Abu Dhabi: Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Diab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice Chairman of the Presidential Court for Development Affairs and Martyrs' Families, the International Dialogue Session on Proactive Humanitarian Action Using Artificial Intelligence, organized by the Office of Development Affairs at the Presidential Court, concluded.

The session discussed ways to bridge the gap in predicting humanitarian crises and ensure proactive action to provide urgent relief, and discussed a set of proposed ideas to deal with future crises early using smart algorithms.

In his opening speech, His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, stressed that artificial intelligence opens new horizons for the humanitarian sector and enhances its readiness and ability to anticipate crises and deal with them more efficiently, pointing out that the analytical and predictive capabilities provided by advanced technologies today enable humanitarian authorities to understand challenges before they occur and anticipate future requirements.

His Excellency said that the next phase will witness a transformation in how we understand humanitarian requirements, set priorities and direct international efforts, driven by advanced technologies that open the way for more effective business models in supporting societies and enhancing their resilience, stressing that the future of artificial intelligence requires broader partnerships between governments, international organizations, the private sector and technical institutions to ensure that technologies are directed to the service of humans, stressing that the success of artificial intelligence is measured by its ability to make a positive impact on the life of society.

Jan Rylander, Head of Resilient and Sustainable Development Strategies at the Development Centre of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said: "AI should be guided by clear principles of transparency, fairness and accountability, so that it serves the public good, not undermines it. At the session, we discussed several aspects related to the linkage between forecasting and action, including its operational and institutional dimensions. In my view, one area that deserves urgent attention is climate resilience planning, that is, to get a clear picture of how climate risks are changing down to the local level, where people live.

Greg Pooley, head of climate and innovation at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said: "We have powerful new tools to improve the way we can foresee disasters, yet we often respond in the humanitarian system after a crisis, so we need to take steps to bridge this gap between prediction and proactive action, and we need to harness the full potential of AI to help us know what we need to know ahead of time If we can ensure that everyone enjoys the benefits of early action equally, it has the potential to improve our humanitarian response in ways previously unimaginable.

A group of international experts in the fields of humanitarian work and artificial intelligence, representing several international organizations, participated in the session to discuss the role of employing artificial intelligence tools in providing the necessary assistance to those in need in a timely manner, the existing and various initiatives in the humanitarian work system, and the importance of unifying these initiatives and achieving the necessary integration for them.

The participants discussed the most prominent challenges facing the expansion of the use of artificial intelligence within the humanitarian system, which are to lay the right foundation for data, overcome financial challenges and various obstacles, and the importance of developing a forecasting system to ensure four essential axes to support the humanitarian system, namely: helping to expand the scope of success stories and practices, addressing the necessary challenges and providing vital capabilities, and providing space to test AI applications.