UAE Tech Podcast

One of the reasons for the continued growth of the UAE’s tech ecosystem, has been its ability to attract the world to Dubai. More recently, however, Abu Dhabi has made very significant strides in hosting mega-scale events - fashioning entire islands, such as Yas Island and Sadiyat island, for art lovers and racing car lovers to enjoy immaculately curated experiences. Ethara is a company that owns, manages and promotes some of the largest events and IP's in the UAE. This includes Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, alongside similar destination events including NBA and UFC in Abu Dhabi. We spoke with Baraa Khamis, Ethara's Chief of Digital and Technology Officer, to find out how it all works and how immersive digital experiences might merge with physical events infrastructure, in the future.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re drifting around a corner in Need for Speed, screaming ‘Get Over Here’ in Mortal Kombat, or dropping a banana in Mario Kart, video games are about one thing: Skill. Or are they? Aren’t video games also about having fun. Enter the debate over Skill2Earn, versis Free2Earn, and what the future of video games looks like. Shouldn’t users who spend upwards of 20 hours a week (and sometimes way more), be able to earn tokens, and exchange those tokens across other publishing platforms? Hasn’t this very tendency turned some supposed video games into glorified token farms? What about skill and competition? Skill2Earn gaming believes that when you execute that perfect uppercut, you get paid for it. So it is the best of both worlds?

In the UAE, Step Conference requires little introduction. But how did the darling of the Dubai tech scene calendar actually get started? What happened to the English and Arabic content websites? And what was it like running such a popular and successful conference … only to have COVID-19 shut down, well, pretty much everything. Ray Dargham, CEO and founder of Step Conference provides the inside story on how a student project at AUB has transformed, over time and with a little grit, into something far grander. This is the story of Step Conference from its foundings, to today.

Yuri Dvoinos sold his company Figleaf to Aura in 2020. He currently serves as Chief Innovation Officer at the Boston based cybersecurity firm, which is backed by none other than Robert Downey Jr. We wanted to begin our interview with “so what’s it like working with Iron Man,” but apparently everyone leads with this line, and they have not met. Also, Iron Man is a fictional character, so that would be weird. We digress. Yuri is a habitual entrepreneur. He’s workled on Kickstarter projects, digital education and has spent a decade right here in Dubai, where he bootstrapped 50M+ paying customers for Clario cybersecurity, a company he co-founded. We caught up with Yuri to share insights into how the city can attract talent, serve a global addressable market, and also grow into a new sense of itself as a mature tech industry, rather than a plucky upstart with a loveable swagger. Whatever the future holds, we hope Dubai keeps the swagger.

Hassan Al Noon is a graduate of the National Experts Program in Abu Dhabi, a mentorship program which pairs promising Emirati leaders with established experts in industry. Hassan’s capstone project focused on the development of deep-tech, and the need to create a collaborative ecosystem to support R&D in the UAE.

If you’ve been living in Dubai it’s been difficult to avoid Yango, an app that is being noticed for impressively accurate GPS and ride-hailing services. A Netherlands registered company backed by the Russian conglomerate Yandex, the app has ambitions which go beyond getting you around the city. Yango wants to become that most fabled of creatures; not a Unicorn, but a super-app. The recently launched Yango play features an AI assistant that doesn’t simply speak Arabic, but can talk in the local Khaleeji dialect. The service brings licensed music and movies to the app, including the Arabic blockbuster of 2023 ‘Mr. Ex’, and the sequel to ‘Awlad Harim Kareem.’ There are plans to support independent artists, and create original content. It’s a big dream. But can a super-app work in the UAE? What are macro-trends? And who, given the range of services on offer, is the competition? We spoke with Roman Shimansky, MENA Region Business Director at Yango Play, to learn more.

Arto is an OG interested in e-gold, in Ayn Rand and early Sci-Fi. He has a compelling perspective on what technology used to be, and where it might be going. We sat down with him to discuss his latest company, Haltia.AI, and why being a blockchain refugee in Dubai is a portal into the future.

Martin Glen began tinkering with print servers back in the 1984, eventually co-founding a company that would become a world leader in network video. In 1996 he invented the AXIS 2000 and NetEye with a Carl-Axel Aim; the first network camera.

Enter Theion, a Berlin based startup creating batteries based on lithium-sulfur, rather than lithium-ion. Compellingly, sulfur is an abundant waste product, particularly in the GCC, where it is one of the outputs from processing oil. Unlike cobalt, manganese or nickel, it doesn’t need to be mined.

David Chaum is a mercurial gentleman. He’s gone from pretty much inventing digital cash, the main thing he missed being Satoshi’s proof of work, to consulting on CBDCs, working with European bankers, and plotting to stop solar warming...

