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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking some time to reflect after Chrystia Freeland's bombshell resignation, the natural resources minister said on Tuesday. "The prime minister, as I understand it, a number of caucus colleagues have said that the prime minister has said that he will reflect on both the decision that minister Freeland made, but also what he's heard from members of his own caucus," Jonathan Wilkinson said. "I think we all need to give him a little time to reflect, and I respect that fact that he's going to take some time to reflect." Freeland quit as finance minister on Monday morning just hours before she was set to present the government's fall economic statement. That kicked off a day of turmoil on Parliament Hill that began with a morning cabinet meeting and wrapped with an evening meeting of the Liberal caucus, where some members called for Trudeau to step aside as party leader. That includes New Brunswick MP Wayne Long, one of 23 caucus members who signed a letter back in October calling for Trudeau to quit. "We certainly have more MPs than last time. So, if I had to guess how many more right now, I'd say we're probably at 40 to 50 right now," Long said. "But there's a lot more than that. I mean, this is so different than times before." The attempt to oust Trudeau earlier in the fall took up a great deal of oxygen on Parliament Hill, but ultimately failed to garner support from inside the cabinet. This time, Long said, at least five cabinet ministers believe it's time for a change at the top. "I certainly am one to say to my colleagues, to ministers in particular: 'Let's come out of the shadows,'" Long said. "Let's openly, once and for all, state how we feel and let's move forward with what we know has to happen." After the failed coup in October, Liberal MPs told reporters they believed Trudeau was taking time to reflect. But the very next day, he publicly stated his intention to stay on as leader at a press conference. The Liberals have faced three non-confidence votes in the House of Commons this fall and have struggled to advance legislation because of a filibuster on a Conservative privilege motion related to misspending at a now-defunct green technology fund. On Tuesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre once again called on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to topple the government, criticizing him for voting against the latest non-confidence motion last week. Poilievre said Canada needs a new prime minister because U.S. president-elect Donald Trump can smell weakness from a mile away and the Trudeau government is weak. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet also said a new Parliament is needed "as soon as possible," and he wants to see an election called in January. Blanchet said Trudeau has lost the political, moral and ethical authority to govern. He said the election should happen as soon as possible in the new year because Canadians do not want a campaign over the holiday season. On Monday, Singh called for Trudeau to step down but did not make a firm comment on whether the NDP would declare non-confidence in the Liberal government. Instead, Singh said "all options are on the table." The NDP, which ended a formal supply-and-confidence agreement to support the Liberals in September, has since voted with the government on all three non-confidence motions. Singh has repeatedly said a Poilievre-led Conservative government would cut things New Democrats have fought for like dental care, pharmacare and other social programs. The Tories are also calling on the House of Commons trade committee to study the tariff threat between the week of Jan. 6 and Jan. 20, the date of Trump's inauguration. The House of Commons is expected to rise for the holiday break on Tuesday and return on January 27. In her resignation letter, Freeland said she's been at odds with Trudeau in the last few weeks over the government's fiscal priorities. She said the government should do away with costly "political gimmicks" and instead set money aside to deal with a potential tariff war with the U.S. Dominic LeBlanc was sworn in as the new finance minister Monday, minutes after the government's fall economic statement was released. The economic update shows the deficit has grown to nearly $62 billion, far beyond the $40-billion target Freeland set earlier this year. It includes $1.3 billion in new spending on measures to beef up the border in response to Trump's threat to impose 25 per cent tariff threats on Canadian goods. LeBlanc, who is also in charge of intergovernmental affairs and democratic institutions, says his main priority as finance minister will be to address affordability issues. He will also continue to oversee the public safety file, implementing new border measures, until Trudeau holds a broader cabinet shuffle. That's expected to happen soon in order to replace ministers who have announced they won't seek re-election. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2024. — With files from Nick Murray and Michel Saba David Baxter, The Canadian PressOnline trolls are “typically younger and male” who spend lots of time down “social media rabbit holes with conspiracy theories”, it is claimed. The profile of Irish tolls is outlined in a new TG4 documentary Online Hate and Trolling. It airs tomorrow and reveals that almost half of Irish adults have experienced some form of online hate. The claim is made by a cyberbullying expert who hears testimony from online abuse victims as they speak openly about their ordeals. The expert - Dr Darragh McCashin – warns that social media companies are not doing enough to remove harmful and offensive. Dr McCashin is a Dublin City University assistant professor at DCU’s School of Psychology and is also chairperson of The Observatory on Cyberbullying, Cyberhate & Online Harassment in the Anti-Bullying Centre. He has studied the psychological characteristics of potential online trolls and reveals all tonight as part of TG4’s award winning series Iniúchadh. The programme demands that tech companies must explain why it remains so difficult for victims to get anonymous, abusive online comments removed. Dr McCashin said: “There is an initial set of demographic predictors of who that person might be. Typically younger, typically male. There is some emerging evidence to say that those who are holding medical cards, Irish born parents, probably have a problematic relationship with technology." READ MORE: Online troll's jab at Doireann Garrihy backfires - as RTE star issues hilarious response READ MORE: Dancing With The Stars' Arthur Gourounlian claims online trolls are 'jealous' of marriage to Brian Dowling Dr McCashin added: “They spend lots of time on social media, going down perhaps various rabbit holes with conspiracy theories or alternative media. They are not on a mission, they are just out to cause chaos.” He added: “We did a survey of just over a thousand near representative sample of Irish adults. Just under half of them had experience of one form of online hate. "Pretty much everyone in that sample had witnessed online hate, whether that is racism or consistent harassment of fellow online users. So, we can take from this, it’s highly prevalent to the extent that it is almost normalised. Men are more likely to be targeted because of age and or nationality. Women are more likely to be because of their gender.” Contributors to the documentary include Fianna Fáil MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, organ donation campaigner Máirtín Mac Gabhann, social media influencer Cian Ó Gríofa, and Belfast-based Irish language advocate Linda Ervine. They all speak openly about the abuse they have endured and how they cope with it. Cian, 29, receives abuse online when he talks about growing up in Ireland as a young gay man. He said: "It bothers me, especially because of young people who follow me. They can see that hatred and see the negative comments and that's probably not a positive thing for them as they could be struggling with their own identity and sexuality. "These comments change public attitudes towards gay and marginalised people and people are then more comfortable that they can say so on social media. They go to a point where they feel comfortable saying things like that in real life and then the next step could be an attack and I think we're heading towards a dangerous future.” MEP Ní Mhurchú was elected earlier this year and has since been regularly subjected to abuse from anonymous online trolls. She said: “Sexual insults, insults because I'm a woman, insults because I'm a politician, and insults because they think my politics is not the same as their politics. They are destroying the mental health of ordinary people.” Ervine has been targeted by hardline Loyalists because of her efforts to make the Irish language more accessible in Belfast. She said: “It hurts, it hurts, because I'm a human being. I don't want to read insulting things. I don't want to read false accusations. I'm doing my job, that's it.” MacGabhann, 34, has a campaign slogan Donate4Daithi to raise awareness because his eight-year-old son Dáithí is waiting on a heart transplant. He said: "As our campaign became more successful and we became more vocal, that's when the online abuse began to increase and the type of trolls appeared. The words I saw were really hard to read about my innocent little son. In the beginning I didn't understand how people could write like this about a little boy who is going through a really bad time in his life. It broke my heart." Investigative journalist Kevin Magee speaks to Appeals Centre Europe about what people can do to resolve content disputes with social media platforms. TG4’s doc An Gréasán Gráiniúil (Online Hate and Trolling) by journalist Magee is on TV from 9.30pm. Join the Irish Mirror’s breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive breaking news and the latest headlines direct to your phone. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. 