DHAHRAN: As Saudi Arabia accelerates its push to become a global hub for artificial intelligence, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology labs are working to help the kingdom not only consume AI, but build it.
At Kaust's Red Sea Campus, the newly established core of generation AI excellence – Coe Gen AI is at the heart of this initiative.
One of the founding members, Professor Peter Wonka leads a team developing basic models and tailored tools designed to suit Saudi Arabia's national priorities, ranging from personalized education and energy modeling to AI-generated Arabic content.
“This is a really exciting time to join AI,” Austrian Wonka told Arab News. “This is a time of great progress.”
Saudi Arabia's ambitions are part of a global race to control generative AI. PWC estimates that AI will contribute roughly 878 billion ($235 billion) of Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product by 2030, or about 12.4%.
According to a study by McKinsey, Generative AI can add between $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion per year to the global economy. Approximately 75% of its impact is concentrated on customer management, marketing, software engineering, and research and development.
Under the national AI strategy, Saudi Arabia has pledged a cumulative investment of around $200 billion by 2030, with the aim of building AI infrastructure, research and talent development, according to Reuters.
“It was a very exciting year to discuss the various industries in Saudi Arabia and the adoption of AI and the projects we can work on together,” Wonka said. “Our 30 faculty members cover a lot of expertise and have become excellent and reliable partners for many industries in the Kingdom.”
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Currently, COE Gen AI includes faculty who work in five major research initiatives supported by Kaust's Visual Computing Center, with Wonka associate director.
Each project maps to one of Saudi Arabia's national research, development and innovation priorities (health and health, sustainability and essential needs, energy and industry leadership, the economy of the future).
One of Kaust's main translation focuses is education.
Earlier this year, Arab News reported that AI will be integrated into the school curriculum that begins next year. The introduction of this national AI curriculum is intended to support the Kingdom's human capacity development program, part of the Vision 2030 plan for national development and diversification.
The curriculum was published by the National Curriculum Centre in July. Ministry of Education, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and Saudi Arabia Bureau of Data and Artificial Intelligence. It features age-appropriate AI modules in an interactive and practical form of education.
But Wonka warns that adding AI isn't enough. “It only makes sense if you have a better understanding of other subjects and a good understanding of the basics,” he said.
At the university level, it could also be exploited by AI tools. As a result, the gap between students treating AI as a shortcut and those who strategically integrate it into a broader learning workflow.
“People who may have grown up without AI have improved their fact-checking skills,” Wonka said, stressing that excessive reliance on these tools can result in false or poor output.
He encourages using generator tools to brainstorm ideas, clarify them, and rewrite structure overviews, but he warns that models will replace the original research. “A paper written entirely by AI has no research or ideas,” he said.
The tension between power and reliability is central to Kaust's AI safety research. “These tools can give you the wrong answers with great confidence and sometimes even confuse basic facts,” he said.
“Even so, it may be too optimistic to expect an AI tool that doesn't give the wrong answer. A more practical approach is to learn how to use AI tools despite the fact that sometimes you might give the wrong answer.”
Beyond education, generative AI is poised to impact almost every sector. “For business communications, AI is already being used to spell check, edit, and draft full letters and emails,” Wonka said.
“Doctors are leaning heavily towards AI tools to support patients' diagnosis. Automobiles have increasingly automatic driving capabilities to help humans drive. Creative work like graphic design and photography is heavily dependent on AI support.”
However, while technology is rapidly advancing, Wonka remains cautious. “That's not something I feel very comfortable predicted,” he said. “A lot of people just speculate.”
Instead, he envisions more subtle changes – the AI gradually embeds into daily workflows. “My bet on what almost certainly happens is that AI will be integrated into everyone's lives and increase efficiency by 25%.”
An important part of COE Gen AI's mission is to build tools that are culturally relevant and locally deployable.
“There are many companies that are interested in using AI locally to avoid sending all their data to big companies.
To that end, Kaust is also investing in Arabic AI systems for personalized tutoring, content generation and search.
“The main focus of our work with AI in intelligent tutoring is to develop tools for personalized learning, personalized testing, and dual language support in both English and Arabic,” Wonka said.
In visual content generation, his team focuses on personalizing and creating culturally relevant content in both languages.
Meanwhile, in the realm of smart cities, Kaust researchers are investigating how AI can support digital twins, architectural data analysis and urban planning. “Cognitive cities can learn, adapt, predict and respond proactively,” he said.
He says one of the unanswered questions is how far does AI go when completely replacing human roles?
You did know?
Kaust has launched a new Center for Exceptional Generation AI and has developed a basic model tailored to national priorities.
The study has five core areas including personalized education, sustainable energy modeling, Arabic content generation, and smart city planning.
Professor Peter Wonka leads the initiative, highlighting both academic rigor within the Kingdom and practical industry collaboration.
“Are most doctor offices where only robots are staffed, only human doctors using AI tools? It's important that everyone learns about AI and spends their time using AI tools.”
He said success is measured academically and practically. “For the impact of translation, the university considers metrics such as the success of startup companies, the number and size of kingdom collaborations, their impact, patents and their generated revenues, and the successful externally funded research cooperation in the kingdom and abroad.
“In the end, much of the university's success is about collaboration. COEGENAI aims to support domestic businesses and government agencies in developing impactful AI projects.”
Wonka joined Kaust in 2012 after stints at Arizona State University and Georgia Tech. His background in computer science, computer vision and urban modeling helped him shape Kaust's AI vision from its early stages to the ambitious scope of its present.
Currently, as one of the leading researchers in the Kingdom of Generating AI, he is focused on ensuring that his home, Saudi Arabia, for the past 14 years, not only responds to the world's AI waves, but actively shapes it.
“I think there will be a lot of impact from AI,” he said. “And as a researcher, I think it's really exciting to be on the forefront of what's exciting.”
