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The Shura Council took part in a three-day parliamentary conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, under the theme "The Role of Parliaments in Shaping the Future of Responsible Artificial Intelligence." The event was jointly organised by the Malaysian House of Representatives, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the UN Development Programme, and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.Shura Council members His Excellency Abdulla bin Jaber al-Lebdah and His Excellency Mohammed bin Omar al-Mannai represented the council at the conference.Participants discussed a range of issues related to the development of artificial intelligence, including its impact on societies, accompanying economic shifts, and ways to establish effective regulatory and legislative frameworks to ensure its safe and responsible use.Discussions also addressed digital governance, privacy and data protection, and the role of parliaments in oversight, narrowing the digital divide, and strengthening public trust. Participants highlighted the need for international co-operation and unified standards to confront cross-border challenges.In their final statement, participants underscored the need for global AI regulation that ensures responsible and equitable use of the technology, prevents monopolisation, and avoids its misuse in ways that could undermine institutional trust. They also called for accelerated legislation and oversight, harmonising laws with international standards, boosting transparency, governance and data protection, building parliamentary capacities, launching national dialogues and clear ethical frameworks, raising public awareness, establishing specialised regulatory bodies, and sharing expertise through international co-operation. 

Investors will look in the coming week for signals about profitability for artificial intelligence companies, as well as the broader economy's health, to steady the US equity market.Stocks rebounded this week from their biggest pullback since April, helped by a firming conviction that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in December. But some of the market's heavyweight shares remained volatile. Big moves in Nvidia and Alphabet, for instance, were driven by developments in AI.Equities are poised to maintain this sensitivity, investors said, after concerns about overheated valuations took some of the steam out of a trade that has propelled markets higher this year."The narrative surrounding the profitability of AI is coming under question," said Matthew Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak. "If that becomes a bigger issue as we move through December, that's going to be a big problem for the market."The benchmark S&P 500 is up about 16% in 2025, heading into a year-end period that tends to be strong. December ranks as the index's third-best-performing month, with a 1.43% average gain since 1950, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. However, investors are wary of signs of waning risk appetite. Among them is the slide in bitcoin, which in recent days has dropped below $90,000 from over $125,000 in early October."Bitcoin serves as a risk proxy for equities, so we'll be monitoring it closely," said King Lip, chief strategist at BakerAvenue Wealth Management.With the rebound, the S&P 500 on Wednesday was 1% off its late-October all-time high, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 3% from its late-October peak. Technology stocks have weighed on indexes as questions emerge about the timing of returns on massive spending investments in AI infrastructure. Wall Street was also watching fallout from a rush of debt issuance by major tech companies to fund their AI expansions."Investors are starting to rethink how quickly some of this... is going to have an impact on bottom lines," said Paul Nolte, senior wealth adviser and market strategist at Murphy & Sylvest Wealth Management. Investors' spotlight this week fell particularly on Alphabet, which had been seen as an AI laggard but whose shares have soared in recent months, pushing its market value up to around $4tn. The Google parent has won strong early reviews for its new Gemini 3 AI model. A report this week that Meta Platforms was in talks to spend billions of dollars on Google's chips rattled shares of semiconductor giant Nvidia, which has been the darling of the AI trade.Economic releases in the coming week cover manufacturing and services activity, and consumer sentiment. Earnings reports are also due from cloud software provider Salesforce and retailers including Kroger and Dollar Tree as a generally strong third-quarter reporting season for US companies comes to a close.Investors will be eager for any clues about the economic backdrop from those reports, as well as from early indications about holiday consumer spending following Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail sales events.Many of the data releases that investors rely on to gauge the economy's health have been delayed or cancelled due to the 43-day US government shutdown that ended this month.It may not be until releases arrive in January that investors get a more complete view of the economy, said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial."Investors are going to have to deal with this fog... through year-end," Saglimbene said. Despite the cloudy economic picture, traders have increased bets the Federal Reserve will cut rates at its December 9-10 meeting following comments from several central bank officials indicating willingness to ease policy.Fed funds futures late on Wednesday reflected over 80% odds that the central bank will cut by another quarter percentage point at the meeting, according to CME FedWatch, after such odds showed roughly a coin flip last week.Prospects of more monetary easing could benefit broader parts of the market beyond the tech and AI stocks that have dominated this year. For example, rate-sensitive shares of smaller companies have outperformed in recent days."What I'm watching is through year-end if we do see the Fed cut rates, can we see more positive momentum in other areas outside of technology?" Saglimbene said. 

