Google Launches $15M AI Opportunity Initiative for MENA

Google has announced the launch of the AI Opportunity Initiative for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), marking its largest AI initiative in the region. This groundbreaking program aims to provide essential AI skills, research funding, and access to helpful AI products to empower individuals and communities across MENA.

Through Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, the company is committing $15 million between now and the end of 2027 to support organizations throughout the region. This funding will ensure that the opportunities created by AI reach everyone, addressing the pressing need for accelerated AI and digital literacy. Research from The Economist Impact estimates that AI could contribute $320 billion to MENA’s economic growth by 2030.

The AI Opportunity Initiative builds on Google’s commitment to the region, where it has already trained three million people on core digital skills since 2018. With this new initiative, Google aims to empower half a million individuals with critical AI skills within the next two years.

Key elements of the AI Opportunity Initiative include a new AI curriculum in Arabic, part of the digital skills program ‘Maharat min Google’ on Coursera, focusing on AI skills such as prompt engineering. Google will also support underserved communities by providing a grant to Village Capital, a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs developing solutions to social and economic challenges. This grant will enable Business Support Organizations to provide AI upskilling opportunities to marginalized groups, including women, youth, and rural residents in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Bahrain, and Iraq.

Additionally, Google will enhance AI education through the Experience AI program, in partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind. This program will offer AI literacy training to teachers, equipping students aged 11-14 with important AI safety skills.

To foster local innovation, Google will establish an AI Research Fund to support university researchers focused on developing AI solutions for critical areas such as healthcare, climate change, and education. A grant to startAD, a startup accelerator, will help identify and develop AI applications aimed at improving healthcare access for vulnerable populations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Google is also expanding its AI-powered features in Arabic. The AI personal assistant Gemini, launched in Arabic in July 2023, will introduce new features such as Gems on Gemini, which allows users to create personalized AI experts for various tasks. A dedicated experience for teens will include tools for evaluating the reliability of information. Additionally, Imagen3 in Arabic will enable image generation from Arabic prompts, while Gemini Live in Arabic will provide a conversational AI experience on mobile devices.

The company reconfirmed its commitment to enhancing cloud infrastructure in MENA by partnering with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to expand the existing Dammam Google Cloud region into an AI hub. This partnership aims to advance AI research focused on Arabic-language models and to provide AI and digital upskilling programs, creating highly skilled jobs and opportunities for global businesses.

Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer for Alphabet and Google, highlighted the importance of this initiative at the Google AI Connect Event, stating that Google’s investments in MENA have equipped people and organizations with the skills needed to thrive in the digital economy. She emphasized the goal of ensuring that everyone in the region can benefit from the opportunities presented by AI.

According to research by Public First, Google’s products—including Search, Play, YouTube, Cloud, and advertising tools—generated $12.8 billion in economic activity in the UAE and Saudi Arabia last year, with projections of increasing to $14.2 billion in 2024.

The AI Connect event, held at the Etihad Museum, was attended by notable figures, including Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy & Remote Work Applications, alongside hundreds of business leaders, developers, and entrepreneurs. This initiative represents a significant step in harnessing AI’s potential to drive economic growth and enhance digital skills across the MENA region.