Finding out information on the Dubai blockchain ecosystem isn’t always easy. For the most part, you need to be in it. There’s many familiar foundational faces, and people flying in and out from all over the world: Austin, Shanghai, Moscow, Paris. You name it. While this makes for an exciting and often exclusive scene, it doesn’t always help with investment and building great products. The discovery of great projects is often subjective - it depends on who you ask. Walid Abu Zaki started ‘Unlock Blockchain’ on the back of a conference, to deliver real information. Obviously, that’s not always easy. We caught up with Walid to learn more about the website.

Mehdi Fichtali is CEO and founder of FinaMaze, an ADGM licensed Digital Wealth management company. He’s spent fifteen years at large banks such as Credit Agricole, Barlcays and as the Vice-President of Morgan Stanley in Dubai. Today, he’s exploring how AI can lower barriers to entry, reduce bureaucratic cost, and ensure that the likes of you and I can one day have our own asset portfolio, even if we’re not making squllions of pounds.

For much of the technology industry, there is a certain suspicion of COP28. They believe “sustainability” evangelists get paid large government salaries to regulate solutions, without building or solving very much at all. The Bitcoin industry is furious that their movement has been maligned for using too much energy, while others cut down trees. A reductive ‘abundance vs. scarcity’ debate has been visible online in the US and UK, in particular. But is it really this simple? The UAE is hosting COP28, and both sustainability and technology are clear and mutually reinforcing themes. This is visible in many areas of the UAE, one of which is the local campus of Heriot Watt University. We talked with Prof Tadhg O’Donovan, Deputy Provost and Head of the Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering (IMPEE) Research Institute, for insight into energy storage and reliability, solar power, thermal energy and some of the solutions that are already on the horizon.

While email phishing continues to be the favorite exploit du jour of cyberhackers, other forms of attack are emerging. What can we do to become more aware, and how can AI help solve the old cybersecurity problems of the past, at the same time as playing offence against the threats of the future? We caught up with Matt Cooke, Director of CyberSecurity and Strategy at the UAE based Proofpoint, to find out more.

Two years ago it’s not unfair to suggest that if most techies were asked to name the Big Tech company most likely to break through globally in AI, Microsoft might not come to mind. Microsoft partnered with OpenAI earlier this year, has just inked a deal with Activision, making it one of the largest gaming giants in the world, and has plans for the Metaverse. But you already knew that. One remains to be understood is how generative AI is changing the technology landscape right here in the UAE. From private to public sector, from education to logistics, oil and gas, and citizen services, what are the use-cases we should be focusing on? Where are the quick wins? We’re delighted to be talking to Tariq Halawani, Executive Director for Commercial Solutions, on why this is a big year for GITEX, the UAE… and for Microsoft.

Ahead of a Summit in Dubai this November, we spoke with CEO Frederik Gregaard on Cardano, global regulation, the role of central banks and why emerging technologies such as AI mean that trust, transparency and verification is more important than ever. Is Cardano really blockchain’s White Knight, and will we be seeing more of them in the region soon? Special thanks to Oscar Wendel, Director of Content and Conferences at MCH Group for stepping up to command this interview after a last minute schedule change.

GIGA is focused on providing services to underserved foreign nationals, who have trouble opening a bank account, and gig economy workers, who may be making relatively small and short-term deposits. Inspired by European Open banking, Raul looks to a time where our bank accounts travel with us no matter where we are in the world, with local or nation-state banking as a bureaucratic nuisance from the past. So what are the parallels between Japan and the UAE, and can we get cartoon characters on check-books here in Dubai?

Anthony Thomson is an understated Brit with a notable record: he founded two of the UK’s best known “challenger banks”, namely Atom and Metro. He holds advisory roles with ASX listed Humm Group, ila Bank and Wio Bank, right here in the UAE.

As the UAE Tech Podcast has progressed we’ve become more and more interested in gaming. There’s been a load of reasons for this. The advent of the Metaverse, and the idea 3D technologies will drive the next iteration of the Internet. Hardware, from haptic suits to ridiculously expensive VR kits. Blockchain based gaming and NFT markets. It just seems like a lot of the high-level themes we’re discussing are converging in this space.

Hannes Sjöblad goes by the “nom de guerre” Hannes ‘Sapiens’: a reference, of course, to humankind, or perhaps the famous book by Yuval Noah Harari. The subject of our collective humanity has come into focus recently. As the capability of AI has filtered into mainstream consciousness, the debate on our relationship to machines is no longer hypothetical.

Isabella Williamson is Associate Director at Consulum. She is examining how governments in the GCC and around the world are positioning themselves in what might be the future of the digital economy. From Seoul to Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Norway, this episode provides up-to-date case studies and hints at a broader question: is government itself profoundly transforming?

From October 2020 to very recently Aisha Sheikh has worked as an Experience Lead and UX Architect for Magnopus, where she led the design team for the Expo2020 Dubai Xplorer App. Some of our listeners have probably used the app: it allowed anyone with an internet connection to experience Expo through the eyes of a robot or avatar, engaging in treasure hunts, puzzles and augmented reality.

