A radical approach could turn the Middle East into an AI hub; SocialAI is the consumer app du jour; Weed killing robots enter agritech; YouTube introduces AI tools for content creation

More doctors rely on ChatGPT for diagnosis; EA goes all-in on AI for game development; Mumsnet takes on OpenAI; more tech companies invest in AI chipmaking; inside France's war for top AI talent

In the race for AI supremacy, a new innovation hub is emerging according to a story from Reed Albergotti in Semafor this week: the Middle East. As the UAE and Saudi Arabia build data centers capable of training foundational models, more startup founders and investors are relocating to the region, taking advantage of recently established free zones where entrepreneurs can experiment freely with emerging technologies.

Dubai South is the UAE’s newest development project and a special economic zone for AI and “futuristic activities”

For countries in the Middle East, many of which are working to diversify away from oil-dependent economies, AI presents an opportunity to fast-track their digital transformations and create new engines of economic growth. However, while Mr Albergotti focuses on the progress made in AI-related infrastructure investments, startup deals and regulatory approaches, there’s one piece of the puzzle missing from his article: the emergence of AI-focused universities such as KAUST and MBZUAI that could do for the Middle East what Stanford did for Silicon Valley.

By establishing world-class institutions dedicated to AI research and education, countries in the Middle East are now creating the homegrown intellectual capital necessary to fuel their AI ambitions.

The vision for these AI universities is ambitious, but not without precedent. Silicon Valley, the engine for technological innovation in the United States, owes much of its success to Stanford University.

Stanford's role in Silicon Valley's rise is legendary. The university not only produced top-tier talent but also fostered an entrepreneurial culture that led to the creation of tech giants like Google, Yahoo, and Cisco. Its research facilities became hotbeds of innovation, attracting investment and spurring the growth of a thriving tech ecosystem.

Make no mistake—the path to creating Middle Eastern equivalents of Stanford is not without challenges. It requires significant investments, the ability to attract top global talent, and overcoming stereotypes about the Middle East (and Global South, more generally).

But the region's strategic location, connecting Europe and North America to Asia and Africa, give it a real chance to become a global AI hub five years from now. Meanwhile, the European Union continues to wonder where it all went wrong.

And now, here are the week’s news:

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Our top news picks for the week - your essential reading from the world of AI

• The Verge: SocialAI: we tried the Twitter clone where no other humans are allowed

• Semafor: A radical idea - a special economic zone without copyright law - would make the UAE an AI innovation hub

• The Information: AI Chip Startups, Seeking an Edge on Nvidia, Sell to the Middle East

• Bloomberg: AI-Powered Weed-Killing Robots Threaten a $37 Billion Market

• VentureBeat: Electronic Arts goes deep into artificial intelligence for game development

• WSJ: What Is AI Best at Now? Improving Products You Already Own

• Semafor: How the UAE got the US to bless its AI ambitions

• Wired: OpenAI Messed With the Wrong Mega-Popular Parenting Forum

• The Economist: AI has returned chipmaking to the heart of computer technology

• Sifted: ‘There’s a war for the top 1%’: Inside French tech’s fierce battle for the best AI talent

• Business Insider: YouTube's product chief explains its approach to AI as the tech becomes a bigger part of content creation

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AI in the wild: how artificial intelligence is used across industry, from the internet, social media, and retail to transportation, healthcare, banking, and more

• The Verge: Amazon is stuffing generative AI into its shopping experience

• The Verge: Snapchat’s AI selfie feature puts your face in personalized ads

• WSJ: Can AI Companions Help Cure the Loneliness Epidemic?

• FT: Tesco plans to expand use of AI to personalise how people shop

• Reuters: Italy tests AI-assisted teaching in schools to boost IT skills

• The Guardian: AI chat tool to be rolled out across NSW public schools to ease pressure on teachers

• The Telegraph: Doctors using ChatGPT to treat patients

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Interesting trends and developments from various AI fields, companies and people

• Axios: Altman previews big leaps ahead for OpenAI's Strawberry

• TechCrunch: Brightband sees a bright (and open source) future for AI-powered weather forecasting

• VentureBeat: 1X releases generative world models to train robots

• VentureBeat: Why Jensen Huang and Marc Benioff see ‘gigantic’ opportunity for agentic AI

• Reuters: Alibaba accelerates AI push by releasing new open-source models, text-to-video

• WSJ: T-Mobile Strikes Deal With OpenAI

• Bloomberg: OpenAI Hires Former Coursera Executive to Expand AI Use in Schools

• WSJ: Salesforce Taps Nvidia to Develop AI-Powered Avatars

• VentureBeat: SiFive unveils RISC-V chip design for high-performance AI workloads

• VentureBeat: Tencent's EzAudio AI transforms text to lifelike sound, sparking innovation and debate

• The Guardian: Lionsgate partners with AI firm to train generative model on film and TV library

• TechCrunch: Snap is introducing an AI video-generation tool for creators

• TechCrunch: Snap’s new AI feature lets you create Snapchat Lenses by simply describing them

• TechCrunch: Mistral launches a free tier for developers to test its AI models

• Axios: AI will add $19.9 trillion to global economy by 2030, IDC predicts

• WSJ: Salesforce Needs to Sell Its Latest AI Vision

• VentureBeat: AI video rivalry intensifies as Luma announces Dream Machine API hours after Runway

• Reuters: China's Lenovo to make AI servers in India, opens new AI-centric lab

• Reuters: Microsoft, UAE's AI firm G42 to set up two new centres in Abu Dhabi

• Sifted: OpenAI is opening a subsidiary company in Paris

• Business Insider: AI will nearly double demand for copper, which is already facing a global shortage

• The Guardian: Real v fake: how the Harris-Trump debate laid out different takes on AI

• The Guardian: NHS cannot embrace AI until its basic IT systems are up to scratch

• The Information: ByteDance steps up AI chip efforts

• Reuters: AI experts ready 'Humanity's Last Exam' to stump powerful tech

• Business Insider: Inside Amazon's new AI-sales machine: More pressure, more pay, more speed

• Fortune: Microsoft introduces AI agents and updates to Copilot 365 apps as the war to make AI more useful intensifies

• Fortune: A.I. might actually help us find a greater sense of purpose at work

• VentureBeat: Runway debuts API allowing enterprises to build apps, products atop its realistic video AI model

• VentureBeat: How Cerebras is breaking the GPU bottleneck on AI inference

• VentureBeat: Slack now lets users add AI agents from Asana, Cohere, Adobe, Workday and more