How the UAE's young people look set to guide the AI era

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence orientation for its first cohort of undergraduate students in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi. Victor Besa / The National

This weekend, thousands of young people across the UAE will celebrate the end of one chapter in their education story. At the same time, others will be getting ready to take their studies to the next stage. What those pupils who received their A-level and GCSE exam results on Thursday share with students getting ready for their first classes at university is the reality that AI is set to play a defining role in their futures.

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence welcomes first undergraduate students

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Most school pupils and university students already know that this transformative technology is having a revolutionary effect on education, challenging and changing how they write essays, research their assignments and learn more about the world around them. The UAE is aware of this, too. In May, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, announced that AI was to be introduced as a subject across all stages of government education in the Emirates.

Most school pupils and university students already know that this transformative technology is having a revolutionary effect on education

This week, The National spoke to some of the 115 students who, from Monday, will pursue a Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi. One of this first cohort, 18-year-old Jordanian student Islam Aldaraghmeh, said the specialist degree would help him “understand AI on a much deeper level, a much more intuitive level”, adding that he wanted to "explore how to dissect AI like a surgeon”.

It is this kind of energy and curiosity that young people will bring to a future increasingly shaped by AI. Initial challenges – such as the unscrupulous use of generative AI to generate whole essays– are outweighed by the technology’s immense potential. As a growing centre for AI research and adoption, the UAE is showing that instead of regarding the technology as an obstacle to be confronted, developing an education system that familiarises pupils and students with AI principles and technology empowers them to be confident in the universities and workplaces of tomorrow.

This is important because young people live in a world where AI is already rewriting the rules. Job cuts and adjustments affect all industries. According to findings published in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report this year, 41 per cent of employers around the world intend to downsize their workforce as AI automates some tasks. The good news is that out of the hundreds of large companies surveyed, 77 per cent of them say they plan to reskill and upskill their existing workers between 2025-2030 to better work alongside this new technology. By formally including AI across different educational disciplines – including the humanities – human intuition and creativity can be supported by emerging technologies, not replaced.

These are weighty questions that the new undergraduates at MBZUAI will wrestle with in the years ahead. Not far behind them are those young people whose school years are now a thing of the past. What both groups learn as their 21st-century education journey continues will inform the wider, global conversation about this rapidly evolving technology in the years to come.