Alex Shevchenko, the CEO and Co-Founder of Aurora, doesn’t fit nearly into either of these camps. He believes blockchain developers urgently need to learn from and assimilate with the best of Web2, particularly when it comes to consumer acquisition and UX.

This week we’re talking to Marta, on her journey from a Mom working in retail in Ireland, to falling down the rabbit hole that is crypto trading… and learning to love it. Please note that none of this is financial advice. Always remember to do your own research.

According to Sabrina, Paris was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to begin regulating this space. More recently the European Law on Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) was approved in April, replicating and perhaps in some cases improving on the French Law in some areas.

Karl Tlais is the CEO and co-founder of Iadvisory, a Dubai Future Fellow, and a strategic advisor in the Digital Economy in the UAE. Back in the heady days of early 2021, Karl held a notable discussion on Artificial intelligence at the Capital Club. Shortly after, John Lillywhite worked with Karl to combine three emerging aspects of the UAE digital economy into a single white paper: AI, Virtual Assets and Massive-Multiplayer Online Worlds.

Scott Page talks so fluently on NFTs and emerging Web3 infrastructure, that it’s almost easy to forget his previous incarnations as a saxophone and rhythm guitarist for Pink Flloyd, Supertramp and Toto.

This is an unusual episode at the intersection of tech and human aspiration. What if instead of registering, cataloging and surveilling human beings, technology could be repurposed to helping them start their lives anew?

The quick pitch for Metapolis is “shopify in the Metaverse.” Co-founder and chief commercial officer Sandra Helou has dubbed it MaaS, or “Metaverse as a service platform.” Behind the clear business use-case of an interoperable and accessible sales and events platform, are some astute insights into how the digital economy will emerge over the coming decade.

According to Oliver Studd, during the height of the financial crisis in Germany, it was the locally owned community banks that didn’t need a bailout. For Oliver and his team at Valhalla Network, we will always need banks and access to banking services. This isn’t to argue that either, in their current state, are fit for service: this episode begins with a blistering introduction into how a modern bank actually works.

Saba Homami is CEO and Co-Founder of PROES, a French deep tech company based out of Grenoble which is producing a new generation of Radio Frequency technologies. With an MSc in Physics alongside her business partner Jules, the company recently won a national award in France and at CES Las Vegas. RF technologies underly many of the innovations in 5G, IOT and Cybersecurity that we’ve discussed on the UAE Tech Podcast in the past. How do these devices talk to each other? What are the challenges with communicating to a device underground, a drone in the sky, or devices in forests trying to avoid the breakout of a forest fire? This problem is known in French as “Zone Blanche”, or in English as a “Black Spot”; areas with little or no communications and radio infrastructure. Can a French startup help innovate across the communication stack, and why is the UAE such a promising market?

Leo Dovbenko is CEO and Co-Founder of YallaMarket and YallaHub, an aggregator providing ecommerce fulfillment and warehousing services. What’s interesting about Leo is that he began his journey training as a software engineer, but found his real passion working in bars and swish restaurants as a student at Uni. Pretty soon he was working with big brands, and managing larger locations. As so often on the UAE Tech Podcast, this is a story of taking a slightly different path. By combining experience in the F&B industry with software design, development and a clear enjoyment of business strategy, Leo found himself riding the coattails of a booming food-tech industry. Tune in for a discussion on 15 minute delivery, the VC industry, the importance of data, and why quick commerce will be an increasing percentage of revenue for the high-street store going forwards.

Legends of Bezogia is an Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORG) combining tokenomics, NFTs and competitive ranked gaming with the blockchain. That means players can invest in a Bezoge avatar, mint magic blocks, sell in-game items and become part of the Bezogia community.

The UAE has long invested in cybersecurity, hosting globally significant conferences and attracting talent in this space for at least the past decade. At the same time, the field of cybersecurity is shifting as the sophistication of the digital economy matures. Satista estimated that the digital economy will grow to $53 trillion US dollars next year, up from 13.5 trillion in 2018.

As the global economy faces a period of sustained economic uncertainty, we talked about Cashew’s early mission, the importance of forming partnerships with banks and larger institutions and why expanding into markets such as KSA or Oman, makes the UAE an increasingly attractive destination.

‘Yap’ means ‘Pay’ backwards. It’s a neobank established in the UAE, working on a move to KSA, and offering a range of services for B2B and B2C clients. The company markets itself as a financial technology - not a bank.

The idea is called “cCommerce”, or “collaborative commerce.” According to Investopedia, it means “the optimization of supply and distribution channels to capitalize on the global economy by using new technology efficiently.

The Crypto Winter has created market volatility for a wide range of actors, and also revealed how aspects of the old economy and the emergent economy are intertwined. Lennix Lai is head of Business Strategy and Ops at OKX. Previously, he had a background at companies such as JP Morgan, AIG and CASH Financial Services Group. When he joined OKX in 2017 his role was to reverse engineer many of the services found into traditional finance, and offer them in DeFI. Today the addressable market is far larger, but challenges remain.