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Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk’s X, which they view as increasingly leaning too far to the right given its owner’s support of President-elect Donald Trump, or wanting an alternative to Meta’s Threads and its algorithms. The platform grew out of the company then known as Twitter, championed by its former CEO Jack Dorsey. Its decentralized approach to social networking was eventually intended to replace Twitter’s core mechanic. That’s unlikely now that the two companies have parted ways. But Bluesky’s growth trajectory — with a user base that more than doubled since October — could make it a serious competitor to other social platforms. But with growth comes growing pains. It’s not just human users who flocked to Bluesky but also bots, including those designed to create partisan division or direct users to junk websites. The skyrocketing user base — now surpassing 25 million — is the biggest test yet for a relatively young platform that branded itself as a social media alternative free of the problems plaguing its competitors. According to research firm Similarweb, Bluesky added 7.6 million monthly active app users on iOS and Android in November, an increase of 295.4% since October. It also saw 56.2 million desktop and mobile web visits, in the same period, up 189% from October. Besides the U.S. elections, Bluesky also got a boost when X was briefly banned in Brazil. “They got this spike in attention, they’ve crossed the threshold where it is now worth it for people to flood the platform with spam,” said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and a member of Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media. “But they don’t have the cash flow, they don’t have the established team that a larger platform would, so they have to do it all very, very quickly.” To manage growth for its tiny staff, Bluesky started as an invitation-only space until it opened to the public in February. That period gave the site time to build out moderation tools and other distinctive features to attract new users, such as “starter packs” that provide lists of topically curated feeds. Meta recently announced it is testing a similar feature. Compared to the bigger players like Meta’s platforms or X, Bluesky has a “quite different” value system, said Claire Wardle, a professor at Cornell University and an expert in misinformation. This includes giving users more control over their experience. “The first generation of social media platforms connected the world, but ended up consolidating power in the hands of a few corporations and their leaders,” Bluesky said on its blog in March. “Our online experience doesn’t have to depend on billionaires unilaterally making decisions over what we see. On an open social network like Bluesky, you can shape your experience for yourself.” Because of this mindset, Bluesky has achieved a scrappy underdog status that attracted users who grew tired of the big players. “People had this idea that it was going to be a different type of social network,” Wardle said. “But the truth is, when you get lots of people in a place and there are eyeballs, it means that it’s in other people’s interests to use bots to create, you know, information that aligns with their perspective.” Little data has emerged to help quantify the rise in impersonator accounts, artificial intelligence-fueled networks and other potentially harmful content on Bluesky. But in recent weeks, users began reporting large numbers of apparent AI bots following them, posting plagiarized articles or making seemingly automated divisive comments in replies. Lion Cassens, a Bluesky user and doctoral candidate in the Netherlands, found one such network by accident — a group of German-language accounts with similar bios and AI-generated profile pictures posting in replies to three German newspapers. “I noticed some weird replies under a news post by the German newspaper ‘Die Ziet,’” he said in an email to The Associated Press. “I have a lot of trust in the moderation mechanism on Bluesky, especially compared to Twitter since the layoffs and due to Musk’s more radical stance on freedom of speech. But AI bots are a big challenge, as they will only improve. I hope social media can keep up with that.” Cassens said the bots’ messages have been relatively innocuous so far, but he was concerned about how they could be repurposed in the future to mislead. There are also signs that foreign disinformation narratives have made their way to Bluesky. The disinformation research group Alethea pointed to one low-traction post sharing a false claim about ABC News that had circulated on Russian Telegram channels. Copycat accounts are another challenge. In late November, Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, found that of the top 100 most followed named individuals on Bluesky, 44% at least one duplicate account posing as them. Two weeks later, Mantzarlis said Bluesky removed around two-thirds of the duplicate accounts he initiallydetected — a sign the site was aware of the issue and attempting to address it. Bluesky posted this month that it quadrupled its moderation team to keep up with its growing user base. Get local news delivered to your inbox!December 30 - Freshman Ian Jackson scored a season-high 26 points and RJ Davis poured in 23 points as part of a record-setting outing as North Carolina finished nonconference play by defeating visiting Campbell 97-81 on Sunday night in Chapel Hill, N.C. Drake Powell and Elliot Cadeau both scored 12 points and Jalen Washington had 10 points for North Carolina (8-5), which played for the first time since a big comeback to top UCLA on Dec. 21. The Tar Heels shot 57.1 percent from the