WIEF Forum on facing fourth industrial revolution
By Digital News Asia June 12, 2017
- Expected to generate economic value between US$1.8 tril to US$3 tril a year by 2030 in Asia
- Can be used to make public, domestic environments more liveable, more human-friendly
THE World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation (WIEF), through its WIEF Education Trust (WET), organised the 7th WIEF Global Discourse – ‘Artificial Intelligence and the Future’ in Kuala Lumpur last month. The discourse was also streamed live to a global audience with the recorded version available here (watch from 20th minute mark).
It can be argued that the Artificial Intelligence (AI) future is already here – the global AI market is poised to grow at a CAGR (Compound annual growth rate) of more than 25% through 2014 to 2022, to reach approximately US$40 billion (RM170 billion) by 2022.
The 7th WIEF Global Discourse deliberated on how AI influences our daily lives and is playing a major role in science and medicine, bringing massive shift in how people perceive and interact with technology. Machines are performing a greater and greater number of tasks and, the growth of the effectiveness and ubiquity of AI methods have also stimulated thinking about the potential risks associated with advances of AI.
The experts who took part in the global discourse were:
- Professor Zyed Zalila, President and CEO, R&D Director, Intellitech & Professor of Fuzzy Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence. Professor Zyed is from UTC Sorbonne University, France.
- Professor Nadia Magnenat Thalmann, Director, Institute of Media Innovation, School of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
- Professor Dr. Ir. A. Nijholt, Univeristy of Twente, The Netherlands & Global Research Fellow, Imagineering Institute, Johor, Malaysia
“AI is part of science and technology and there is interest in AI research because its results can be employed in existing or new applications that increase efficiency in professional environments, add to safety in public and domestic environments and can be used to make such environments more liveable and more human-friendly.” said Nijholt.
According to a March report by management consulting firm Zinnov Zones, there are nearly 2,000 startups in the global AI industry, with more than half of them based in the US (1,170); China (55) and India (169). China and India attracting the most AI-based capital outside of the US, underscores Asia’s significant potential in this field.
“AI’s impact on Asia will be far-reaching over the next few decades, creating an economic value between US$1.8 trillion and US$3 trillion a year by 2030 in the region,” said Dr Wan Mohd Zahid Mohd Noordin, Chairman, WIEF Education Trust.
“Asia has been a late entrant in the AI world. The good news is that Asian corporates and governments have realized the importance of AI as a strategic advantage in the long term, and have accelerated efforts to narrow the gap over the past 3-5 years” adds Wan Zahid.
AI is one of the topics which will be further discussed in the upcoming 13th WIEF. The theme for this year’s Forum is on “Disruptive Change – Impact and Challenges”. The 3-day forum is taking place at the Borneo Convention Centre in Kuching, Sarawak starting Nov 21st, 2017.
For further information about WIEF, please visit www.wief.org or http://wief.org/13th-wief-sarawak/ or contact Soo Hoo Siew Kheng, Senior Manager, Communications.
About the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation
The WIEF Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in Kuala Lumpur, organises the annual World Islamic Economic Forum, a world-class business platform showcasing business opportunities in the Muslim world, and runs programmes of the various initiatives of the Foundation that strengthen people partnership and knowledge exchange between Muslim and non-Muslim communities across the globe.
The WIEF has previously held forums in Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Kuwait, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates and aims to bring together Muslim and non-Muslim communities through the common language of business.