Mark Aruliah is Senior Policy Adviser at Elliptic. He joined the podcast to provide a helpful 101 on the blockchain analysis industry, and the challenges and opportunities regulators are facing behind the scenes.

Dr. Rolando Zubiran is Global Head of WEB 3 & Metaverse Services for RRD, or R. R. Donnelley & Sons, an American Fortune 500 integrated communications company. Rolando refers to this as “Meta-Marketing 2.0.” As our identities merge with online worlds, he believes that the way we envisage the economics and society of the future will be made possible not simply by the technologies we deploy, but by the stories we use to comprehend and shape the world around us.

Thirty years since Lawnmower first aired, I asked Brett how the metaverse of our own time mirrors the Sci-Fi stories I grew up with as a kid. Will AI creator tools allow billions to summon their own simulated realities? How will artists imagine and construct what Brett calls “storyworlds” using technologies that are incredibly advanced, but also really human - and fallible.

Ahead of his workshops at GITEX, we caught up with Professor Xi Chen from NYU Stern for a discussion on how technologies are converging in ways that are impossible to predict.

In a way, data has become a dirty word. It doesn’t necessarily need to be. A new data economy is emerging on the blockchain, in which users can provide access to and possibly derive profits from data they control. But what would these new data markets look like? What industries will be the first to adopt? Will internet browser cookies one day be a thing of the past? This week we’re talking with Bruce Pon of OceanProtocol, on data as a new asset class.

Alex Bornyakov is Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine on IT industry development, and head of the Diia City project. In this episode Alex provides background on Ukraine’s digital transformation, which was already continuing apace before the war. As Ukraine descended into conflict and physical locations such as government offices and centralized data-centers fell under attack, things like digital citizen services and cloud-storage became even more critical.

Muhannad Ebwini has been working in online payments in the Middle East from almost the beginning. In this episode we chart the story of payments in MENA and KSA from its early origins during the .com boom, to the increasingly cashless society of today.

It had to happen: “Blogchain” - that’s blog, not block-chain - is a decentralized Substack competitor seeking to combine Web3 infrastructure with good writing. Built using IPFS and NEAR, the system hopes to free writers from the problems that have bedeviled Web2 creator platforms: politicization, unfair algorithms or writing for ad revenue, and not customers. Even getting paid will hopefully be easier, with crypto wallets. Of course the debate surrounding digital publishing isn’t simply technical. It’s also political and ideological. Will the blockchain empower free speech, or will communities find new architecture to moderate themselves? If centralized platforms are a thing of the past, what does the future of publishing look like? Nadim Kobeissi is a former adjunct professor in computer security at NYU Paris. After completing a PHD in cryptography, Kobeissi founded Capsule Social to explore what he calls “decentralized discourse.”

Melanie is founder of the ‘Word of Mouth’ protocol and a ‘collaborative event’ which connects creators, founders and artists. The event is called ‘Superverse.’ It recently made a notable impact in Dubai, where it succeeded in deepening an already promising relationship between the city's tech industry and creative class.

Michael Gord started talking about Bitcoin in High-School, which seems both inconceivable and opportune. From there he started FinTech clubs at McGill, Bitcoin Canada, and later the blockchain association of Canada. At one point the world’s first Bitcoin Embassy in Montreal, was based ‘2 blocks away’ from where he lived. Today, Gord is co-founder and CEO at Assets International, which according to the website “provides institutions with exposure to its premier Global ecosystem of cutting-edge blockchain technology companies.”

Threefold describes itself as “layer 0 infrastructure for an open source P2P Internet owned by humanity.” Rather than an Internet based on centralized web servers, expensive cloud storage facilities and geographically BI-FUCATED bifurcated access, their team are creating what they call a “new planetary network.”

Professor Latif Ladid serves as chair at the 5G World Alliance & President of the IPv6 Forum. In this episode he provides history, context and a deep technical understanding of how IPv6 will quietly change the Internet in the years to come.

Today we’re talking with Angad Chadha, CEO of WizzFinancial India. According to Angad a “recent study by , I believe, Oliver Wyman and JP Morgan” says “the total remittances of money that moves across border (and this is across all segments, not just the consumer I’m talking about business and government), is in the range of about $25 billion a year, which is 25% of global GDP.”

From Vedic-Bitcoin deities, to a 2017 Tesla minted as an NFT and driving around the streets of Dubai; Finnish artist VESA is at the epicenter of a rapidly evolving art market and creator community in the Middle East. He rose to prominence through a body-painting of Bollywood actress Veena Malik in 2013, and began to explore the world of Bitcoin and Crypto-art not long after.

he one hand, they run one of the world’s largest VR parks in Dubai, with a new park opening soon. At the same time as operating these VR rigs and location based theme parks, they have a team of game-developers building licensed properties for well-known brands like Hasbro.

Eliran Elimelech is VP of Strategic Partnerships at Startup Nation Central, an independent non-profit connecting business, government and NGO leaders across the world with Israeli innovation expertise.

