RIYADH: Officials in Saudi Arabia have issued new guidelines on the safe use of generative artificial intelligence tools. The move by the Saudi Data and AI Authority is aimed at helping government agencies — and consequently companies and individuals — to keep up to date with the rapid developments taking place in digital technology. Generative AI can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio, and synthetic data. The document covers government data usage related to integrity, fairness, reliability, safety, ‎transparency, interpretability, accountability, responsibility, privacy, ‎security, and social and environmental benefits.‎ AI tools can be applied to areas such as customer service, marketing, design, programming, banking, health care, media, entertainment, tourism, sports, real estate, energy, and agriculture. The technology can reduce lengthy passages of text into brief summaries in seconds, simplify content, draft memos, letters, and job descriptions, and quickly produce images, audio, and videos.‎ It can also be used to help avoid data leaks, identify misinformation, deep fakes, bias, and injustice, and verify facts. The authority’s latest guidance complements existing rules and regulations on matters including AI ethics, data governance, privacy, security, intellectual property, and human rights. Generative AI interprets and responds to verbal or written commands given by users, and in the process learns and problem solves. Dr. Abdullah Alakeel, chairman of the Saudi Scientific Research and Innovation Association, told Arab News: “AI’s uses and applications have expanded and developed from its previously limited use in games of probability, such as chess and the like, or banking services. “Despite the importance of AI applications today in helping researchers, designers, and developing businesses, we are still faced with the caveats of using it in the learning environment, which to this day does not allow students to use it, especially in the Kingdom, unlike other countries such as Britain, which allowed students to use it. “Reason and logic emphasized that the problem is not in enumerating or confirming the advantages of AI applications whose models have expanded, rather, it is about how to deal with it and how to benefit from it. “The main goal of any application is to improve life and provide services to society, which stresses the importance of taking into account information security and data privacy in such software. “Generative AI technology has advantages that help even in the field of legal consultations by accessing thousands of similar judicial cases,” Alakeel said. To view the authority’s latest guidelines, go to https://sdaia.gov.sa/ar/SDAIA/about/Files/GenAIGuidelinesForGovernmentAR... .