With a Minister for Artificial Intelligence and a Museum of the Future, Dubai wants to promote itself as a forward-thinking model for other metropolises. But a city known for energy-hungry skyscrapers and resource-intensive megaprojects will have a hard time leading the way in a world focused on sustainability.
DUBAI – “Connecting minds, creating the future,” the slogan of World Expo 2020, is everywhere in this city. The ongoing event, which opened a year late in October 2021, is the first of its kind since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few other places in the world are as future-oriented as Dubai. But what kind of future does Dubai want? The city has established itself as a model for the emerging urban centers of Asia and the Middle East, so its choices today could have far-reaching consequences in the future.
Unlike many of its neighbors, including in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai’s wealth is not built on oil. In fact, only 1% of the city’s GDP comes from hydrocarbons. Not long after oil was first discovered in the emirate in the 1960s, its ruler, Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, decided that the emirate’s economy should not rely on it exclusively. Instead, he pushed Dubai to become a center for global business, based on its favorable geographical position and its pro-market orientation. The city’s planners lived by the credo: “If you build it, they will come.”
Thanks to this mentality, Dubai has run like a start-up, continuously betting on new technologies and innovations. Prominent leaders are devoted to emerging fields: the young Omar Al Olama is Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence; Mohammad Al Gergawi, the right hand of current ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is both Cabinet Chief of Staff and Minister of the Future.
DUBAI – “Connecting minds, creating the future,” the slogan of World Expo 2020, is everywhere in this city. The ongoing event, which opened a year late in October 2021, is the first of its kind since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few other places in the world are as future-oriented as Dubai. But what kind of future does Dubai want? The city has established itself as a model for the emerging urban centers of Asia and the Middle East, so its choices today could have far-reaching consequences in the future.
Unlike many of its neighbors, including in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai’s wealth is not built on oil. In fact, only 1% of the city’s GDP comes from hydrocarbons. Not long after oil was first discovered in the emirate in the 1960s, its ruler, Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, decided that the emirate’s economy should not rely on it exclusively. Instead, he pushed Dubai to become a center for global business, based on its favorable geographical position and its pro-market orientation. The city’s planners lived by the credo: “If you build it, they will come.”
Thanks to this mentality, Dubai has run like a start-up, continuously betting on new technologies and innovations. Prominent leaders are devoted to emerging fields: the young Omar Al Olama is Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence; Mohammad Al Gergawi, the right hand of current ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is both Cabinet Chief of Staff and Minister of the Future.