UAE - A UAE minister, the world's first for artificial intelligence (AI), has been featured in Time magazine's inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in AI.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, hailed Omar Sultan Al Olama for making it to the list. Al Olama is the UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications.

"Proud of every accomplished Emirati who makes the country proud with excellence… Our youth are our most important resource," Sheikh Mohammed wrote on microblogging platform X, formerly Twitter.

Al Olama was appointed UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in 2017, becoming the world's first in this field. In July 2020, his role was expanded to include Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications.

Time quoted the 33-year-old minister as saying: "You need to have someone who sees AI and its application across the government with a holistic view and ensure that there is at least some sort of coordination between different bodies."

The magazine highlighted how the "most influential players in this domain — the US, the EU and China — have yet to heed the UAE's example". 

Explaining how it assembled the list, Time said its editors and reporters solicited nominations and recommendations from industry leaders and dozens of expert sources. From these, the magazine put together a list of "100 leaders, pioneers, innovators and thinkers who are shaping today's AI landscape".

In addition to Al Olama, policy-makers and government officials on the list include: US representatives Anna Eshoo and Ted Lieu and chair of the UK's AI Foundation Model Taskforce, Ian Hogarth.

Some of the names on the list include Elon Musk of xAI; Sam Altman of OpenAI; Rumman Chowdhury, CEO & co-founder of Humane Intelligence, and Abeba Birhane, cognitive scientist, among others.

The youngest individual on the list is 18-year-old Sneha Revanur, "who recently met with the Biden Administration as part of her work leading Encode Justice, a youth-led movement organising for ethical AI".

"On the other end is 76-year-old Geoffrey Hinton, who left his position at Google this spring to speak freely about the dangers of the technology he helped bring into existence."

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