The National Programme for Artificial Intelligence announced that Dubai Municipality and the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) have joined the AI software platform “AI Code Hub”.

The initiative aims to promote exchange of knowledge and technological expertise and avail open-source software to all programmers, developers and experts working in the field of programming and AI, and enhance the efficiency of government, private and academic entities in the UAE and worldwide.

Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, stated that sharing resources and expertise with government, private, academic and research entities in the UAE is an important pillar for accelerating the achievement of future goals.

This shall contribute to boosting technological R&D and supporting data collection and analysis processes, thus encouraging national and international expertise to develop open-source projects and support the UAE’s leadership in the field of AI.

He added that “AI Code Hub” works as an important reference for anyone wishing to develop AI-specialised projects leveraging open-source software and successful experiences in providing innovative solutions, while saving time, costs and effort. He called upon all programmers, developers, government and private entities to share their software projects on the platform and spread the benefit in this vital field.

RTA shared two open-source projects on the platform. The first project relies on developing algorithms using the latest image processing techniques to make sure that passengers wear their masks public means of transportation supervised by the RTA, and maintain the health and safety of community members.

The second project aims to employ state-of-the-art programming techniques to automatically classify articles according to their topics, using AI algorithms specialised in natural language processing. This makes it easier for users to search for the topics they want quickly, smoothly and effectively.

Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) stated, “RTA is proud to participate in the “AI Code Hub”, which goes in line with its AI strategy focusing on digital transformation and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), and in response to the directives of the UAE wise leadership to enhance the country’s leading position as a global hub for future technology adoption and development, and leverage smart technologies to promote society happiness by providing best services.”

The Dubai Municipality team developed a search engine that allows customers to use voice commands or send images to find the required service.

Dawood Al Hajri, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, highlighted, “We shared our project to identify images using AI techniques, implemented within the Dubai Municipality App, on the platform. It includes a search engine that provides information on all Dubai Municipality services using image analysis and machine learning technologies. In the next phase, our aim is to rely more on AI techniques and solutions to enhance digital economy, enable remote work applications, and promote the adoption of artificial intelligence.”