The Civil Service and Government Development Bureau (CGB) concluded Thursday the activities of the First Gulf Forum on Artificial Intelligence in Civil Service, discussing innovative solutions otwards sustainable civil service. The forum was organized in collaboration with the Sultanate of Oman as part of the initiatives of the Technical Committee for Civil Service and Human Resources Affairs in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The forum was attended CGB's Director General Saif bin Ali Al Kaabi, along with representatives from ministries and civil service authorities across the GCC, as well as specialists and employees from human resources and information systems departments. The event focused on showcasing leading Gulf experiences in leveraging artificial intelligence technologies to enhance government work efficiency, strengthen administrative system flexibility, and support smart institutional transformation in the civil service sector. The forum's activities included presentations by various Gulf entities, highlighting practical applications of AI in human resource management and the improvement of government services. A panel discussion was also held to explore the impact of smart solutions on the future of civil service. The forum's recommendations emphasized the importance of enhancing digital integration across the GCC, showcasing successful models and experiences in AI applications to improve government services, and supporting the path toward smart transformation in public administration. Additionally, the recommendations called for the establishment of a Gulf network to exchange expertise and best practices in the field of artificial intelligence, as well as encouraging institutional partnerships across the region to foster digital innovation and support smart transformation systems. 

Since the launch of ChatGPT three years ago, analysts and technologists — even a Google engineer and the company’s former chief executive officer — have declared Google behind in the high-stakes race to develop artificial intelligence.Not anymore.The internet giant has released new AI software and struck deals, such as a chip tie-up with Anthropic PBC, that have reassured investors the company won’t easily lose to ChatGPT creator OpenAI and other rivals. Google’s newest multipurpose model, Gemini 3, won immediate praise for its capabilities in reasoning and coding, as well as niche tasks that have tripped up AI chatbots. Google’s cloud business, once an also-ran, is growing steadily, thanks in part to the global rush to develop AI services and demand for compute.And there are signs of rising demand for Google’s specialised AI chips, one of the few viable alternatives to Nvidia Corp’s dominant gear. A report on Monday that Meta Platforms Inc is in talks to use Google’s chips sent shares of its parent Alphabet Inc climbing. The stock has added nearly $1tn in market capitalisation since mid-October, helped by Warren Buffett taking a $4.9bn stake during the third quarter and broader Wall Street enthusiasm for its AI efforts.Alphabet shares rose 1.5% to $323.44 in New York on Tuesday, sending the company’s market capitalisation near $4tn.SoftBank Group Corp, one of OpenAI’s biggest backers, fell 10% Tuesday on worries about the competition from Google’s Gemini. Nvidia shares dropped 2.6%, erasing $115bn in market value.“Google has arguably always been the dark horse in this AI race,” said Neil Shah, analyst and co-founder at Counterpoint Research. It’s “a sleeping giant that is now fully awake.”For years, Google executives have argued that deep, costly research would help the company fend off rivals, defend its turf as the leading search engine and invent the computing platforms of tomorrow. Then ChatGPT came along, presenting the first real threat to Google search in years, even though Google pioneered the tech underpinning OpenAI’s chatbot. Still, Google has plenty of resources that OpenAI doesn’t: a corpus of ready data to train and refine AI models; flowing profits; and its own computing infrastructure.“We’ve taken a full, deep, full-stack approach to AI,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, told investors last quarter. “And that really plays out.”Any concerns that Google might be held back by regulators are dying away. The company recently avoided the most severe outcome from a US anti-monopoly case — a breakup of its business — in part because of the perceived threat from AI newcomers. And the search giant has shown some progress in the longtime effort to diversify beyond its core business. Waymo, Alphabet’s driverless car unit, is coming to several new cities and just added freeway driving to its taxi service, a feat made possible by the company’s enormous research and investment.Some of Google’s edge comes from its economics. It’s one of the few companies that produces what the industry calls the full stack in computing. Google makes the AI apps people use, like its popular Nano Banana image generator, as well as the software models, the cloud computing architecture and the chips