Building Arabic AI: From Policy to Practice
Date Published
The consensus was unanimous. When representatives from all 53 member states of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization signed onto a shared AI ethics framework last year, they did so not in Brussels or Washington, but in Riyadh. The full Deepfakes Guidelines document is available here.
The Riyadh Charter on AI, issued under Saudi Arabia's SDAIA, marks a significant shift in how AI governance is being authored globally. The Kingdom now sits at the intersection of several converging institutional moves: its own national AI Ethics Principles, the UNESCO-affiliated ICAIRE center based in Riyadh, and SDAIA's contribution to the first international report on AI safety. For Mona Hamdy , Chief Ethics Advisor at aiXplain , the moment reflects something deeper than policy alignment. "Where Silicon Valley wrestles with AI's ethical dilemmas, Islamic jurisprudence offers clarity through the maqasid Al-Shari'ah — the preservation of life, intellect, dignity, property, religion, and lineage," she said. "Our region can once again become the global epicenter of values-driven innovation — convening technologists, policymakers, scholars, and civil society to create enforceable standards, certify ethical systems, advise governments, and train the next generation of innovators in human-centered design."
The Gulf is no longer translating other regions' frameworks into local context. It is generating its own, on its own cultural terms. Saudi Arabia's designation of 2026 as the Year of AI is expected to make that posture more visible. With the institutional architecture already in place, Riyadh's role in shaping the next phase of global AI governance is less a projection than a fait accompli. The work is already underway. our ASR benchmark report on Arabic dialects is one example of how the region is building AI infrastructure that actually works for Arabic speakers. read our full report on four Arabic dialects Chami, Egyptian, Hegazi and Najdy below: