Middleware Consulting International

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, January 18, 2023 – Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in collaboration with IBM (NYSE: IBM) formally launched an AI Center of Excellence on Tuesday, January 17, as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week’s World Future Energy Summit. The Center aims to advance collaboration to improve the adoption of AI technology and help drive sustainability. The Center will develop carbon neutral solutions to existing energy supplies, combat climate change, and further natural language processing (NLP) for Arabic dialects.

Experts from IBM and MBZUAI plan to focus on decarbonization, with advanced research into climate change mitigation and adaptation. Joint research teams will work on the development of foundational AI models, which could help inform the deployment of clean and renewable energy in the electrification of multiple sectors across the economy. This approach will set the stage for use of carbon neutral solutions while also enabling adaptation and resiliency.

The AI Center of Excellence will also work to improve NLP for Arabic dialects, making AI more accessible and flexible for Arabic speakers. Improving NLP capabilities in Arabic dialects will help to address civic, social, and business challenges, while providing real-life applications such as personalised customer care, AI-powered assistants, improved search, and fraud detection, to name a few.

“The only way to Net Zero is through disruptive technologies and innovations that fundamentally re-program our energy production and consumption — harnessing big data to help drive more effective decision making and problem solving. In line with the vision of our leadership to benefit from the most advanced technological innovations, we are delighted to launch the Center of Excellence. This partnership between MBZUAI and IBM underscores the commitment of both organizations to develop AI solutions that work for the benefit of humanity,” said H.E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, President-Designate for COP28, and Chairman of MBZUAI.

“IBM’s collaboration with MBZUAI will leverage AI to address some of the most pressing issues of our time including sustainability and net zero strategies,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman and CEO. “The new Center of Excellence will also develop local digital skills and attract leading researchers that will help deliver the UAE’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031.”

The deployment and use of clean energy solutions is one of the main pillars of the UAE’s model of addressing the challenge of climate change and reducing GHG emissions, in line with UAE Net Zero 2050 strategic initiative. The AI Center of Excellence plans to leverage the talents of IBM researchers with expertise in data science, machine learning and NLP, in collaboration with MBZUAI faculty and students. The teams will work together towards the advancement of both fundamental and applied research objectives.

Through IBM SkillsBuild platform, IBM will provide MBZUAI students and faculty with access to IBM tools, software, courseware and cloud accounts for teaching, learning, and non-commercial research. In addition, MBZUAI will have access to curated AI curricula, lectures, labs, industry use cases, design-thinking sessions, and an AI Practitioner certification.

Vatican City, January 9, 2023 – Tomorrow at an event organized and hosted by the Pontifical Academy for Life, IBM (NYSE: IBM) will reaffirm its commitment to the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a pledge signed in 2020 by the Pontifical Academy for Life, FAO, IBM, Microsoft and the Italian Ministry of Innovation to champion ethical approaches to the design, development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI).

The event is focused on welcoming to the Call new members representing the Muslim and Jewish faiths, thereby bringing together the three Abrahamic religions to shine a brighter global spotlight on and advance ethical approaches to AI technologies.

A live-stream of the event, kicking off at 9:00AM GMT on January 10, can be accessed here.

“That the Abrahamic monotheistic religions have all come together to reflect and act on the implications of the rapidly advancing frontiers of science and technology, as exemplified by artificial intelligence, is of historical importance,” said Darío Gil, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, IBM. “IBM is an institution that has been responsibly advancing such frontiers for over a century, and we believe it will be the quest of all of society, and of all our institutions, including religious ones, to reason through the moral and ethical implications of great scientific and technological advances. We are proud to reaffirm our commitment to the Rome Call for AI Ethics, and we look forward to realizing its vision in partnership with all its signatories and allies.”

Created, organized and hosted by the Vatican’s RenAIssance Foundation, the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s Commission for Interfaith Relations, the event will also feature representatives from FAO, Microsoft, the Foreign Affairs of Spain, the Politecnico of Turin (Italy)-CENTAI Institute, Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, and LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome (Italy). Following the activities, the delegation will meet with the Pontiff Pope Francis who plans to renew his interest in the ethical development of AI.

Tomorrow’s gathering will follow the recent launch of a new university network, facilitated in part by IBM, designed to assist higher education institutions in operationalizing principles of the Call in their curricula. The initiative was formally mobilized in October 2022 via the Global University Summit on the Rome Call for AI Ethics, an event that successfully brought together 42 institutions spanning 5 continents and was hosted by the IBM-Notre Dame Tech Ethics Lab and co-organized by Notre Dame, the Pontifical Academy for Life and IBM.

For more than a century, IBM has worked to earn the trust of business and society by ushering powerful new technologies into the world responsibly and with clear purpose. IBM’s multidisciplinary, multidimensional approach to AI ethics is guided by core principles grounded in commitments to Trust and Transparency and applied throughout its entire business operation – from its products and services to its research, policy and partnership efforts.

ARMONK, N.Y., Jan. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced IBM Partner Plus, a new program that reimagines how IBM engages with its business partners through unprecedented access to IBM resources, incentives and tailored support to deepen their technical expertise and help speed time to market. The program is designed to fuel growth for new and existing partners, including resellers, hyperscalers, technology providers, independent software vendors and systems integrators, by putting them in control of their earning potential. IBM Partner Plus is central to the company’s Hybrid Cloud and AI strategy and aims to empower partners to help clients automate, secure and modernize their businesses.

IBM Partner Plus offers partners a transparent, simple and modern experience. By growing technical expertise and demonstrating sales success, participants can progress to three tiers – Silver, Gold and Platinum – which unlock specialized financial, go-to-market support and education benefits. In the new program, badging will become the standardized measure of skills and validated solutions will demonstrate expertise. The enhanced IBM Partner Portal consolidates and tracks all expertise, revenue and deals globally, offering each partner a clear line-of-site into their progression through the program.

“IBM Partner Plus introduces a new way for IBM to deliver value to new and existing partners by helping them gain skills, grow faster and earn more,” said Kate Woolley, General Manager, IBM Ecosystem. “We’ve heard from partners that they want a simplified experience that helps them win with clients. I’m confident these changes and our continued investment in our ecosystem will make IBM the partner of choice across the industry, and together we can drive growth for partners, clients, and IBM.”

IBM Partner Plus results from the company’s journey to put partners at the center of IBM’s go-to-market strategy and act as a growth engine to help capture the $1 trillion hybrid cloud and AI market opportunities. IBM has invested in elevating the role of partners and accelerating partner-led sales by enabling the ecosystem to become a preferred route to market, offering clients an optimal mix of technology, services and consulting expertise. To drive continued growth, IBM will increase its capacity to support partners by doubling the number of partner-facing brand and technical specialists to help them prospect and win additional client business.

“The new IBM Partner Plus program provides an enhanced experience that sets our company up for success by offering employees access to skills and opportunities, so we can help more clients utilize IBM’s technology portfolio to modernize their operations,” said Bo Gebbie, President, Evolving Solutions. “IBM is more serious than ever about putting partners first. They’ve listened to our feedback, and it is reflected in the new partner experience that makes it easy for us to collaborate, rewards our investments and fuel growth.”

IBM Partner Plus brings all partner types and programs together – whether they sell, build on or with, and/or provide services for IBM technology – into one integrated ecosystem. For example, to help broaden the market opportunity and create new revenue streams for its ecosystem, IBM recently enabled partners in North America to resell IBM products through other cloud marketplaces. This allows for independent software vendors to embed IBM Software from partner marketplaces into their own solutions. All partner sales through the marketplace accumulate towards their progression in IBM Partner Plus.

Competitive incentives
Partners can advance through tiers to unlock benefits and demand generation programs which could offer them up to a threefold increase in total investment from IBM. The IBM Partner Portal gives partners real-time visibility into the incentives they are eligible for, predictability into potential earnings and includes an automated deal share engine that helps them surface quality leads. This has improved deal registration and introduced partners to more than 7,000 potential deals valued at over half a billion dollars globally.* IBM investments in co-marketing campaigns and co-sell support with partners can also help bring solutions to market and generate demand.

Insider access
IBM Partner Plus builds on the successful release of its October badging and selling enablement materials to partners, which has driven more than 15,000 partner enrollments in sales and technical badges. Offering partners the training, enablement, and experiential selling resources available to IBMers at no cost can help better equip them to win with clients. Additionally, access to IBM’s seller tools can help them generate competitive and transparent pricing. Partners can also attend IBM’s quarterly Sales Kickoffs together with IBM sellers and participate in live training sessions and other global technical advocacy events to help upskill, increase eminence, and engage with technical experts. For new partners, IBM is launching the IBM New Partner Accelerator, which provides onboarding, training and other benefits during their first six months in the program to help accelerate their path to profitability.

Enhanced support and benefits
Partners can grow skills, develop solutions and build sales expertise with technologies like AI, security and cloud on an open hybrid cloud platform by leveraging technical experts from IBM. IBM will also assist partners in the development of minimal viable products, proofs of concept, and custom demos to help them win client business and accelerate growth. In addition, as partner businesses grow with IBM, they can unlock additional benefits designed to help them expand capabilities and find new clients.

PartnerWorld will transition to a new IBM Partner Plus experience on January 4, 2023, with the new incentive program taking effect on April 1, 2023. Registered PartnerWorld members will maintain their current tier through July 1, 2023 and can progress to the new tiering system during this time as they meet criteria.

For more details on IBM Partner Plus, please visit: https://www.ibm.com/partnerplus/

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

*Proprietary metrics obtained from IBM sales data, January 2022–August 2022