floor. Davis shot 5-for-10 on 3-pointers for his most treys this season. When Davis hit his second 3-point basket of the game, it gave him 300 to become the Tar Heels' all-time leader for 3-pointers. Marcus Paige, now on the coaching staff, had 299. It was a big second half for North Carolina, which scored 57 points after leading 40-29 at halftime. The margin reached 29 points in the second half. Colby Duggan scored 32 points on 11-for-18 shooting from the field for Campbell (5-8), which has lost three games in a row. He drained five 3-point shots. Jasin Sinani's 15 points and Cam Gregory's 14 points also helped the Camels, who shot 44.4 from the field and committed only seven turnovers. Campbell hit six of eight 3-point shots late in the game. The teams combined to score 58 points in the final eight minutes when defense appeared to be an afterthought. Both teams ended up with 10 baskets from 3-point range and went 15-for-20 on free throws. With Jackson and Powell, the Tar Heels had two freshmen in the starting lineup for the first time since a 2021 NCAA Tournament game. North Carolina swingman Seth Trimble sat out because of an upper-body injury. Campbell used three first-half timeouts and hung close for a long stretch. But the Camels didn't score in the final three minutes of the half. It was the first meeting between the schools that are less than a one-hour drive apart. --Field Level Media Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

With rising public sector employment and general pressure on wages, the next deal could involve an annual increase in the public pay bill of €1.66 billion, more than three times the annual increase which resulted from the current deal. In an overview setting out the fiscal context for the new Dáil, the independent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has identified the future public sector pay bill as one of the main six risks facing the Irish economy during the term of the 34th Dáil. The paper, which has just been published, sets out forecasts for increases in wages in the Irish economy between 2025 and 2030. It states that wages in the Irish economy are expected to grow strongly over the term of the next government, with annual increases ranging from 3.7 per cent to 4.2 per cent Noting that the current pay deal in the public sector will expire in 2026, the analysis says if a future public sector pay deal grew in line with wage increases in the private sector, and the number of workers grew in line with expected population growth, the annual increase in State spending on public pay would rise from €554.7 million in 2026 to €1.66 billion by 2027. Public sector employment has been rising fast. The report says that between 2008 and 2023 employees in the public sector increased by 22 per cent, more than a fifth. “The increase in public sector employment reflects the growing demand for public services, but it also adds to the fiscal burden.” The biggest increase was in the education sector, where employee numbers rose by a third. In marked contrast there was a decline of almost 30 per cent in the numbers employed in the defence sector. Another potential risk identified by the analysis is the State’s reliance on corporation tax, in line with other recent warnings from the Fiscal Advisory Council and the Central Bank of Ireland. The receipts from this sector are “very volatile”, the PBO warns. “From 2015 to 2023, annual growth rates ranged from a high of 48 per cent in 2022 to a low of 5 per cent in 2019,” it notes. “The top 10 companies’ contribution to net receipts peaked at 57 per cent in 2022 before slightly decreasing to 52 per cent in 2023. In the first 11 months of 2024 Corporation Tax Revenue was 59 per cent higher than the same period last year.” Another possible risk highlighted by the PBO is Ireland’s tax system’s heavy reliance on high-income earners. “Those earning €100,000 or more make up just 11.4 per cent of taxpayers but account for 66 per cent of total income tax and USC. “While this highlights a very progressive redistributive system, this concentration of tax revenue from a small segment of the population underscores the vulnerability of the tax base to economic shifts affecting high earners,” it notes. The report warns that, taking into account the volatility of these key revenue sources, there are “structural fiscal challenges that need to be addressed to ensure long-term sustainability”. Harry McGee is a Political Correspondent with The Irish TimesMontana Girls High School Wrestling Rankings Dec. 26 100: Angelina Escarcega, Poplar; Wai Fandrich, Lockwood; Victoria Tenney, Billings Skyview; Ronelle LaForge, Billings Senior; Ciri Nice, Polson; Emmalyn Miller, Baker; Gracie Bingen, Huntley Project; Trinity Austria, Helena Capital. 105: River Cote, Ronan; Grace Buck, Chinook; Emma Hernandez, Billings Central; Serina Catt, Billings Senior; Kaelynn Vanderpool, Corvallis; Liberty Boadie, Poplar; Danyka Doll, Billings Skyview; Persephone Cox, Frenchtown. 110: Hayley Petersen, Simms; Brooke Yeadon, Kalispell Glacier; Hannah Leonard, Billings Skyview; Dani Larson, Manhattan; Robin Leidholt, Miles City; Evelyn Arciga, Lockwood; Sallee Redding, Hardin; Payton Welch, Shepherd. 