Today we’re talking with Ashton Woolfe, Managing Partner at MohrWolfe and project lead at Crypto Fight Club. Ashton grew up with games like Tekken, Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur; games designed purely for having fun, during a time when in-game economics simply weren’t possible. Increasingly, in-game monetization is not just possible but popular: the Free2Earn gaming space is booming across Asia. It’s potentially making an appearance in AAA games across the United States and Europe later this year. Time will tell.

Al Anoud Al Hashimi is the founder and CEO of The Futurist Company, a project management company working in renewable energy, fin-tech and agri-tech. While the UAE has a thriving technology ecosystem, the country needs greater domestic R&D capacity, and is exploring ways to invest in longer-term ‘deep-tech’ projects alongside academia, and the private sector. Here one industry that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, is agriculture. Tune in for a discussion with Al Anoud on Agri-Tech and how the ‘GAIA’ project is bringing NASA Space Technology to delivery-truck sized farming capsules. Each capsule is environmentally controlled, and energy and water self-sufficient. The idea of a ‘circular economy’ is filtering out of the policy community into the tech industry. Can the UAE overcome its challenges in R&D, to develop and export solutions to the rest of the world? Al Anoud Al Hashimi, believes so.

Anthem's story personifies a key inflection point in the history of western finance. He was raised by his adoptive father, the precious metals pioneer, James U. Blanchard III, who helped restore Americans' right to own gold and also founded a rare coin and bullion company, Blanchard & Company - at one time, the world’s largest. Named after an Ayn Rand book and an Austrian British economist, Anthem sees himself as carrying out his father’s legacy on the blockchain. His contribution, as he perceives it, is towards a world which is more free, less encumbered by fear and distrust, and structured quite differently to the world we all live in today.

Slowly but surely, game design principles are merging with NFTs, crypto currencies and decentralized forms of governance. But will it be enough? Can Web3 standards prevail, or is a multipolar metaverse order of incumbent giant platforms and decentralized rebel hinterlands on the horizon? We spoke with Yingzi for some early insights into how the gaming community may shape the metaverse.

Today we’re talking with Dirmand Daltun, CEO of csquare.ai & project lead at DeepSquare. Joining the discussion we also have Arnaud De La Chapelle, an industry tech leader who has worked with IDEMIA and VFS Global at the highest levels, here in Dubai. Deepsquare is a European based project to make high performance computing distributed and privacy enabled, on the blockchain. The data-processing center, based in Switzerland, runs on renewable energy. The heat generated by the center will be captured, and sold back to industry. Finally, a token based community management system brings Web3 governance structures out of the virtual asset market, and into real world infrastructure. Deepsquare is based on a convergence of emerging technologies; for example it’s currently based on the ethereum blockchain. A lot of this episode was about figuring out how everything fits together, and what the future of distributed high-performance computing may look like in future. What emerges is the beginnings of a new structure for HPC, engineered with the principles of access, energy sustainability and co-ownership in mind.

Talking to Secretary Fox, it becomes clear that the future of the 15 minute city is not simply technology driven: it’s values driven, economics driven, and regulation driven, requiring real-time and deep collaboration between the private and public sectors. From connected vehicles to semi autonomous supply-logistics on land, sea and air the future of mobility is more efficient, but hopefully more human too.

Joel Dietz has worked on Ethereum from the very beginning, during a time when even giant incubators like the famous YCombinator appeared to have trouble predicting the utility of a 'smart contract.' An MIT Connection Science Fellow, Joel is described by MIT as a “serial entrepreneur and intellectual historian who helped found a number of initiatives in the cryptocurrency space, including Ethereum, MetaMask, the first smart contract educational channel, and the first academic work on crypto-economics.” Metamask will be familiar to anyone who has purchased Eth, or activated an account on Decentraland, an NFT multiverse worth between 800 million and 1.4 billion U.S. dollars as of September 2021. This episode is a high-level introduction to the past and future of Web3. Because Joel is based here in Dubai, it also gives a sense of how rapidly the UAE tech scene is evolving. How can the UAE level-up and lean-in to the virtual markets of tomorrow? And when will the best poets, and not just the best coders, come here to chill?

Sensorium describes itself as “building the future of the senses” in the metaverse. Global artists such as David Guetta, Carl Cox and Armin Van Buren have signed up for live and pre-recorded performances in ‘Prism World’, a VR and metaverse enabled music entertainment experience described as ‘immersive’ and literally “out of this world.” The Sensorium websites features sharp video trailers of what these experiences look like. We were lucky enough to speak with Deputy CEO, Alex Blagirev, on the tech infrastructure and business logic behind Sensorium - we even had a sneak peak demo of a gp3 AI enabled talking avatar, after the episode. So stay tuned to find out more about VR on the blockchain, the ethereum fork and how an experiment in Russian banking tech led to gyrating AI enabled avatars, in the metaverse.

