UAE AI Minister: Data Centres Are Now “More Important Than Bridges”
The UAE will change its data centre rules and stop promoting their locations, according to Omar Sultan Al Olama, the country's Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications. He made these remarks at Dreamforce in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Al Olama emphasized the critical nature of data centres, stating: "Unfortunately, they’re more important than bridges. They’re more important than roads. They’re more important than tunnels because our whole lives are on these devices."
Salesforce faced a significant setback when both its UAE data centres were destroyed on the first day of the war, as noted by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
"Both of those data centers were destroyed," said Benioff. "Our teams had to recover as much as they could, and we also opened a backup data center outside the country."
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has not been able to restore its Bahrain region or one UAE zone six months after the strikes.
Al Olama revealed that on the day the war began (February 28), the UAE faced more than a thousand projectiles and drones, with a launch from Iran taking just two minutes to reach the country. He claimed that the UAE intercepted more projectiles than the whole Middle East and Israel combined.
"We’re not going to promote the locations of data centers," said Al Olama, suggesting most countries will need to adjust their rules.
He drew a parallel between today's AI regulation debates and historical fears around the Gutenberg printing press, stating: "So, we can’t afford to make that mistake again."
Al Olama also highlighted that many UAE government services now utilize large language models, demonstrating the potential of existing technologies rather than relying on cutting-edge but potentially riskier models.