115: Bella Downing, Kalispell Flathead; Anola Naugle, Arlee; Ashlyn Sausedo, Hardin; Araeya Nelson, Billings West; Piper Gershmel, Billings Senior; Alara Cooper, Poplar; Taylee Troutman, Billings Skyview; Halle Downey, Whitehall. 120: Kaura Coles, Kalispell Glacier; Shelby Barnett, Baker; Elise McDonald, Billings West; Serenity Hernandez, Billings Skyview; Ananleigh Matejovsky, Wolf Point; Kyra McMahon, Flathead; Rossi Gookin, Lockwood; Charlie Lund, Belgrade. 125: Madalyn Deiter, CMR; Stella Wahl, Cut Bank; Rebel Montanez, Frenchtown; Harley LaBuda, Big Sandy; Gracie Hicks, Lewistown; Kendra Redd, Anaconda; Kylie Schwartz, Baker; Ava Krings, Conrad. 130: Julia Kay, Kalispell Flathead; Taylor Lay, Helena Capital; Emma Klingaman, Harlem; Lucia Schlapfer, Missoula Big Sky; Keenya Gibson, Stevensville; Cadance Weis, Laurel; Trinity Stoner, East Helena; Jaidyn Holdaway, Anaconda. 135: Meadow Mahlmeister, Billings Senior; Etta Wicks, Fort Benton; Kiera Lackey, Kalispell Flathead; Camryn Fiscus, Leiwstown; Sage Machado, Frenchtown; Tierra Hoffer, Billings Skyview; Serena Henry, Conrad; Evie Pella, Miles City. 140: Grayle Fox, Miles City; Faye Holland, Dillon; Lizzy Sherman, Billings Senior; Lucy Armstrong, Conrad; Jocelyn Covington, Corvallis; Haley Wilson, Kalispell Flathead; Madison Lamb, Glasgow; Emerson Eckhart, Billings Senior. 145: Kaitlyn Thorn, Bozeman; Carmelia Horn, Hardin; McKenna Jones, Conrad; Tita Fandrich, Billings Senior; Riley Clampitt, Glasgow; Soraya Shirley, Billings Senior; Gracie Tolman, Billings West; Mattie Stepan, Butte. 155: Hattie Morrow, Missoula Big Sky; Macey Tate, Baker; Kara Jones, Conrad; Haven Ferguson, Billings Skyview; Bridget Smith, Kalispell Flathead; Payton Johnson, Manhattan; Brooke Werth, Shepherd; Leona Dodson-Howe, Ronan. 170: Jayda Harbaugh, Baker; Bryton Kipp, Helena Capita; Hayden Daly, Billings Senior; Abby Zickfoose, Choteau; Ava Hansen, Malta; Lexi Lunceford, Deer Lodge; Ashton Dziekonski, Helena Capital; Jasmyn Werk, Havre. 190: Kylee Lindsley, Belgrade; Katie Slade, Great Falls; Madilyn Juelke, Miles City; Ariana Ellison, Miles City; Isabella Rangel, Belgrade; Abighail Sorrell, Polson; Lauren Krebs, Hardin; Brooklyn Larsen, Billings West. 235 : Tirza TwoTeeth, Ronan; Teaka Mahlmeister, Billings Senior; Grayson DeJong, Miles City; JoJo Manning, Fort Benton; Haven Houle, Ronan; Kendahl Guardipee, Browning; Jess Elings, Cut Bank; Seattle Adams, Ronan. 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Vikings escape with 30-27 win over Bears in overtime thriller

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President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to delay a law that would effectively ban TikTok from taking effect until after he assumes office. Trump lawyer John Sauer, who is the solicitor general designee for the incoming administration, petitioned the high court to postpone its hearing on the TikTok ban, arguing that the matter could be redressed “through political means” instead. “President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns,” Sauer wrote. “In light of these interests — including, most importantly, his overarching responsibility for the United States’ national security and foreign policy — President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture, and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.” The Chinese firm ByteDance had been ordered to divest TikTok or face an outright ban in the US pursuant to a law signed by President Biden earlier this year.None

Vikings escape with 30-27 win over Bears in overtime thrillerPrayagraj (UP), Nov 24 (PTI) Police on Sunday arrested five members of a gang who cheated an accountant of a company owned by Uttar Pradesh Minister Nand Gopal Gupta of Rs 2.08 crore and recovered 14 Android/Apple phones, 10 ATM cards and 10 SIM cards from their possession, an official said. Divyanshu of Bihar's Patna, Pulkit Dwivedi of Mau, Sanjeev Kumar, Surjeet Singh and Vijay Kumar (all residents of Bareilly) were arrested, said Cyber Police Station SHO Rajiv Kumar Tiwari. He said that on November 13, a message came on WhatsApp of Ritesh Srivastava, an accountant of the minister's company Icavo Agro Daily Private Limited. Abhishek Gupta's (minister's son) profile photo was on that number. The message said that this is a new number and necessary information was sought for the proposed necessary meeting, he added. Assuming that it was the instructions of the company's director Abhishek Gupta, Ritesh shared the company's account information on that number. After which, while talking about finalizing a business deal, he was asked to immediately send Rs 68 lakh to the client, for which the account details were sent. After this, while mentioning the deal, he was asked to send Rs 65 lakh and Rs 75 lakh respectively to two different accounts. Following the instructions of the director, this amount was sent. In the evening, when the director (Abhishek Gupta) was talked to in this regard, it was found that he did not send any such message. Then the cyber fraud came to light, the SHO said. Tiwari said that during interrogation, the gang members said that they are connected to cyber thugs sitting in foreign countries through Telegram. They use the account in various types of cyber fraud and invest money in crypto currency. To avoid arrest and keep their identity confidential, they use techniques like VPN and IP bounce, he added. On the complaint of Srivastava, a case was registered on November 14 in the Cyber Police Station against unidentified individuals under sections 319 (2), 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, police had earlier said. All the three bank accounts in which the money was transferred were frozen. (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)

