Government officials, global industry leaders and experts gathered at Gitex Global 2024 in Dubai for the World Future Economy Digital Leaders Summit, where conversations began charting a course for AI compute-driven economic transformation.
Gitex Global 2024, the world’s largest tech event, began at the Dubai World Trade Center, highlighting the next-gen semiconductor market, which will likely reach $1 trillion by 2030. Tech leaders converged to highlight the future of data governance, holding key conversations under the theme ‘Global Collaboration to Forge a Future AI Economy’.
UAE’s growing AI market
The summit comes at a time when the UAE is accelerating its efforts to adopt AI in different sectors. Last year, the country’s AI market was valued at $3.47 billion.
Gitex Global 2024 has attracted the largest international participation yet, reporting a 40 percent growth in participation. The event welcomed new nations to the 44th showpiece event with Europe having a major presence this week, the biggest in the event’s history. Notably, Europe’s tech industry should grow 12 percent by the end of this year.
Europe’s surging tech ecosystem
During the summit at Gitex Global 2024, Stephane Ouaki, head of the department at the European Innovation Council, outlined how the continent is accelerating its tech ecosystem. Ouaki also explained that the council supports game-changing innovations, giving entrepreneurs access to opportunities to enhance their knowledge and learn from other professionals to boost the growth of their businesses, which benefits economies nationally and regionally.
For his part, Ignacy Niemczycki, undersecretary of the state ministry of economic development and technology of Poland, delivered a presentation on how the country is embracing technology. “Our culture is a key pillar in our journey of being a tech leader and we have a stable economy which has been very resilient for the last 30 years,” he stated.
Niemczycki added that Poland has one of the best IT programmers in the world and some of the greatest tech entrepreneurs.
Key innovations
During his participation, Dr. Jaroslaw Kutylowski, founder and CEO of DeepL, a German-leading global language AI company, shared how his business utilizes large language models (LLMs) for success.
“The models that we have been building have all stayed true to our products which has brought us success so far. As the company has been growing, we have been able to invest more into computing technologies and have built a data center facility in Sweden,” he added.
Among the most notable speakers at the Gitex Global 2024 summit was Heman Bekele, who was named TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year for inventing a potential treatment for skin cancer. Bekele shared his inspiring story, explaining how the failures he experienced in producing his innovative soap product have made him a stronger individual.
Extending until October 18, Gitex Global 2024 presents its biggest, most international edition in its 44th edition, welcoming over 6,500 exhibitors, 1,800 startups, and 1,200 investors alongside governments from more than 180 countries.
