News
GITEX GLOBAL 2024 To Showcase Leading AI Tech Talent
The Dubai expo will bring thought leaders, founders, and investors together in a landmark event celebrating the UAE’s growing success as a global AI hub.
Over 3,500 of the tech sector’s most well-known brands will converge at the World Trade Centre in Dubai between 14 and 18 October for GITEX GLOBAL 2024, the world’s largest technology and startup event.
This year, the tech expo will see thought leaders, industry heavyweights and even government representatives gather to showcase and discuss breakthrough AI technologies while forging potential collaborations that could lead to future advancements in one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors.

GITEX GLOBAL 2024 will highlight the potential challenges surrounding AI, including ethics, government policies, and regulations. Experts will also uncover key opportunities for applying the technology in the tech, health, and finance sectors and explain how it might shape the future of work and employment.
The UAE has become increasingly prominent as a global AI hub due to a long-term government agenda aiming to harness the new technologies’ full potential. The UAE’s National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence offers a clear and determined vision to make the country an AI world leader by 2031, with significant funds already allocated to public services, tourism, energy, and education.
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AI solutions are increasingly seen as vital tools for enhanced productivity and economic growth amongst world leaders and industry experts. In a recent GITEX Tech Waves podcast, Thomas Pramotedham, CEO of Abu Dhabi-based AI enterprise Presight, explained: “Today you’ll see companies applying AI and AI evolving — in five, ten years, it will get smarter, and when it gets smarter, you’ll get more efficiency and shorter routes to answers for difficult and complex questions. In return, that will be to the betterment of society and the world we live in”.
GITEX headliners for 2024 include a host of tech giants such as Adobe, Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Builder AI, Dell, G42, Google, HPE, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Open AI. In addition, the conference will feature a star-studded lineup of keynote speakers, including Isabell Gradert, VP of Central Research and Technology at Airbus (Germany), Michael Spranger, President of Sony AI (Japan), and Stephen Ibaraki, and many more.
For more information about GITEX GLOBAL 2024, head to the official website.
News
Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
Google brings its latest image model to Gemini and Search, adding 4K output and tighter text control for regional users.
Google has opened access to Nano Banana 2 across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing its newest image model into everyday tools rather than keeping it inside the exclusive (and expensive) Pro tier.
The rollout spans the Google Gemini desktop and mobile apps, and extends to Google Search through Lens and AI Mode. Developers can also test it in preview via AI Studio and the Gemini API.
Nano Banana 2 runs on Gemini Flash, Google’s fast inference layer. The focus is speed, but also control. Users can export visuals from 512px up to 4K, adjusting aspect ratios for everything from vertical social posts to widescreen displays.
The model maintains character likeness across up to five figures and preserves fidelity for as many as 14 objects within a single workflow. This enables visual continuity across scenes, iterations, or edits — supporting projects like short films, storyboards, and multi-scene narratives. Text rendering has also been improved, delivering legible typography in mockups and greeting cards, with built-in translation and localization directly within images.
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Under the hood, the system taps Gemini’s broader knowledge base and pulls in real-time information and imagery from web search to render specific subjects more accurately. Lighting and fine detail have been upgraded, without slowing output.
By embedding the model inside Gemini and Search, Google is normalizing advanced image generation for a mass audience. In MENA, where startups and marketing teams are leaning heavily on AI to scale content across languages and borders, that shift lands at a practical moment.
The move also folds creative tooling deeper into search itself, so that image generation is no longer a separate workflow. It now sits right next to the query box.
