After publishing a draft on the ethics of AI, UNESCO organized a meeting to consult with experts and stakeholders about the findings. The Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology gave a speech outlining Egypt’s efforts.

During a speech last week, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Amr Talaat, outlined steps the country plans to take in its national strategy for AI. The speech centered around the aim of developing a comprehensive program to educate government employees on the capacities and implications of broad use of AI.

The minister’s remarks came during a speech in the opening session of the Regional Consultation for Arab States, held via video link. Hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the meeting took place over the course of two days. UNESCO was consulting about a draft text on the ethics of AI and recommendations for responsible use, which it is now developing after gathering input last month.

Among a group of 37 UN entities, Egypt represented a significant voice for its progress made recently in the field of AI. Talaat announced in the speech that Egypt has established the National AI Council, which oversees the implementation of the national strategy for AI in all sectors. He added that the Applied Innovation Centre (AIC) has begun to implement AI-related projects in areas like machine translation and early detection of diabetic retinopathy. They have also planned a project in the accurate calculation of irrigation water for agriculture.

The speech follows an agreement earlier in the summer between iFLYTEK and the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (EMCIT). The Chinese-Arabic Language Translation Research Agreement will leverage iFLYTEK’s technological language research with EMCIT’s AI and high-performance computing applications to develop projects in Arabic speech recognition, speech synthesis, and Chinese-Arabic translation.

Talaat commended UNESCO for coordinating so many voices in the discussion about the ethics of AI. He noted that the global representation of the meeting signaled positive results moving forward, as experts from around the world deliberate the ethics of AI technology.