underneath. The company also has a data goldmine for constructing AI models from its search index, Android phones and YouTube — data that Google often keeps for itself. That means, in theory, Google has more control over the technical direction of AI products and doesn’t necessarily have to pay suppliers, unlike OpenAI.Several tech companies, including Microsoft Corp and OpenAI, have plotted ways to develop their own semiconductors or forge ties that make them less reliant on Nvidia’s bestsellers. For years, Google was effectively its own sole customer for its homegrown processors, called tensor processing units, or TPUs, which the company first designed more than a decade ago to speed up the generation of search results and has since adapted to handle complex AI tasks. That’s changing. AI startup Anthropic said in October said it would use as many as 1mn Google TPUs in a deal worth tens of billions of dollarsOn Monday, tech publication the Information reported that Meta planned to use Google’s chips in its data centres in 2027. Google declined to address the specific plans, but said that its cloud business is “accelerating demand” for both its custom TPUs and Nvidia’s graphics processing units. “We are committed to supporting both, as we have for years,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement.Meta declined to comment on the report on Monday night.“We’re delighted by Google’s success,” a spokesperson for Nvidia said in a statement Tuesday. “They’ve made great advances in AI, and we continue to supply to Google.” The spokesperson added: “Nvidia is a generation ahead of the industry – it’s the only platform that runs every AI model and does it everywhere computing is done.”Analysts read the Meta news as a signal of Google’s success. “Many others have failed in their quest to build custom chips, but Google can clearly add another string to its bow here,” Ben Barringer, head of technology research for Quilter Cheviot, wrote in an email.Google has taken risks to get here.In early 2023, Google consolidated its AI efforts under Demis Hassabis, the leader of its London AI lab DeepMind. The reshuffle had some bumps, most notably a botched rollout of an image-generation product. For several years, DeepMind pursued research in areas like protein-folding that led to new commercial strategies (and a Nobel Prize) but contributed little to Google’s bottom line. Under the reorganisation, the AI unit is focused almost squarely on foundational models that keep pace with OpenAI, Microsoft and others.Hassabis, a renowned computer scientist, has helped retain key AI engineers despite multimillion-dollar offers from rivals. His boss, Pichai, has been willing to splurge on talent.Gemini 3 Pro has risen to the top of closely watched AI leaderboards on LMArena and Humanity’s Last Exam. Andrej Karpathy, a founding member of OpenAI, said it’s “clearly a tier 1 LLM,” referring to large language models. Google pitched the model as one that can solve complex science and math problems, and address nagging issues — such as generating images and overlaid text with incorrect spelling — that might deter enterprise customers from adopting AI services more widely.Consumer interest is harder to gauge. Google said last week that 650mn people use its Gemini app. OpenAI recently said ChatGPT hit 800mn weekly users. As of October, Gemini’s app had 73mn monthly downloads, well shy of ChatGPT’s 93mn monthly downloads, according to research firm Sensor Tower.Google is an advertising behemoth, but it has historically struggled to find other commercial models. Its cloud business reported third-quarter revenue of $15.2bn, up 34% from the prior year. Still, that remains in third-place behind Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, which posted more than double Google’s cloud sales in the most recent quarter. Counterpoint Research’s Shah said Google’s AI adoption with enterprises lags Microsoft and Anthropic.Meanwhile, OpenAI is targeting profits by selling a premium version of ChatGPT and adjacent software to companies. It’s cutting deals with chipmakers from Broadcom Inc to Advanced Micro Devices Inc to Nvidia to support its AI ambitions.Google’s TPUs are mostly attractive to a handful of companies with big computing bills, like Meta and Anthropic, said Meryem Arik, CEO of the AI startup Doubleword.And the chip industry is “not a zero-sum game with just one winner,” said Barringer.For one, AI developers can only access Google’s chips through the company’s own cloud service. They can use Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, more flexibly. “As soon as you use TPUs, you’re locked into” the Google cloud ecosystem, said Arik.Being tied to a single supplier might have been something companies avoided. That’s no longer the case for Google, thanks to its advances in AI.“It’s definitely fair to say that Google is back in the game with Gemini 3,” said Thomas Husson, analyst at Forrester. “In fact, to paraphrase a quote attributed to Mark Twain, reports of Google’s death have been widely exaggerated, not to say irrelevant.” 