The arms race in large language artificial intelligence (AI) is heating up. Can the Gulf countries play a leading role in the sector, given the high savings, cheap energy and good political ties with the US? The tech billionaire Elon Musk has alarmed competitors, and intrigued customers and observers, by rapidly building a supercomputer, appropriately known as Colossus, in just 120 days, in Memphis Tennessee in a new data centre. Its purpose is to power his xAI technology, and it will be of an unprecedented scale: Some 100,000 graphics processing units supplied by Nvidia. Competitors are nervous. There is no guarantee that this formidable scaling up of computer power will give his xAI a superior edge, but no certainty that it won’t. Industry experts reckon that the tools at the rival OpenAI are currently superior, but the sheer computing muscle of Colossus may help xAI close the gap or overtake. What does this mean for the economic world, including the Gulf? The impact of AI is already being felt, will continue and likely intensify. You could say that there has been much hype around AI, accidents such as ‘hallucinations’ in large language models and technical glitches. But you could have made similar criticisms about the aviation sector in the early 20th century – there were crashes and failed models, but it still proceeded to transform long-distance travel around the globe. AI is at a similar stage 100 years on. And just as you need a skilled pilot for an aircraft, similar principles apply with AI. Harvard Business Review in its September-October edition refers to the development of ‘fusion skills’ – the most intelligent applications of AI in which human and artificial intelligence is most effectively combined. For example, breaking a complex problem down into sequential parts, and priming the large language model to address each challenge sequentially, beginning with the simplest, is more effective than asking it to solve a complex problem in one go. Researchers at Google DeepMind have found that this ‘least-to-most’ approach improves the accuracy of AI output from 16% to 99%. Research by the Boston Consulting Group has found that only a minority of firms gain substantial value from AI, and that the most successful companies ensure that the people, skills and processes are optimal. This is the 70-20-10 principle: 70% of the investment is in people and processes; 20% is in technology and data, and just 10% in the algorithms. The most effective companies used AI for growth and revenue generation, not just process efficiencies. In this rapidly developing technology, how should the Gulf countries invest and position themselves? It is likely that China and the US will remain the primary providers of AI, given the scale of the technological investment required, as illustrated by the examples of Elon Musk and his rivals. The response of the Gulf sovereign wealth funds and other key players has been promising. Rather than trying to compete with the US and China in a direct way, they are developing strategic support roles within the existing industry, while identifying niche opportunities for growth. Arabic language models constitute a promising industry. AI specialist companies within the region report that it costs around one third more to train an English large language model and then translate into Arabic, than to train one using Arabic inputs. Doing so can eliminate some of the western biases of English-language models. For Gulf economies, cheap energy offers another competitive advantage in developing AI hubs. Saudi Aramco has calculated that the cost of power locally is around 13% cheaper than the cost per kilowatt hour in the US. Given the considerable computing power needed for large language models, this is significant. Geopolitical considerations are of paramount importance. The Gulf states are political allies of the US, which does not want technological know-how falling into the hands of Iran or China. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF has announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to develop a specialist hub, which will be a research and education centre, including for Arabic language models, and a base for global enterprises and startups. It will be based near Dammam. This year the United Arab Emirates launched the fund MGX, totalling $100bn, with investors including BlackRock and Microsoft, dedicated to investing in AI companies. The AI revolution is well underway, and there will be significant returns for both providers and users. So far, the key players in the Gulf have made some smart strategic calls. The author is a Qatari banker, with many years of experience in the banking sector in senior positions. Related Story 61 countries to compete in 8th Katara Award for Reciting Holy Qur’an Sheikha Al Mayassa unveils 'The Race Is On' exhibition