Visitors can dive into the realms of artificial intelligence at the Muscat Book Fair, where the evolution of this groundbreaking technology takes centre stage. From Alan Turing's pioneering machine in 1935 to the contemporary era marked by rapid advancements, the fair sheds light on AI's pivotal role in societal transformation.
Artificial Intelligence and its technologies have enabled societies to make a cognitive transformation and leap towards civilisational changes.
AI major role at the Book Fair is clearly seen in the accompanying cultural and artistic events. This comes within the context of the interest Oman attaches to development and positive interaction with contemporary technologies.
Visitors to the book fair will find that the exhibition halls are full of discussions based on the impact of artificial intelligence, its role in the education process, or cultural transformations and the impact of artificial intelligence on culture and creativity.
One can also notice the dominance of technical terms in the titles of events in general, such as creative industries, cybersecurity, digital industries, digital marketing, and digital culture. These terms express the interests of institutions and society in general regarding technical transformations and applications of artificial intelligence in particular.
Abdul Hafith Al Muqbali, press preservation department, Oman News Agency (ONA), says "AI has been employed by way of designing a character with the Omani identity who performs the function of a digital broadcaster without any human intervention and transmits, reads radio materials to the public." Visitors at the exhibition received this digital broadcaster.
Ahlam Al Balushi from the Ministry of Information said the Ayn platform used AI by customising the main page of the platform through visitors’ preferences. They can register on the platform, through which they will get a better experience and better features by downloading various programmes and videos on their phone or computers.
Nawal Al Busaidy from the Department of Manuscripts, Registration and Cataloging, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, says, This year the manuscripts were provided with a special barcode for easy access to information and images, and the visitor can keep information about the manuscript through the barcode.
Dr Amal Abdullah Al Haramli, Senior Studies and Research Specialist, Ministry of Social Development, says AI was used by working with the Technical Integration Company and employing robots through the Values Radar event, which consists of questions for children about positive and negative behaviours and through effective interaction.
The visiting schoolchildren were awestruck with robots presenting gifts to the children. It also displayed visual videos shown through the robot that roams around the exhibition. The robot received good reception by the children and the visiting public.
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