How does your country rank in terms of sleep quality?
According to Will Ahmed, the Egyptian-American founder of fitness tracking company Whoop, the UAE ranks third globally for low "sleep performance".
He hopes data from the company's wearable devices will help to improve the quality of sleep enjoyed in the Emirates. It's an interesting goal, especially since far too often, sleep doesn't come up in discussions about fitness. Yet tech breakthroughs suggests that it definitely should be a priority.
As Future Beat has reported in the past, technology has a way of pointing us in the right direction to enrich our lives. For all the negativity focused on the sector, these observations are important to absorb.
The big story
Token of appreciation
Omar Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications. Photo: Abdulla Al Bedwawi / UAE Presidential Court
In the context of AI, tokens are the basic unit to calculate the length of text and can include punctuation marks and spaces, and vary from language to language.
Why it matters | As The National's consumer and technology reporter Alvin Cabral points out, a bigger token count means more comprehensive results for users of various AI apps, tools and platforms.
For all the talk about a global race for AI dominance, all the investment won't mean much if it doesn't enrich the lives of those who use it.
There's a lot of disagreement among technology experts over how to decide which AI tools are the best, but a consensus has been reached that tokens are a great place to start.
The UAE understands this, and with this goal of 60 trillion tokens made crystal clear, the future looks bright.
Quoted | “The currency of the future is going to be tokens that can be used and transformed into insights or intelligence that will help in decision-making, improve the quality of life and improve productivity”
– Omar Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications
Future in focus
Several technology companies are pushing the idea of AI sovereignty Photo: Reuters
Hillary Clinton has criticised social media platforms such as TikTok.
Hillary Clinton has claimed that social media shaped young Americans’ views on the Gaza war, and accused platforms such as TikTok of spreading misinformation that has driven support for the Palestinian cause.
This is noise: Don't get me wrong, there are many reasons to be concerned about social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and others, but it's also important to use critical thought when doing so.
The claim that increased support for Palestine is strictly down to TikTok is misguided and reductionist.
It should also be pointed out that conversely, there are some who feel that TikTok has stifled Palestine content.
Without access to the platform's specific policies and data, it's irresponsible to say that the genuine outpouring of empathy and support for Palestinians has been caused by TikTok or any social media app.
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
