Fixer, Financier, Spymaster: How the UAE’s Sheikh Tahnoon is Setting His Sights on AI Dominance
Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert is quoted in the Guardian about Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s increasing influence on AI dominance.
How the UAE’s Sheikh Tahnoon is Setting His Sights on AI Dominance
Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert is quoted in an article in the Guardian about Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s increasing influence on AI dominance. “For the last 20 years, democracy has been in decline,” says Deibert. “That happens to coincide with an enormous expansion of digital surveillance capabilities for both commercial and national security purposes. The epicentre of a lot of this is the UAE. And where do all roads lead in the UAE? They lead to Sheikh Tahnoon.”
The article states that Sheikh Tahnoon is embedding himself in the infrastructure that “will underpin our digital future” and that his power is going to extend over more human lives than ever before because he is one of the most influential AI financiers in the world.
The Guardian also cited the Citizen Lab’s 2016 investigation into NSO Group’s hacking of activist Ahmed Mansoor to show how those controlling technology can weaponize it to surveille, intimidate, and silence dissent.