Like everyone else, policymakers at the Federal Reserve are increasingly obsessed with artificial intelligence and its promise of a turbocharged economy. They’re just not ready to make a big call that the revolution is under way.Analysts across the financial world are scouring data for signs AI is making the economy more productive – the holy grail of new technology. The last sustained boost of that kind was the 1990s internet boom. Back then it shaped Fed policy: Chair Alan Greenspan reckoned innovation would allow faster growth without triggering inflation, and used that argument to keep interest rates down.Right now, US central bankers are in agreement that AI will be transformative — but essentially in “too early to tell” mode when it comes to how the effects will land. A more immediate concern is above-target inflation, leaving many policymakers opposed to rate cuts. Others put more weight on weak job markets and support further easing: AI’s ability to replace workers is part of that case, but not front-and-centre.Caution is par for the course, because technological leaps often take years to work their way through the economy and show up in data. But the Fed is under pressure at a pivotal time.Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends in six months. President Donald Trump says he’ll pick a successor committed to lower borrowing costs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who’s in charge of the selection process, says whoever gets the job should be open to making a Greenspan-style early call.In the first half of 2026, “AI implementation is just really going to start biting in terms of productivity,” Bessent told CNBC last month. “It would’ve been easy for Alan Greenspan to kill the internet boom, not be open to the idea that there was a productivity boom and slam on the brakes,” he said – adding that the next Fed chief should have “an open mind” on the topic.There are five names on Bessent’s shortlist. In recent weeks four of them signalled they’re receptive to his case.**media[385850]**Kevin Hassett, head of Trump’s National Economic Council, said AI is lifting worker productivity at a “remarkable rate”. BlackRock Inc executive Rick Rieder said “we are in a productivity revolution”. Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “AI will be a significant disinflationary force, increasing productivity and bolstering American competitiveness”.Current Governor Christopher Waller sounded a little more cautious, saying he has “no doubt” AI will boost the economy and is “hoping” for sustained productivity growth. The fifth candidate, Vice-Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, has tended to discuss AI more in the context of regulatory work she oversees.All of this suggests AI is set to take up an ever-growing share of Fed attention – and of course its implications for the economy go far beyond the central bank’s interest rates.The rush to develop AI is already driving a large portion of US growth, not to mention a stock market that many believe is in bubble territory. Businesses and consumers are rapidly adopting the technology. For the economy, as well as for equity valuations, the big question is: what’s the output from all these inputs?That boils down to productivity, or how much workers can produce using the available tools. Numbers are volatile and notoriously hard to parse, but they’ve picked up lately and some economists think it’s an early AI effect.The St Louis Fed has been asking workers in regular surveys how many hours they saved by using generative AI. Researchers found it may have boosted labour productivity by as much as 1.3% since the release of ChatGPT three years ago.“What surprised me was how clearly the signal is already appearing at the industry level,” says co-author Alexander Bick. “The correlation is already there.”For anyone trying to answer this key question — whether it’s Fed officials, corporate chiefs or investors — there’s a fundamental problem, according to Kristina McElheran of the University of Toronto, who studies AI and the future of work. There’s a lack of “nuanced, high-fidelity data on AI use by firms”, she says, while many of the headline-grabbing studies are based on “really questionable information”.“We are flying blind into this AI revolution,” McElheran says. “We don’t have the statistics that we need for policy. We don’t have the statistics we need for managers.” As a result, all modellers can do is “take past trends and try to fit them onto stuff that’s happening super-fast right in front of us”.Business owners who are adopting AI get the real-time view, and many see dramatic gains in productivity.Peter Capuciati’s company Bluon Inc has been building an AI model with a database that covers generations of HVAC equipment, using insights amassed by its own technicians answering several years’ worth of calls, as well as tens of thousands of manuals. Around 160,000 technicians now use the free version and some 13,000 pay for the full service. Capuciati reckons it can save them up to eight hours a week.“Techs don’t like to admit that they have a problem or they don’t know something,” Capuciati says. “So if they can go to an AI source and either confirm their assessment or be guided elsewhere, that’s a very time-saving process.”Christopher Stanton at Harvard Business School has been tracking Bluon’s deployment of AI. He sees it as a winning formula for higher productivity in an industry running low on skilled workers.