Artificial Intelligence Regulation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to reshape industries and societies worldwide. Despite its emergence in 1956 and the rapid spread of its technologies today, there is still no universally accepted definition of AI. This is largely due to the inherent complexity of defining human intelligence itself, along with the variety of perspectives that shape interpretations of artificial intelligence.

As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia advances its digital transformation journey, AI technologies foster innovation, enhance productivity, and drive sustainable economic growth.

While many theoretical definitions of AI focus on a machine’s ability to replicate human behavior or perform tasks requiring intelligence, a more practical definition, reflecting today’s widespread applications, is: Systems that employ methods to gather data and use it to predict, recommend, or make decisions with varying degrees of autonomy, selecting the best course of action to achieve specific objectives.

AI is a transformative technology that accelerates innovation, enhances productivity, and improves the quality of services across numerous sectors. It is pivotal in raising operational efficiency, expanding capabilities, and enabling smarter decision-making.

However, despite AI’s rapid growth and widespread use, its true capabilities remain uncertain. In some cases, this has led to unrealistic expectations, making it challenging for decision-makers in both the public and private sectors to fully understand AI technologies and their practical applications.

With AI technologies advancing rapidly and being deployed across various fields, ensuring their responsible and ethical use is critical. Saudi Arabia emphasizes the application of ethical principles throughout the lifecycle of the development of the AI system.

The Principles and Controls of AI Ethics serve to:

• Guide research, development, and innovation initiatives within the Kingdom.
• Ensure responsible use of AI technologies.
• Enhance the quality and trustworthiness of AI-driven services provided to individuals.

Recognizing the growing adoption of generative AI technologies, Saudi Arabia has developed two versions of the Generative AI Guidelines:

• Generative AI Guideline for Government: designed to assist government employees in responsibly adopting and using generative AI systems.
• Generative AI Guideline for the Public: aimed at individuals and organizations across society to ensure responsible and informed use of generative AI technologies.

Both guidelines provide practical recommendations and examples based on common scenarios, insight into challenges and considerations related to generative AI, and proposed principles for responsible use and best practices.

The AI Adoption Framework provides a comprehensive approach to guide the implementation of AI across all sectors. It outlines key steps, best practices, and strategic directions to help ensure the responsible and optimal use of AI technologies.

The framework aims to support public and private sector organizations in achieving their AI-related goals, promote consistency in AI adoption, and ensure AI initiatives align with national objectives and ethical standards.

Countries worldwide are rapidly integrating AI technologies as a core component of their national strategies to build robust, data-driven economies. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has established the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) to solidify its position as a global leader in data and AI-driven sustainable economies.

Saudi Arabia was among the first nations to leverage AI and data technologies to support its ambitious Vision 2030 objectives. The Kingdom continues to lead regional and global efforts in responsible AI adoption through strategic investments and forward-looking policies.

• 58.8 Trillion SAR – Projected contribution of AI to the global economy by 2030.
• 412.5 Billion SAR – Projected global spending on AI by 2024.
• 97 Million – New jobs expected to be created by AI by 2025.
• 69% – Percentage of managers’ daily tasks expected to be fully automated by 2024.

• Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA)
• National Strategy for Data and AI
• Principles and Controls of AI Ethics
• Generative AI Guideline for Government
• Generative AI Guideline for the Public
• AI Adoption Framework provides
• Emerging Technologies Adoption