(Illustration: Jaimee Lee Haddad)
Rana, a 17-year-old student in Ras Beirut, waves her phone at me after a talk on Artificial Intelligence (AI) at her high school. With patchy Wi-Fi and a free ChatGPT account she has built a prototype that turns sign-language gestures into spoken Arabic. Rana is not a programmer, nor is she one of the privileged few who escaped Lebanon’s banking crash with their savings intact. Multiply Rana’s experience by tens of thousands and you begin to glimpse a nation-saving opportunity. For now, AI has made expertise a low-cost commodity. Countries that nurture “AI-native” talent can ride this wave. Those that watch from the shore will be left behind. Previously Could Lebanon become a regional hub for artificial intelligence? My peers and I have built AI products for Amazon, trained thousands in the use of AI, and published papers on...
Rana, a 17-year-old student in Ras Beirut, waves her phone at me after a talk on Artificial Intelligence (AI) at her high school. With patchy Wi-Fi and a free ChatGPT account she has built a prototype that turns sign-language gestures into spoken Arabic. Rana is not a programmer, nor is she one of the privileged few who escaped Lebanon’s banking crash with their savings intact. Multiply Rana’s experience by tens of thousands and you begin to glimpse a nation-saving opportunity. For now, AI has made expertise a low-cost commodity. Countries that nurture “AI-native” talent can ride this wave. Those that watch from the shore will be left behind. Previously Could Lebanon become a regional hub for artificial intelligence? My peers and I have built AI products for Amazon, trained thousands in the use of AI, and published papers...