“The machine is simply augmenting that human with information about how to do those things,” he said. “It’s a very powerful driver, especially in places where we think there are labour shortages.”There’s a darker flipside to that idea, which taps into some of the fears around AI. A technology that allows fewer workers to generate the same output could be an effective way to fill labour-market gaps — or a job-killer that leaves workers with nowhere else to go.Typically when the economy takes a technological leap forward it finds ways to redeploy labour. While the 1990s internet boom ended in a stock-market bust, its productivity legacy ran for around a decade and has yet to be matched.Back then, according to Julia Coronado, founder of Macropolicy Perspectives LLC, companies were taking advantage of innovations to expand employment. Now she says they’re more likely to be using AI to reduce their workforce.The Fed’s recent Beige Book surveys cite evidence that AI is a drag on hiring demand, especially for entry-level jobs. A Capital Economics study points out that the information tech industry, not surprisingly an early adopter of AI, has been chipping in a bigger chunk of US growth even as its payrolls shrink — evidence of productivity gains, but also of risks as the technology spreads.That’s something on the mind of Robert Gordon, a professor at Northwestern University and author of “The Rise and Fall of American Growth.” Gordon, who’s among the most-cited scholars of long-run economic trends, has often been sceptical about the ability of new inventions to deliver a growth payoff on the scale that older ones did.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba reported a quarterly revenue bump on Tuesday, after shares rose on the blockbuster launch of a new artificial intelligence app downloaded more than 10mn times in a week.Analysts said the early success of the company's redesigned Qwen app positions it as a potential competitor to Chinese rival DeepSeek and OpenAI's ChatGPT.Alibaba said on Tuesday revenue in the three months ending September 30 totalled 247.8bn yuan ($35bn).That was a 5% jump on the 236.5bn yuan logged in the same quarter last year and beat analyst estimates of 245.2bn yuan."We have entered into an investment phase to build long-term strategic value in AI technologies and infrastructure," said Eddie Wu, Alibaba's chief executive officer."Robust AI demand further accelerated our Cloud Intelligence Group business, with revenue up 34 % and AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit year-over-year growth for the ninth consecutive quarter," Wu said.Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders for the quarter fell to 21bn yuan, down 52% on-year, the company said.Alibaba runs some of China's biggest online shopping platforms and wants to become a major player in the global race to develop AI technology.The Hangzhou-based company said in February it would spend at least 380bn yuan ($53bn) on artificial intelligence and cloud computing over the next three years.Wu said in September the company plans to increase that spending further.This approach has seen Alibaba's share price on Wall Street surge around 90% from this time a year ago — despite fears that AI-related stocks are overvalued worldwide and could crash.Its US shares closed 5% higher on Monday after the company said the Qwen app had surpassed 10mn downloads within the first week of its beta launch.Crystal Li and Tommy Wong of China Merchants Securities said last week that Qwen's launch was "supported by Alibaba's prolonged investment and cutting-edge capabilities in foundational models" for artificial intelligence.It could pave the way for the adoption of AI agents — programmes that use chatbots to do the work humans do online, such as buying a plane ticket or adding events to a calendar."Compared to ChatGPT's direct access to third-party apps, we believe Alibaba's self-developed comprehensive product ecosystem and free-to-use policy provide competitive advantages for Qwen app," Li and Wong wrote.Emily Jarvie of Proactive Investors also noted ahead of Tuesday's earnings release that "China is a key market for Qwen, as OpenAI's ChatGPT is not available"."Its rapid adoption makes it one of the fastest-growing AI apps in China," Jarvie said.Alibaba has also been in the headlines recently for other reasons, namely geopolitical tensions between China and the US.

The Smart City Expo Doha, slated from November 25-26 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC), will focus on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in fields such as mobility, design, and urban management.During the event, more than 30 international experts will discuss how technological advances will help develop and transform cities in the Middle East to make them more efficient, sustainable, and liveable. Under the slogan ‘Beyond Connectivity: A Digital Solutions Pathway to a Smarter, Thriving Future’, Smart City Expo Doha 2025 will feature five main thematic areas: ‘Intelligent Digital Innovation’, ‘Disruptive Technology’, ‘Digital Economies and Talent of the Future’, ‘Connected Infrastructures’, and ‘Government of the Future’.Among the most prominent speakers is Kent Larson, an MIT professor specialising in urban design, microhousing, and autonomous mobility, who will provide his vision of how technology and human vision can shape the cities of the future. Meanwhile, AI and innovation expert Jesus Serrano will focus on how to use new technologies to achieve real and effective solutions. Reem al-Mansoori, Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Industry Affairs at the MCIT, will discuss the Qatari government’s strategy on urban transformation.Ghanim al-Muftah, a Qatari entrepreneur and FIFA ambassador who suffers from a disease that limits his mobility, will share his powerful testimony of resilience as well as his vision for inclusive design with attendees. The event, organised by Fira de Barcelona and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), will be featured at the inaugural Mobile World Congress (MWC) Doha, also happening at the DECC.Organised by the GSMA, in collaboration with MCIT, the first MWC event in the Mena region is expected to bring together more than 200 speakers and more than 200 exhibitors. The Smart City Expo World Congress is the world’s leading event on smart cities, bringing together 1,190 companies, 600 experts, and over 27,000 visitors in its latest edition, held in Barcelona two weeks ago.The Doha edition is part of the programme of local editions of this event that Fira organised outside Spain in 2025, including those in New York (the US), Curitiba (Brazil), Puebla (Mexico), Santiago del Estero (Argentina), Santiago de Chile (Chile), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), and Tuesday.City in Shanghai (China).