McCauley’s work would help to develop USB drivers, kernel mode drivers, the first scrolling feature for a computer mouse, and the Guitar Hero controller, which made gaming both more tactile and accessible. Then there is his work on the Oculus Rift Dev Kits I and II, before the VR headset company was sold to Facebook US$2.3 billion in cash and stock, in March 2014. In this episode we talk about hardware, education and the early Oculus kickstarter campaign, which probably remains the most famous crowd-funding campaign in internet history.

Much of the discussion on cybersecurity concerns, well “cyber” - computers surveilling computers, algorithms to detect algorithms, or AI scanning massive amounts of data. What is often lost is a focus on human beings. The field of cybersecurity itself is rapidly evolving into an established profession in which a combination of technical and analytical skills are required. A lot of the discussion on the 4ID around the world covers technology replacing humans. While this is true across many industries, it’s not the entire story. The field of cybersecurity is a great window into an emerging industry which is rapidly professionalizing, and on a search for new talent. Here human intelligence, human response teams and hybrid skill sets are very much in demand. Today we’re talking with Maher Yamout, Senior Security Researcher of Global Research & Analysis Team at Kaspersky, on humans in cybersecurity

Popularized in sci-fi movies like the Terminator, the Matrix and others is the concept of a “machine-age”, or what Matthew Yarger and others refer to as “the machine economy.” We’ve seen this debate in regard to ethical AI, or "fairness in algorithms,” but a new frontier is appearing in regard to centralization, walled gardens and networks with “a single point of failure.” In a centralized system, there are fears automation could allow “Skynet” scenario - machines making decisions so complex, that meaningful human control is no longer necessary or perhaps even possible.In a DLT, or decentralized ledger system, information is no longer owned by a single platform. A malicious AI or non-state actor has no central location to hack - at least in theory, the attack surface is reduced from billions, right down to 1. Automation & DLT technologies are changing philosophy and ideation in the cyber-security sector. But are decentralized systems really the future? Will these systems be permissioned or permissionless? And can Decentralized Ledger Technology allow automated systems to scale into our economies and personal lives, without compromising our safety, privacy and security? Today we’re talking with Mathew Yarger, Head of Mobility and Automotive at the IOTA Foundation, on the machine economy, and cybersecurity

Today we’re talking to Emad Haffar, Head of Technical Experts at Kaspersky cybersecurity Middle East. Emad has managed large cybersecurity projects across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. From machine-learning pattern recognition to analyst driven intelligence and a specially developed IOS for the Internet of Things, Emad provides a comprehensive introduction to the “New Threat Environments” consumers, businesses and governments are facing. Over the past 12-18 months digitalisation has accelerated across the world economy and, because of COVID-19, in much of our daily lives. Our kids are being taught on digital devices. Online entertainment, from gaming to movies, is booming. We’re turning to cyberspace for our health, to keep in touch with family, to order food, or pay the bills. In the UAE, we interact with government over cloud based apps and services. All of this suggests an important and overlooked question - during this historical transition, how vulnerable are we? Is this cybernetic horizon really secure? As digital colonizes the physical, the range of cyber-crime and cyber-security opportunities are exponentially growing. At the same time, the depth and sophistication of cyber--security operations is racing to keep-up.

One of the stereotypes of the Middle East is things don’t happen quickly here. Entrepreneurs in the Levant and GCC are often frustrated that their peers in the west can take advantage of regulations and infrastructure they don’t have access to - or simply get stuff done more quickly. Of course it’s not that simple, but there is a sense that business depends on building firm relationships and a lot of diligence before the ink is signed. And then the UAE signed a peace deal with Israel, and we saw a different way of doing things. Even during the crisis of COVID-19 tens of thousands of Israeli tourists and innovators have visited the UAE, working on every kind of project you can think of. The UAE’s main technology conference, GITEX, devoted a staging area to the ‘UAE-Israel Future Digital Economy Summit.' A prominent Israeli tech-investor and co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council, Dorian Barak re-joins the podcast to provide high-level insights into a relationship on fast-forward.

A couple of years ago there was a big buzz around 3D printing. Many Tech analysts suggested a future in which we’d all be ‘print-publishing’ consumer items in our homes. That hasn’t happened yet. It’s even possible that 3D printing on the consumer end will remain a niche skill set, favored by designers, engineers and inventors. But the wider industrial implications of 3D printing are beginning to emerge. Right now students across the UAE learning the process, software and techniques necessary to operate a 3D printer. Beyond education, architects and defense firms have long been exploring the technology. Over the past decade one electronic’s store, in particular, has played a key role in importing 3D printing technology to the UAE. For veteran’s of Dubai, Jacky’s Electronics Store in Nasr Square Deira is a familiar landmark established in 1988. We spoke with Chief Operating Office Ashish Panjabi on how Jacky’s Electronics merged into Jacky’s Business Solutions, for a behind the scenes look into the small changes that are incrementally building UAE capacity in additive manufacturing. | SUBSCRIBE AND SPONSOR | Remember to Subscribe and Turn Notifications on. You can also follow the podcast on: Itunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/jo/podcast/uae-tech-podcast/id1441955455 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7lUz38FZsfIVDyYZTsz5JI?si=XJHR7e54Q7qYiPfXzaeWPA

