International Center for AI Ethics in Riyadh turns to China, integrating compliance into development chains instead of relying solely on principles

The challenge in AI governance is no longer about drafting theoretical ethical principles, but about turning them into binding technical measures embedded directly in the tool-building and software-solution pipelines. That was confirmed by Majid Ali Al-Shahri, the acting director-general of the International Center for AI Research and Ethics based in Riyadh, in remarks on the sidelines of the fourth edition of the UNESCO Global Forum on AI Ethics, noting that the world has reached an acceptable consensus on general guidelines, while the current obstacle lies in enforcing compliance within the technical and engineering environments themselves.

The Center, which was founded in the Saudi capital in 2023 under UNESCO’s patronage, believes that the Chinese model can provide a practical reference for balancing innovation with strict regulation. This view rests on China’s possession of an integrated AI ecosystem that starts with infrastructure and massive data centers and extends to tech companies that have capabilities covering the entire development stack, qualifying them to play a pivotal role in shaping the global governance landscape without slowing scientific progress or depriving societies of its best tools.

Moving regulatory compliance from written frameworks to code and training stages represents the real difference between effective oversight and stifling bureaucracy.

Academically, the Center unveiled a new collaborative pathway that aims to invite Chinese universities to join an initiative to develop specialized master’s programmes in AI ethics. The initiative is based on drafting a general framework that outlines the core components and fundamental concepts of the degree in cooperation with international researchers and academics, with each partner university responsible for developing its own curriculum in accordance with its national educational regulations and systems. This approach reflects a clear desire to build academic and operational competencies that understand governance requirements before models are released to market.

This move is linked to a broader context in which the Center seeks to build research and institutional partnerships with universities and AI developers worldwide, to engage in international dialogue platforms, foremost the high-level AI conference and governance summit hosted by Shanghai, with the aim of reaching cross-border understandings that prevent technology from slipping beyond human control and ensure standards stability among the major tech blocs.

What changes in practice for development teams and tech leadership in the region?

This shift toward the Chinese experience and embedding compliance deep within the technical architecture imposes direct obligations on institutions and companies in the Gulf, Egypt and the Levant. The first of these changes is a transformation of the governance function within banks, government agencies and solution developers from a mere post-deployment legal review to compliance engineering integrated into the model lifecycle, which raises regional demand for engineers who combine technical expertise with the design of software controls. Second, opening academically and regulatorily to Chinese standards provides a parallel pathway that may reduce exclusive reliance on Western frameworks and controls, especially as regional dependence on computing hardware, data centers and advanced models from Asia grows. Finally, building local master’s programmes in technology ethics means that startups and research centres in the region will face, over the coming years, more detailed licensing and audit standards across software value chains, making early investment in documenting model training and data sources a commercial and operational necessity to avoid stumbling before future regulations.