The Artificial Intelligence and its Role in the Accounting and Auditing Profession conference commenced Wednesday, bringing together experts and professionals from Qatar and abroad to discuss the major transformations the sector is undergoing amid rapid advancements in modern technologies. The conference also explored the opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence presents to accounting and auditing practices.**media[383490]**Organised by the Qatar Association of Certified Public Accountants (QCPA) under the patronage of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the conference sessions focused on the latest AI tools used in accounting, their role in financial data analysis, the challenges associated with their implementation, and ways to enhance compliance and transparency and improve financial risk management using smart technologies.The conference also highlighted the importance of ethical considerations in employing AI in accounting, particularly regarding data privacy protection and information security, given their pivotal role in fostering confidence in the results of financial transactions.During the opening session, QCPA President, Dr. Hashim al-Sayed, affirmed that the world is witnessing numerous developments, most notably in information and communication technology, where AI has begun performing many tasks previously carried out by humans, across various fields.**media[383488]**The accounting profession was no exception; in fact, it is among the ones most affected by artificial intelligence, facing numerous challenges that have forced it to keep pace with change and development.In his address, Dr al-Sayed pointed out that AI has become a strategic partner for accountants, helping them improve quality and performance, and giving them time to develop their skills amidst the digital transformation that institutions are undergoing. He also called for updating academic programmes to keep pace with technological advancements and to enable members of the profession to acquire data analysis skills and work with smart tools.In a later session, QCPA Board member, Dr Ali al-Kubaisi, reviewed the challenges facing the application of artificial intelligence in accounting and auditing, explaining that these challenges are both local and global.He noted that among the most prominent local challenges are inconsistencies in data formatting across systems used, the presence of bilingual financial documents that reduce the accuracy of intelligent models, outdated information systems, and limited historical data. Globally, challenges include poor data quality due to a lack of consistency or completeness, the difficulty of interpreting the outputs of many AI models that operate as black boxes, high implementation costs, and cybersecurity risks that may introduce new vulnerabilities into financial systems.In a third session, QCPA board member, Abdullah al-Mansoori, spoke about sustainability in accounting and auditing in the age of artificial intelligence and the importance of linking the two. He addressed the concept of sustainability in the financial context, the relationship between sustainability and AI in accounting, sustainability in government accounting and the public sector, as well as the current challenges facing accounting in the era of AI and the professional risks associated with digital auditing.It is worth noting that the conference is part of the QCPA's efforts to enhance communication and exchange expertise among specialists, and to discuss the latest trends in AI and modern accounting technologies, in light of the radical transformation the sector is undergoing due to digital developments.

Turbulence in technology stocks could ratchet higher in the coming week as investors react to the quarterly report from Nvidia Corp, the world's largest company by market value that is at the heart of Wall Street's artificial intelligence trade. On Thursday, the benchmark S&P 500 equity index gave up gains from earlier in the week, as uncertainty about the economic outlook and path for US interest rates undercut optimism over the end of the longest-ever US government shutdown. Investors remained skittish about vulnerability to technology shares, which stumbled this month on concerns AI exuberance has driven up valuations to expensive levels. With its AI chips, semiconductor giant Nvidia has been a bellwether for the theme that has lifted shares of an array of tech names as well as other companies involved in the vast infrastructure expansion to support AI use. Nvidia is the "epicentre" of the build-out of AI, so its results after the bell on Wednesday will be important to the tech sector as well as areas such as industrials and utilities, said Matt Orton, chief market strategist at Raymond James Investment Management. "If you don't see the growth that I think the market is expecting around Nvidia or the positive commentary that we are likely to get from Nvidia going forward, I think you're going to see more of a dent to those sorts of trades," Orton said. Nvidia shares have soared about 1,000% since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. This includes a year-to-date gain of nearly 40% that made Nvidia the first company to surpass $5tn in market value last month. That market heft means the stock's moves can sway equity indexes. Nvidia carries an 8% weight in the S&P 500 and a roughly 10% weight in the widely followed Nasdaq 100. **media[381893]** Analysts on average expect the company to post a 53.8% year-over-year rise in fiscal third quarter earnings per share, on revenue of $54.8bn, according to LSEG. Analysts have also been getting more bullish about the company's future performance, with expectations for the company's fiscal 2027 revenue rising 15% since late May to about $285bn currently, according to LSEG data. "The assumptions that the market is making are positive, it's getting priced into the stock, and how the company guides will be very important," said Melissa Otto, head of research at S&P Global Visible Alpha. Investors will also focus on commentary from Nvidia related to demand or spending trends. Capital expenditures from hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Amazon earlier in the reporting season indicated no signs of slowing in the build-out of data centres and other AI infrastructure. "You're not supposed to have any weakness given all the capital spending commitments from various companies," said Jimmy Chang, chief investment officer of Rockefeller