Algorithms watching algorithms - a 21st century version of the Latin dictum, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, or ‘who watches the watchmen’. This time written in code. New business services engineered and launched within days, rather than months - the idea that COVID-19 is forcing an adaptive response in which efficiency and speed are critical; & that empathy, particularly during challenging times, can be designed into a process. In the UAE, a complex scenario in which government acts as a gravitational center for innovation, pushing a culture of progressive iteration and a demand for new services out into the rest of society. Today we’re talking with Hamid Tamimi, Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton on what he describes as the ‘paradigm shift’ taking place across GCC economies, governments, and organizations. With a decade of consulting experience in the region, Hamid concisely describes several of the key patterns and trends at the center of the UAE Tech Podcast. The ‘Big Rethink’ is here, but predicting the next chapter isn’t always easy.

This week we’re talking with Dorian Barak, a prominent investor and fund-manager based in Israel. Earlier this year Dorian founded the UAE-Israel Business Council to explore opportunities for investment between the two countries. With the passing of the Abraham Accords in September 2020, collaboration and integration between two of the region’s most globalized economies is suddenly possible. Until recently, such collaboration existed only behind closed doors. American-born and educated at Yale, Oxford and UCLA, Dorian has managed venture capital and equity funds out of Israel and around the world. He has also worked with the business community in the UAE, prior to the signing of the accords. As such, he is uniquely well positioned to provide insights and analysis on the journey ahead with specific reference to the technology industry. In this episode Dorian explains how Israel offers deep tech experience in areas such as computer vision and automated mobility, hosting companies such as MobileEye. Israel could assist the UAE in implementing world-leading renewable solutions, new agricultural methods in terms of “high-intensity vertical agriculture” requiring less land and less water, as well as in cutting-edge digital health services. Israel could assist the UAE in implementing world-leading renewable solutions, new agricultural methods in terms of “high-intensity vertical agriculture” requiring less land and less water, as well as in cutting-edge digital health services.  At the same time, the discussion explores how the UAE can provide Israeli entrepreneurs and businesses with access to the Indian-Ocean Basin alongside geographic proximity to their head offices. UAE based logistics solutions, and capabilities in infrastructure and construction are mentioned, as are Abu Dhabi based sovereign wealth funds, which might serve as vehicles for shared projects on high-end technologies in the future. Abu Dhabi based sovereign wealth funds, which might serve as vehicles for shared projects on high-end technologies in the future. The potential for the Abraham Accords to accelerate the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the UAE is significant. This episode considers how that potential can be realized - the journey ahead might look like.

Smart city access points that unlock new mobility solutions. A VR enhanced history lesson on the ancient silk roads. A health app that directly monitors your vitals and communicates with local health providers. Faster gaming and larger online communities. All of these near-horizon services have one thing in common: bandwidth. As smartphones serve as the portal to the cities we live in, and the wider digital economies around us, faster and more robust data networks are unlocking a new phase of economic growth. By adopting an early lead in shifting to 4G services, Recon Analytics write on how the US added nearly 100 Billion to the economy by 2016, leading to huge innovation and change. Now the rest of the world is catching up. As COVID-19 batters the analogue economy, the stakes for the digital economy in the UAE and globally, could not be greater. Today we’re joined by Sanmeet Kochhar, Vice President for HMD Global MENA & India. HMD is the largest European brand in the mobile and smartphone space in the UAE, with a focus on making 5G enabled devices as widely accessible as possible.

If you’ve been tuning in, you’ll have noticed that FINTECH is a recurring theme in discussions on the UAE Tech podcast. It’s receiving significant VC investment across the region, often with little fanfare. From physical cash to digital 1’s and 0’s, how we receive, send, invest and spend money is critical to, well, pretty much everything. There are two arguments about the nature of the changes taking place across financial institutions. The first is a ‘cyberutopian’ argument - centralised banks, guys in suits and the old players of the 20th century are fading away. The future is blockchain and crypto powered; it’s more free. You can hear this argument eloquently put by John McAfee in our first episode. It’s a compelling vision of the future which connects back to the original founding ideals of the Internet. If you grew up during the 2008 financial crisis in the West, it might be one you have sympathy with. But is it correct? History suggests that technologies like the abacus, debit and entry accounting systems or the credit arrangements of the Bank of England in 1694 witnessed an upgrading of existing financial networks, rather than parallel economic systems. As the UAE leans into the economy of the future, the epicenter of these conversations are taking place at the Dubai International Finance Center (DIFC), a series of prestigious offices based in downtown Dubai. DIFC is administered by DFSA - the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Today we’re talking with Ken Coghill, Associate Director, Head of Operational and Technology Risk Supervision and Raeef Al Bediwi, Head of Cyber Security. Both are based at the DFSA.

