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Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has been awarded a Unesco Chair on Digital Technologies and Human Behaviour, with the College of Science and Engineering’s (CSE) Dr Raian Ali appointed as Chairholder from June 2025 to June 2029.Unesco’s Chairs Programme represents the organisation’s most significant intersectoral activity in higher education. The designation is in recognition of HBKU’s excellence, building on the existing Unesco Chairs on Environmental Law and Sustainable Development, a statement said Wednesday.The new Chair will explore the intersection between digital technologies and human behaviour, promoting digital well-being, ethical use of technology, and positive societal transformation. It will also encourage healthy human interaction both online and offline, tackling challenges such as Internet addiction, cyberbullying, and misinformation, while fostering active engagement in addressing these issues.Commenting on the announcement and the significance of the Chair, Dr Mounir Hamdi, Dean, CSE, stated: “Technology is transforming every aspect of how we live, work, and connect. Through this Unesco Chair, HBKU will lead a global effort to ensure that digital transformation empowers people, strengthens communities, amplifies underrepresented voices, and contributes to a healthier relationship between humanity and evolving technologies.”As part of its activities, the Chair will address the ethical implications of artificial intelligence (AI) while embracing its potential benefits, stressing the importance of aligning technology with cultural values and societal norms. By merging a cross-disciplinary approach within Qatar, the region and globally, the programme will promote collaboration among stakeholders, including ministries, policymakers, health professionals, and educators, to maximise social and economic impact.The Chair will also host events that encourage dialogue, knowledge exchange, and innovation across academia, industry, and public policy. These platforms help co-create solutions that are more likely to be adopted and sustained.Dr Ali said: “I am proud to lead this exceptional opportunity to advance research that ensures technology serves human values responsibly. At HBKU, we aim to generate evidence-based insights that promote digital well-being, impact-driven innovation, and a digital future shaped by ethics.”By collaborating with more than 15 partner institutions from over 10 countries and engaging around 40 professionals, the Chair reflects HBKU’s commitment to shaping a holistic and forward-thinking ecosystem that aligns with Qatar’s national priorities and the university’s core research strengths, the statement added.

HE the Minister of Municipality Abdullah bin Hamad bin Abdullah al-Attiyah affirmed that the launch of the AI-powered building permit issuance system represents a qualitative national achievement that enhances the country's digital transformation process and places it at the forefront of countries employing AI technologies in government services.In a speech marking the Ministry of Municipality's inauguration of the AI-powered permit issuance system, HE al-Attiyah noted that it represents a pioneering step that embodies the country's drive to accelerate digital transformation and enhance the quality and efficiency of government services, aligning with Qatar National Vision 2030 and the Third National Development Strategy.He explained that the new system represents a qualitative leap in the field of issuing building permits, as it contributes to accelerating procedures, increasing performance efficiency, and enhancing the quality of services provided to beneficiaries. It enables the issuance of building permits in just 120 minutes, instead of 30 days, thanks to its ability to automatically read engineering drawings and verify their compliance with approved technical standards. This contributes to improving the beneficiary experience and facilitating procedures without compromising technical accuracy.The AI-powered building permit issuance system is one of the key projects within the Ministry of Municipality's digital transformation programme, which aims to expedite transactions, standardise technical standards, support the engineering sector and consulting offices, simplify procedures, and enhance the efficiency and accuracy of outputs by processing drawings electronically, with a completion rate of up to 70% in the first phase.

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) will host a conference exploring the global ethical implications of AI technologies.Taking place on September 28-29 at Qatar National Convention Centre, the event on the theme ‘AI Ethics: The Convergence of Technology and Diverse Moral Traditions’ will consider the impact of AI on culture, tradition, and values.The conference brings together academics, policy makers, tech industry experts, ethicists, and others from around the world to explore how can AI efficiently and ethically serve humanity.The participants will explore the intersection of foundational and cross-cultural ethical principles with socially disruptive technologies while upholding rich moral legacies, centuries-long scholarship, and diverse perspectives of both secular and religious moral traditions.By blending advanced technology with deep ethical inquiry, the conference also creates a space where technological breakthroughs are measured against values, and progress is guided by purpose.The experts will explore the critical intersection of AI and ethics through six focused thematic tracks, including healthcare, urban design, security, education, finance, and the future of the workplace, reflecting the most pressing contemporary challenges and opportunities. Through these diverse yet interconnected lenses, the conference aims to shape a more just and human-centred technological future.Dr Ahmad M Hasnah, president, HBKU, noted: “AI is reshaping every part of our lives, offering immense opportunities while raising urgent ethical questions. Our region’s strong religious foundations and rich heritage uniquely position us to actively contribute to the global dialogue on AI ethics and to offer humanity alternative ethical frameworks. Through this conference, Hamad Bin Khalifa University is bringing global voices together to ensure that AI serves humanity responsibly, guided by values rooted in fair moral traditions.”

People mostly mix between digitisation and digitalisation. However, in business matters and services it would be very important to differentiate between digitisation and digitalisation.Understanding the key differences between these two terms is essential when formulating business strategy. Also, there are some legal implications here regarding data protection, authenticity of the docs for evidence purposes and acceptance before Courts.In brief, digitisation means to convert something into a digital format, and usually refers to encoding of data and documents. While, digitalisation means to convert business processes to use digital technologies, instead of similar things or offline systems such as paper or whiteboards.In a nutshell, digitisation refers to information, while digitalisation refers to processes.Appreciating the difference is important because they are genuinely different things to business matters, each requiring different resources, approaches and tools. Whether you are using the term digitise or digitalise, make sure you are referring to the right thing to avoid confusion, misunderstandings and could be legal repercussions.Digitisation is basically the process of taking analogue information, such as documents, sounds or photographs, and converting into a digital format that can be stored and accessed on computers, mobile phones and other digital devices.In business, digitisation may involve scanning old documents into PDFs, converting printed photographs into image files, or transforming printed reports into meaningful data that can be manipulated and analysed. Some digitisation projects may include going back over years of business records and information and converting them into a digital format for easy reference and other logistical purposes. The original content may be stored or destroyed, or may degrade over time, as in the case of magnetic tapes.In other cases, it may be that any new information being captured in a business is now created and stored primarily in a digital format, with any physical forms being only secondary copies. We have to mention that, the law regulates this process of keeping the old data and storing them in magnetic tapes. This is sensitive work to be undertaken by experienced personnel and requires careful attention, as courts may ask for them.For digitalisation, there is still some debate around the exact meaning, which means that people sometimes use it to describe digitisation. However, the general consensus is that digitalisation refers to the conversion of processes or interactions into their digital equivalents. And because all business processes and interactions involve people in some way, it would be more accurate to say that digitalisation is the reorganisation of these business activities around digital technologies.Examples include moving from sending physical letters via the postal service to using email, or from having in-person meetings to using online video conferencing tools. The Zoom meetings were very helpful and useful during Covid-19 and sure will continue for practical reasons.Digitalisation of a business is also likely to be an ongoing exercise, as new technologies emerge that allow further digitalisation of processes and interactions in many times and for many purposes.I believe, the distinction between digitisation and digitalisation is clear. However, the mixture is there which makes unnecessary confusion. Dr AbdelGadir Warsama Ghalib is a corporate legal counsel. Email: [email protected]