Global Family Office. "Demand should still be looking pretty solid in the current environment." Nvidia's report is one of the biggest remaining market catalysts in 2025. The S&P 500 is logging a roughly 15% year-to-date gain, but Wall Street is wary of concerns stocks are in an "AI bubble." Investors appear to be bringing more scrutiny to AI investment announcements, said James Ragan, co-CIO and director of investment management research at DA Davidson. **media[381894]** "We're moving into a stage where investors are going to demand a little bit more proof of concept in terms of what are the returns, what are the cash flows," Ragan said. Aside from Nvidia's results, quarterly earnings from retailers are due in the coming week including from Walmart and Home Depot. There could also be a batch of economic data releases that were delayed during the shutdown. While the S&P 500 tech sector has struggled so far this month, other sectors are logging solid gains in that time, including healthcare, materials and financials. "There's a realisation that for investors, maybe that AI is not the only game in town," Ragan said.

The Google team, including Executive Vice President of Generative Artificial Intelligence, Oliver Parker visited Al Jazeera Media Network’s headquarters on November 9 to discuss ways to collaborate in the fields of strategic development, artificial intelligence, and modern technologies, reported Al Jazeera Media Network.The delegation met with Sheikh Nasser bin Faisal al-Thani, Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network, where he highlighted that the Network is working towards establishing a global technological ecosystem to strengthen its position as a leading media institution in the field of adopting artificial intelligence technologies.In another meeting, the visiting delegation met with Ahmad Alyafei, Executive Director of Channels, Ahmad al-Fahad, Executive Director of Technology and Network Operations, Mounir Daymi, Executive Director of the Digital Division, Eman al-Amri, Director of Al Jazeera Media Institute, and the Network’s Strategy Review Committee.The Google team discussed with the Network Strategy Review Committee possible ways of co-operating and implementing Al Jazeera’s projects and creative initiatives to achieve the Network’s vision and goals.One of the most prominent projects presented at the meeting was the idea of the “The Core” project, the first integrated operational model that Al Jazeera is working to implement to integrate journalism with artificial intelligence technologies. It is redefining the formulation and production of news and making humans partners in the production process rather than just a user of technology and a recipient of news.The Google delegation included Yousri Mhedheb, Senior Digital Adviser of Google Cloud, Alex Rutter, EMEA Managing Director of AI, and Ghassan Kosta, Regional General Manager of Google Cloud, who expressed their pleasure to collaborate with Al Jazeera Media Network, as one of the leading media organisations in the region and the world.They toured Al Jazeera’s channels and newsrooms, and learned about the advanced technologies used in the production of media content.It is noteworthy that this meeting was preceded by a series of introductory meetings organised by the Network’s Strategy Review Committee with the Google team and its officials concerned with AI and cloud technologies, to discuss the mechanisms of joint co-operation between the two parties.

With artificial intelligence (AI) transforming every industry, including education, teachers around the world are navigating a complex new era. Despite growing enthusiasm for AI, many teachers remain underprepared to use it effectively; in Qatar, only 30% of surveyed teachers reported a strong understanding of how AI works in education.“This highlights a critical knowledge gap that must be addressed through targeted professional development,” said Reem al-Sulaiti, manager of Research and Policy at WISE, a global education think tank and an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF).Studies led by WISE in collaboration with USC Rossier School of Education, MIT Open Learning, and QF’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University offer a comprehensive view of how educators in diverse contexts are adopting AI tools to personalise learning, manage classrooms, and prepare students for an AI-driven future.These studies, spanning countries such as Qatar, the US, India, the Philippines, Colombia, Ghana, and Uganda, reveal both the promise and the pitfalls of AI in education. Qatar stands out in WISE’s global research as a country with advanced infrastructure and strong enthusiasm for AI in education, yet it still faces critical challenges in teacher readiness and equitable integration.“Despite Qatar’s robust digital infrastructure, the WISE research study in partnership with MIT found that many AI tools are not well integrated into Arabic-language platforms or aligned with local curricula,” al-Sulaiti said.“Teachers emphasised the need for culturally relevant and linguistically accessible tools that support differentiated instruction for diverse learners, including multilingual students and those with special needs.” Although across all five countries in the WISE research study in partnership with USC, 60% of teachers reported that AI helped them tailour instruction to meet diverse student needs – from adjusting content and pace to providing targeted support as enables more personalised learning experiences – many teachers noted that existing AI tools are poorly aligned with local curricula and cultural contexts.“We need AI that reflects our languages, our learners, and our goals,” al-Sulaiti said. WISE’s research also underscores the ethical complexities of AI in the classroom. Teachers expressed concerns about data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the potential for AI to reinforce existing inequalities.In the Global South, inconsistent access to devices, internet, and electricity means that AI tools often benefit high-performing, well-resourced students while leaving others behind. “Equity gaps don’t stem from AI itself but from whether teachers receive training in equitable, inclusive integration,” al-Sulaiti said. Teachers called for AI tools that support struggling learners, multilingual students, and those with special needs. They also stressed the need for institutional policies on data safety, academic integrity, and ethical AI use.