Can artificial intelligence have character? What’s it like to visualize the brain in VR? How can software be programmed to identify the biomarkers of disease or provide a diagnosis that is often more accurate than a human. How is haptic feedback making physical space more accessible to people of determination? This week we’re talking with Hailey Yoon, the founder of a Dubai technology practice called IO21, working to build new software products for private and government clients. Between 2017 – 2018, Hailey served as a Research Assistant at the Nuero Image Research and Analysis Lab at UNC Medical School in the United States. Here she developed the ‘Automatic Extra-Axial Cerebrospinal Fluid software, which aims to provide an early diagnosis for autism in infants. She holds a Bachelor in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is currently sitting exams right here in Dubai as a part-time student at Stanford University, completing a Postgraduate qualification in Artificial Intelligence - more on that later. After volunteering at the UNC Children’s hospital, Hailey developed an interest in autism and in engineering accessible technologies for people of determination. Her programming and design methodology combine a love for the cutting edge tech, with a human first philosophy. And while 1021 still seems to be searching for a product-market fit on its core services, the company has time to grow… after all, Hailey is twenty-four years old. Full article: https://www.albawaba.com/business/uae-tech-podcast-hailey-yoon-haptic-feedback-neurotech-and-coding-character-artificial

One reasons for a lack of outside investment in the Middle East tech industry is a lack of reliable data. Over the past decade Venture Capital (VC) has been slowly transforming the SME space, but mapping this process hasn’t always been easy. That's why this week we're talking with Philip Bashosy, the founder of MAGniTT, to explore MENA's increasingly confident venture capital (VC) industry. We'll be going into a deep-dive into the kind of investment data that less than a decade ago, simply did not exist. How has has COVID-19 affected investor sentiment in the region? How have entrepreneurs been affected? Why are pre-existing trends in E-commerce and FinTech accelerating across the region?

This week we’re talking with Paul Bogan, Chief Digital Officer for Serco Middle East. Serco is a British company providing public services support to governments around the world. Serco have a compelling vantage point on the mega-trends shaping how data is driving government services, how robots work in real life - and not just in the movies - or how COVID-19 is accelerating digital adaptation within large organizations. For reasons of client confidentiality it’s often difficult to go into technical or case study specifics. What is clear, is that things are changing fast, and changing globally.

How are blockchain technology and the wider battle for '#FreedomontheInternet' related? Why is a decentralized index the future of the Web? What are “walled gardens” and why does the “Web 3.0” need to replace them? Finally, how can we code our values in cyberspace? To talk about these issues, Amy and Devon James from Alexandria Labs joined the UAE Tech Podcast to discuss their pioneering work on the Open Index Protocol and a more fun, sovereign and creative Internet.

This week we’re talking with Alessandro Casucio of CONVZ Analytics, on the evolution of the region’s now booming e-commerce sector. Alessandro Casuccio arrived in the UAE eight years ago, shortly before e-commerce was to witness a massive surge in growth. At that time the e-commerce ecosystem in MENA was working hard to solve challenges in logistics, supply-chain management and online payment infrastructure. After working with Noon, Namshi, Careem and others Casuccio had the market insight required to begin his own company. His focus was on data; specifically the data that would help clients better understand things like customer acquisition, customer conversion, retention, or data-synergies and insights across divisions.

Danish Farhan describes himself as someone who is “building nations with stories.” His personal story, and the story of Xische and Co, the company he founded as a nineteen year old, are intimately connected to several of the trends taking place in the UAE right now. Danish and his team have been directly involved in everything from Smart City Planning, to co-authoring Dubai's Blockchain strategy to projects that involve auditing happiness or collaborating with a government backed future technology accelerator. As such, Danish is the perfect person to introduce and provide an overview to how government and technology are merging inside the UAE, at the same time as influencing the rest of the world. UAE Tech Podcast is an exploration on how technology is merging with and reshaping government in the United Arab Emirates.

UAE Tech is an exploration on how technology is merging with government in the United Arab Emirates. In this promo edition we’re really lucky to have the inimitable John McAfee help us launch the series. In America, the UK and CommonWealth John is a household name. For our listeners in the Middle East, John is the mind behind the first ever commercial antivirus software. McAffee antivirus sold to Intel in 2011 in a deal valued at $7.68 billion dollars. In the intervening years, John McAfee has become known for a libertarian political position in part driven by the possibilities of technology. His interests in cybersecurity, freedom from government interference and network science have drawn him towards Bitcoin, the blockchain and Satoshi Nakamoto’s famous white paper on a peer to peer electronic cash system. This conversation with McAffee is not UAE specific, but it does highlight two themes at the center of this series. The first is how emerging technologies like cryptocurrency are breaking down national borders and established financial and political systems. The second is how governments themselves are responding to co-opt or merge with these very same technologies.