Dr Khulood Almani Podcast Transcript
Dr Khulood Almani joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Dr Khulood Almani. Dr Khulood Almani is an entrepreneur and globally recognized AI and technology leader and a university professor with over 15 years of experience in the field. She is a prominent Saudi figure who is passionate about driving digital transformation and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship.
Dr. Almani’s expertise and dedication make her a powerful force in the global tech community, driving innovation and supporting the next generation of digital leaders. Her recognition as one of the top global women in tech and among the most powerful global thought leaders in AI underscores her influence and impact in shaping the future of technology.
She serves as the United Nations Ambassador for Women Empowerment and Peace and was the first Saudi to be appointed as Senator of the G20 World Business Angels Investment Forum, representing Saudi Arabia. She’s also a board member of the World Smart Cities Economic Development Commission and a board member of the Global Science Technology and Innovation Committee, both operating under the auspices of the G20.She has received a number of awards and accolades globally.
Well, good afternoon, Dr. Khulood Almani. Welcome to the show!
Khulood Almani: Hi, Brian. Thank you very much for having me. And I really appreciate your introduction and I’m excited to start our conversation today. Thank you.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. And I appreciate you making the time hailing out of the great country of Saudi Arabia.
I know sometimes making time zones and times and appointments is hard to do across the globe, but I do appreciate you making the time and Dr. Almani, we’re going to jump right into your 1st question here. Recently, your company, HKB Tech, has established the Saudi AI hub center of excellence. Could you tell us a little bit more about it?
Khulood Almani: Well, yeah, recently we established the Saudi AI center of excellence, which is under the umbrella of our company, HKB tech, and we’re working here in collaboration with California Institute of technology. And in that space, we also sign strategic partnerships with major international technology companies, namely speaking about Google, Amazon Web Services, and NVIDIA.
And this is all as part of a global team through which we target high impact AI projects and are keen to invest in AI infrastructure. With the, you know, aim to fuel innovation and enhanced collaboration. And this is all, you know, with the goal of driving digital economic growth, both, you know, locally and globally.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I appreciate that. And I love collaboration across the globe, obviously, but amongst many great companies do appreciate that. And Dr. Almani, you also recently registered a patent for an AI product that is the first of its kind in the world and are currently building this AI product that will launch soon. Could you provide our audience with an overview?
Khulood Almani: Yeah, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak about the system, which I’m really excited about. And this system actually aims to serve the sports sector. And it’s a smart, interactive e shirt that is used by football players. And is composed of IOT devices that are very precisely woven into the fabric, measuring the player’s feeling of pain, fatigue, and stress.
So, this system you know, simply sends those signals of pain, fatigue, and stress via a local cloud to a central super app. In which AI technology is deployed there to analyze all the data collected immediately and in real time, sending alerts and signals to coaches of the need to replace a specific player at a specific given time.
While also making a suggested list of players who can be replaced during specific periods of the match. And this is all used done through AI and this is actually, you know, the list is based on the player’s condition again, in terms of their feeling of pain, fatigue, stress, alongside other vital signs.
But I just need to, you know, point out something that the use cases of this system can be extended even beyond sports to health care and other applications as well, such as military and paramilitary sectors. guys. Now, so this is simply, you know, the patent, which we are currently on, you know, the stages, we are closing the prototype very soon by the end of June.
Now, in the sports sector again, we have another, we’re currently at HKB Tech, we’re developing and building an AI platform. That aims to detect referees and players’ errors in football matches, which we call beyond VAR technology. You know, VAR technology normally doesn’t involve AI and we are through this platform.
We’re using or we’re building an AI model that is trained on huge volume of video recordings, reaching 300,000 video clips. And this, the aim is to analyze football matches using FIFA rules with high precision, mainly to detect errors of referees and players, including basically four points offside, penalties, fouls, and handballs.
And this platform also includes AI analytics of players’ historical performance, comparing this to their previous matches and previous seasons. So in simple words, we can say that this platform could be used by referees, coaches, and also fans to follow their favorite teams and their favorite players. So now I have spoken about, you know our work and our projects in HKB tech in the sports industry.
Now, moving forward, we are also building another AI product, which is aimed for AI drug discovery product, actually, and this is in collaboration with NVIDIA. By the way, we also were happy to be part of NVIDIA’s Inception program. So we are part of their acceleration program where they have previously been incubating and had open AI, you know, open AI was part of the Inception program.
And we are among the first ones in the Middle East to be under their, their Inception program to be accepted there. And this is really a privilege. So in collaboration with NVIDIA, we are building the software that uses AI to analyze existing drugs and their effects in a way that suggests the new therapeutic applications.
Let me give you an explanation. For example, let’s say, for example, that we have a drug that is used to treat a specific disease. This same drug may be effective at the same time to treat another disease. And what does this, you know, help in? Well, ultimately, this would reduce the cost and help pharma companies expand the circle of treatment of diseases.
So, this is actually simply, you know, the aim of this AI drug discovery product. And it’s one of the new products globally. And NVIDIA is having, you know, great R& Ds in that space. And we are, you know, very keen to have a successful project launched soon. so much.