China’s dominance in clean energy has put the country on a singularly strong footing when it comes to competing with the rest of the world — particularly the US — in building artificial intelligence.That’s according to Julian Wentzel, chief sustainability officer at HSBC Holdings, who says an economy built on renewable energy brings with it advantages that can’t be replicated by fossil fuels.“China has put themselves in a very unique position in terms of the energy requirement to fuel their economy and ultimately their AI architecture,” Wentzel said in an interview.The vast build-out of clean energy in China — the country is on track to once again break its own record in installing renewable power this year — “enhances their cost of capital,” he said.Once renewable energy infrastructure is built and the upfront investment has been paid off, producing extra energy carries effectively no incremental cost; fossil fuels, in contrast, require ongoing costs for extraction, transport, refining and distribution, he said.“Once you’ve got the architecture in place, as the demand grows, you can deliver that demand at zero cost,” Wentzel said. As the “percentage cost of every incremental kilojoule of power relative to total GDP declines over time,” it becomes “a very powerful lever to the underlying growth of an economy.”The comments stand in contrast to the policy position of the government in the US, where Energy Secretary Chris Wright has argued that a rapid transition to clean energy will raise energy costs and hurt economic growth. And for now, fossil fuels continue to provide a major share of the energy powering AI data centres.Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said recently the supply of power, rather than the availability of semiconductors, accounted for the biggest bottleneck in data centre capacity. And by some estimates, the energy needs of existing and planned AI infrastructure in the US can’t be met with current supply.That dynamic has created an opportunity for oil majors to cash in on the enormous demand for energy that will be needed to power data centres. Chevron Corp said on Wednesday it will provide natural gas-fired power to a data centre in West Texas, the beginning of a new line of business for the company to capitalise on the AI boom.The global race to dominate AI depends on an array of factors that includes chips and supply chains as well as rare earths and key metals such as copper. But energy supply is key, and because renewables are low-cost to run once infrastructure is built, countries that have greater access to them have an advantage, Wentzel said.China is challenging developments in the West not just due to its dominance in cheap renewable energy, but also due to its approach to building artificial intelligence. That became apparent earlier this year, when startup DeepSeek indicated the country is capable of producing AI at a much lower cost and greater energy efficiency than US rivals.China’s growing dominance is also shaping talks at the COP30 summit in Belem, Brazil, where California Governor Gavin Newsom took several opportunities to warn that the US risks losing out on numerous fronts.One of the great abdications of the climate fight is “the own goal of the president of the US who simply doesn’t understand how enthusiastic President Xi is that the Trump administration is nowhere at COP30,” Newsom said.The US and legacy automakers “better wake up to that,” Newsom said at a press conference. “This is about economic power.”China manufactures about 80% of the world’s solar panels, supplies some 60% of the planet’s wind turbines, 70% of its electric vehicles and 75% of batteries, all at a lower financial cost than the West.To be sure, though China is adding unprecedented amounts of wind and solar, it’s still investing heavily in fossil fuels. That includes coal, which is one of the reasons the country produces almost 30% of global emissions.Wentzel said economies that rely more on clean energy are also more likely to reduce volatility in inflation.“Removing dependence on fuel commodities reduces capital account fluctuations, exposure to inflation and price swings,” he said. “As renewable systems scale, energy costs as a share of GDP can fall, strengthening the financial efficiency of the system and supporting higher economic growth.”