Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The cyberattacks are one of the top risks faced at Saudi Aramco that’s on par with national disasters or physical attacks, Saudi Aramco CEO and President Amin Nasser confirmed.

Nasser made these remarks at the second Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit that’s being held in Riyadh and organized by SDAIA. He added that the AI would help in fending off some of the threats.

Aramco is ready to enter the world of AI, Nasser said, while adding, “We are already an energy leader, and we can be an AI leader too.”

At the Summit, Nasser announced that Aramco has launched a new strategic project under the name of Aramco Global AI Corridor.

The corridor is designed to develop and commercialize complex AI solutions to train the Saudi talents, in addition to support the Saudi start-ups, together with global partners to build a global AI ecosystem.

Nasser also announced that this would include the establishment of an AI factory, AI academy, AI venturing studio, and unique AI R&D labs.

“AI is already a game changer. Now with the Metaverse we are about to step into the game,” Nasser stated.

He added that any significant investment in technology or AI would make the business more profitable and more successful.

“Even as technology transforms the way we operate, the role and purpose of AI is to complement human judgment, not to replace it,” he noted.

Aramco is using the AI to model Saudi Arabia’s geology, Nasser said, while adding, “Before AI it used to take months to update a detailed model of subsurface information.

“Now Aramco is using the deep learning techniques to achieve the same results in minutes.”

Additionally, Nasser confirmed that Aramco has deployed machine learning techniques to predict safety hazards that monitor emissions, avoid breakdowns and optimize the energy use and predict potential cyber threats.

“Through this AI power systems, it would save time, money, and ultimately improve our abilities to reliably supply energy to our customers,” he stressed.

He stated that they are working on establishing Aramco’s first Quantum machine learning research program.