Saif Al Salman is Microsoft's National Technology Officer in the United Arab Emirates where "AI is a national bet for the country for the next 50 years."

Saif has a front row seat to their sustained push: from appointing the first AI MInister to the recent promise to invest $1.4 trillion in US-aligned AI technology and infrastucture. The country has invested across multiple fronts ranging from talent to infrastructure to new local language models. AI strategy has become national strategy as they deploy their huge legacy capital stock (and solar power) to pivot in to the business of selling compute (or tokens). This national transformation is projected to grow the economy by over 20% in the coming years.

And their strength means that they are now positioned to deploy AI as "soft power". Saif outlines how UAE is offering Africa support with local language models, infrastructure and "blueprint for how tech can drive inclusive growth."

Saif argues that nations must "dream big" if they want to prosper in the Age of Intelligence. Technology is moving fast and new powers are rising - are you ready for this new world?

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"I want to give people the map ... what you do with it is up to you." Demba Ba has a 5-year ambition to cut open the AI Black Box and explain what makes LLMs work.

Demba Ba, the Harvard Professor described as an "AI Neurosurgeon", shows why explainability lies at the heart of humans taking control of AI's alien intelligence. And if we get this right then we will also gain huge insight - "a neurosurgeon's dream" - in to not only how AI but also humans think.

The conversartion ranges from the immediate opportunities from healthcare roll-out and AI audit (why did the AI make that decision?) to the potential power this could give the state to manipulate people. And if we can understand and predict AI behaviour, and do the same with people, what does this tell us about free will, or are we all just products of our training data? If we can create individual human knowledge graphs - building the human model - then does this mean we can predict an individual's actions? What are the implications for AI tweaking - does lobotomy (or AI dissection and editing) have a wider impact?

We also discussed the huge AI opportunity for Africa - potentially one of the biggest winners in the coming Age of Intelligence.

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What can one learn from a Private Equity AI executive who quotes Leon Trotsky?

Francois led the Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute in its recent impactful work on Generative AI and the workforce. Ideas such as the “jagged frontier” and “AI as an exo-skeleton” have helped create mental models for everyone working in the space.

He brings a unique perspective on AI adoption and competitiveness of companies and nations, combining decades of experience with BCG’s large clients and his new role working with SMEs in Private Equity. He argues that smaller companies have the advantage of speed and focus. He lays out a framework for how companies can embrace the technology - with a clear focus on how to bring people with them. This means firms must be ambitious with AI: they must “hunt elephants, not rabbits” and stay focused on the business case rather than any technical details that may not matter.

His experience working in China for years shows him the difference between countries with a sense of urgency and those who are too focused on defending existing structures. The key is to “protect individuals not job descriptions”, as he urges policy makers to do.

He provides insights on what children should study but reassures that not all jobs will disappear: “There will be consultants as long as there are learning curves”. Learning is at the core of intelligence and the only way to live in a world where … revolution is permanent.

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