Dubai will host the AI@70 conference in 2026 to bring together world leaders in science, technology and philosophy to reimagine the role of artificial intelligence in the future of humanity.
Dubai welcomes AI@70
In April 2025, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum announced that Dubai will host the international conference "AI@70: Towards a Global Humanity" in 2026. The event will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the historic Dartmouth Conference of 1956, where the term "artificial intelligence" was first coined. AI@70 will serve as the flagship event of Dubai AI Week 2026, supported by Dartmouth College and organized by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in collaboration with consulting firm APCO International.
The vision behind AI@70 is to gather leading global experts from the worlds of science, technology, philosophy, and the arts to shape a conversation about the future of AI over the next 70 years. Special attention will be given to the philosophical, ethical, and societal dimensions of AI development. As UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Omar Sultan Al Olama, emphasized, the conference will offer a rare opportunity to define a guiding philosophy for AI to serve the collective good of humanity.
One of the key initiatives during AI@70 will be the launch of the "Humanity Lab", an eight-week incubator based at the Dubai AI Campus within DIFC. Inspired by the spirit of the original Dartmouth gathering, Humanity Lab will foster the creation of new AI innovations that merge technology, art, and philosophy, with the goal of developing solutions that reflect the profound changes AI is bringing to human society.
The conference will act as a vibrant platform to address key scientific, ethical, and social issues surrounding AI. It aims to establish new approaches to AI development that are firmly rooted in human values and aspirations. As Tobias Rees, a philosopher of AI and Chair of the AI@70 Organizing Committee, noted, this gathering will be a unique moment to rethink the relationship between humans and machines and to design new frameworks for humanity’s global interaction with artificial intelligence.
Ultimately, AI@70 will highlight Dubai’s ambition to lead not just in technological progress but also in the thoughtful and human-centered exploration of AI’s future. It will mark a major step towards shaping a global AI development path devoted to the service of all humanity.
