Inside Saudi Arabia's AI Ambition: Tareq Amin on Building a New Tech Superpower

I believe connectivity is a human right. I felt that this is a great opportunity to really build and enable a country like Saudi Arabia that has an incredible potential and capability to really build a a digital champion and a digital hub for the region. This is the first time I landed in a place where I feel on hold. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, HUMANE's Tarek Amin. See you. I did. Good to see you. So I've been spending a lot more time in The Middle East in the region. It's changing so dramatically year after year. And I'm gonna be I announced on the podcast two weeks ago, I'll be doing Foundry University in Riyadh on November. And I'm really excited to partner with such a dynamic country. Maybe you could fill us in on what's changed over the last five years in the region. Well, thank you very much. First of all, I must say it's the first time I did an event that's only forty five minutes away from my home. My flight from Riyadh, obviously, was twenty three hours. But, just to give you some context, I I was born in Amman, Jordan before coming to The U. S. To finish my studies and, you know, progress in my life and my career. So I moved from Tokyo to Saudi Arabia, but this is the first time I ever worked in the region. And, I didn't know what to expect. You know, sometimes it depends on your perspective on how you look at the world. You know, I wanted to really discover and understand everything I used to hear under the massive opportunity of transformation and the diversification on the economy. You know, my first observation has really started with discovery of how amazing the people were in terms of hospitality, welcomeness. I really felt like I'm back home. It felt a very, very different feeling to me. The second thing, the population is awfully young and hungry, and hungry for new things and new advancements. So, to me, it was really a pleasant surprise because what I was really worried about and what everybody keeps talking about, maybe Tarek has done great things in his life. Talent and opportunity may be a big challenge in his new venture. And it was remarkable, you know, in every aspect, whether you look at it at the government side, in terms of society, the transformation. It has changed dramatically. It's really, really an area that I feel the opportunity is remarkable, and the embracement of the society towards looking at the future in which digital and AI is fundamental to their transformation. Tarek, can you maybe explain what HUMANE is and how it came to be? Because it was sort of an evolution, right? Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, for you to know, I'll tell you, we take things for granted in The U. S. To a certain extent. Let's assume you're a startup here, …