Egypt’s youth is strong in the tech field, says CEO Haider Ghaleb
The World Youth Forum agenda evolved around three keywords: Peace, Development and Creativity — Today’s interests among the youth, and that are important to discuss and take action upon.
The WYF, an event that took place from the 3rd to the 6th of November 2018, aimed at empowering youth from all around the world to take leadership of the future, by displaying and sharing their exponential ideas to embassies and startups from the MENA. It is also a place where decision-makers gather to discuss current demanded tech trends, such as ‘Job Opportunities in the age of AI’, where Haider Ghaleb, the CEO of The D. took part in.
The multicultural conference got together people from all around the world: Asia, Africa, South America, Europe; all in one place. “It was a very rewarding experience to be able to meet individuals from different parts of the globe, to have the chance to discuss and share together ideas of how to promote peace talks and dialogues, in order to tackle the world’s greatest challenges,” said Tarek EzzEldin, Business Manager of The D..
The forum hosted different workshops and talks about climate change and water security. Also, the role of Artificial Intelligence in developing humanity’s future, as well as the importance of Social Media: a double-edged sword that can either benefit or act against the development of a society.
From all these topics, there were many inspirational leaders that attended the event and that The D. team had the chance to meet. One of them was Ahmed Rashad Riad has extensive experience in Machine Learning and is currently working as a Programme Coordinator at the United Nations. He has also worked for Ericsson and Nokia.
Representing the climate change fight was Flavia Bellaguarda, Lawyer on Climate Change and Co-Founder of Youth Climate Leaders (YCL). She has been working over four years at iClima, the Brazilian Institute for Climate Change.
Every year, about 9 million people die from pollution, which is the equivalent number of the population in New York City. 92% of these deaths occur in low-to-middle income countries.
According to the Copenhagen Consensus Center, air pollution kills around 1 in every 26 persons between both indoor and outdoor intoxication in Brazil alone. So having role models like her attending the WYF is key to take the first steps to change and educate and inspire youth to take the lead into making a positive change in the world.
Among the WYF’s attendees was also Lindsey Marie, president of World Youth Parliament for Water. Lindsey, as she explains, leads the WYPW by driving a 3-year strategic plan that aims to mobilize on-ground water projects and educational initiatives for youth, to mobilize youth involvement in the decision making processes revolved around water in their local communities and countries, and to establish new partnerships for the network.
Today, 1 in 9 people in the world lacks access to safe water. That’s a total of 844 million people living without access to water, and 2.3 billion people without access to improved sanitation, according to Water.Org.
People like Lindsey Marie are doing their best to inspire awareness and responsibility for the youth around the world to lead the way to sustainability when it comes to using responsibly the natural resources our planet provides.
Finally, we also met Patrick Winsent, CEO of Fondberg & Wincent, where he and his team work in digital stress management for companies and organizations, to help them create sustainable behaviors within the digital working environment of their partners.
Patrick specializes in and tackles social media addiction. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… all these platforms allow people to feel a sense of belonging and relevance that they may struggle to establish or receiving in real life.
3.1 billion people worldwide are social media users, out of these 210 million are estimated to be addicted. Youth spending more than 5 hours per day online are most likely to develop depressive symptoms and 10% of them check their phones at night multiple times. Also, 71% of people sleep with or beside their phone, and 50% of drivers use their phones while driving to check their social media profiles. (Source: MediaKix).
We, The D., are a team specialized in Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity, and we believe in the power of technology to create solutions that matter.
That is why our CEO, Haider Ghaleb, took part in a debate called ‘Job Opportunities in the age of AI’. During this conversation, there was a common agreement that AI will change and shape the world. The group had the chance to discuss the positive outcomes of what Artificial Intelligence can bring to the job market and how it can impact the economy, globally and locally. Also, what can AI do for the youth and the outputs we are reaching with technology.
To put things in perspective, Haider Ghaleb began his topic with the basics that there is narrow and general AI.
Narrow AI is when an AI can only handle one specific task at a time. General AI, is a system that is able to handle any general task, just like a human.
Experts on the field have had the chance to make machines learn to complete specific tasks, now the next objective is to make machines learn how to handle different tasks based on general ‘experience’ and referring back to previously achieved goals.
Knowing that machines are learning or will eventually be able to reach general AI, changes the world as we know it in many ways:
“AI puts everyone on the same page: there is no such thing as first, second or third world country,” said Haider during the debate.
The world needs to start talking with tech people, start thinking exponentially, and think about how to create solutions that will positively impact people’s lives.
It was an impact-driven panel: It was agreed that the more you use AI, the more number of jobs it will kill. On the other hand, however, the more new jobs it will create as well.
“If Egypt joins the Artificial Intelligence movement, it will leapfrog massively because we have a strong, great community in the tech field,” said Haider Ghaleb.
You may find more information about the WYF in its social media links:
