence in more than 300 sessions and workshops.
(AN/Jaafar Alsaleh)
“We know now that the private sector and technology play a major role in the governance of IT and AI. This is the first time that we invite many private sector players to IGF, and we hope this plan will continue in the upcoming IGFs.”
Discussing the different offerings at the forum, Al-Mutairi said: “For this year, we expanded IGF Village to provide a lot of exhibitions and active workshops.
“Many organizations are presenting their work in IGF, allowing the community to collaborate and interact. This is a tradition of IGF, but this year it has expanded, making it more interactive for all participants in Riyadh.”
One of the participating organizations is the Digital Cooperation Organization, which offered a session on the ethical uses of AI as part of a series of roundtables.
The forum covers a range of topics from cybersecurity and data privacy to artificial intelligence in more than 300 sessions and workshops.
(AN/Jaafar Alsaleh)
Alaa Abdulaal, chief of digital economy foresight at DCO, told Arab News: “We have something we call the digital space accelerator. It is a working group we created to focus on specific topics, one of which is the ethical use of AI.
“We have conducted many roundtables globally, including one in Singapore and another during GAIN (Global AI Summit). Today, during IGF, the aim is to gather perspectives from different AI experts on the policy tools we are creating regarding the ethical use of AI.”
The forum also saw awards distributed to prominent individuals, celebrating their achievements in the field. Arwa Al-Duwaish, winner of the IGF award for the Most Promising Employee at the Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services, told Arab News that she received an award recognizing her contributions to digital transformation in the Kingdom.
The conference is being held at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh until Thursday.