Brian Thomas: Great. I appreciate that. Dr. Almani. There’s a lot of things, obviously, that’s keeping you very busy and up at night, but I really love the technology, how you’re infusing some of the VR and AI into the sports activities in football, especially. I think that’s amazing. And Dr. Almani, the AI hub center of excellence that you establish plays an important role in the next significant change in climate tech and the advancement of in developing a number of AI and climate tech products and solutions that are the first of their kind in the world with intellectual property rights of HKB tech. How is your company preparing to be a part of that change?
Khulood Almani: I love this question, Brian. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. Well, in the climate tech space, we’re currently implementing an innovative solution designed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into useful products.
You know, such innovations are very important today, especially in the space of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and this really has the potential to play a crucial role in achieving global climate goals, which is actually today a key focus for governments and businesses alongside research centers around the world.
And, you know, Brian you know I consider this part of my role as a woman in deep tech diplomacy. In my capacity as the UN ambassador for women empowerment and peace, and we find ourselves today, and especially in recent years, we see that there has been a considerable amount of attention driven towards sustainability and sustainable digital transformation and innovation.
And, you know, many people are questioning why is this happening? Well, the simple answer to such a question is that sustainability concerns are becoming more and more of great significance for both governments and policy makers in planning their strategies and policies towards SDGs. With the ultimate goal of satisfying the national economy’s needs for natural resources without compromising the needs of future generations.
Now, today, in my capacity, I would, you know, as part of the, and we stand at the convergence Brian of 3 main dimensions, namely speaking about deep tech. Sustainability and diplomacy. And this convergence, from my perspective, I think that it holds great potential to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity.
And this is all in the quest to reshape the future of our planet. We really need to harness the power of emerging technologies, which are namely AI, quantum computing, biotech, and climate tech. And those are the four main ones, along others, you know. So, this actually would involve adopting eco friendly practices.
And finding creative and efficient solutions to address, you know, the most pressing environmental challenges we are witnessing today, such as pollution. And carbon emission, but there’s another important thing that I need to stress on and it’s worth mentioning that such technologies can raise multiple challenges.
In relation to, let’s say, for example, AI ethics, data, privacy, data, security, and bias. And, you know, those challenges, Brian, you know, are calling for the enforcement of laws and regulations by policy makers to enforce AI governance in the quest to obtain responsible AI. Now, in that space, Diplomacy plays a pivotal role in this convergence in facilitating, you know, collaboration and knowledge exchange among nations, businesses and organizations.
But the question is how now, how could this be done? Well, let me say that the only way to reach these goals is by fostering partnerships and agreements that would prioritize sustainability and leverage deep tech solutions for positive global change. Let me give you Brian, for instance, the international agreements on climate action.
These agreements actually demonstrate. The power of diplomatic efforts in addressing pressing environmental issues and these agreements, not only set targets for net 0 carbon emission. But also encourage innovation, so just, you know, to sum up, it’s essential actually, from my point of view, for policymakers, technologists, and diplomats.
To work together, collaboratively, why? Because we need to all together work together to leverage the potential of innovation and technology prioritizing, you know, environmental challenges and fostering global collaboration and cooperation in a way that would pave the way for a more, you know, sustainable world for us and for, you know, the, the future generation.
Brian Thomas: Thank you, Dr. Almani. I appreciate you unpacking all that. There’s quite a bit there. Obviously, again, we mentioned in your previous answer that you’ve got a lot of projects going on, and I can only hope to understand someday how you sleep at night with all the stuff that you’re working on. So, I appreciate that.
Khulood Almani: I’m not sleeping to be honest, Brian. Even my weekends are full of work.
Brian Thomas: Yeah. I appreciate that. Really do. Dr. I’m on the last question of the day. What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture in the deep tech industry?
Khulood Almani: This is a wonderful question. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to, you know, to, to give some advice from my, you know, my personal experience, you know, my advice to such entrepreneurs is that they need to stay informed.
Try to be more innovative and most importantly, is that they need to collaborate with experts in the field. Again, I urge them to be creative and think out of the box in a way that will allow them to develop sustainable solutions that would help in addressing, you know, environmental problems. Another important thing that I would stress is the importance of embracing challenges as learning opportunities and trying to be resilient, never give up.
And most importantly, they need to stay committed to The vision, you know, and you know, speaking about myself, I’m always committed to my vision and always try to make a positive impact on the environment you’re living in through trying to harness technologies and innovations in that in the in a quest of serving your environment and your society.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I really do appreciate everything that you’ve shared with us today. You obviously are a leader in your space and you inspire so many people, especially the younger budding entrepreneurs that would like to follow in your footsteps. So, Dr. Almani, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Khulood Almani: Brian, I’m, I’m very pleased and delighted to be with you today and thank you for this opportunity you’ve given me on your amazing channel. This was a great episode. I really enjoyed and look forward to future conversations and discussions. Thank you so much. Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Dr Khulood Almani Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
