News

Riyadh Is Hosting The Ultimate Hack Fest At Black Hat MEA

Tickets are now available for the most eagerly awaited cybersecurity event in the Middle East, which takes place in Riyadh from 15-17th November 2022.

Published

4 years ago

October 9, 2022

Nour Nasir

Black Hat MEA

The Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh will be home to the most respected information security event in the world this November, as Black Hat opens its doors to InfoSec heavyweights, as well as offering speaking sessions and 23 training programs to excited visitors.

The 3-day event will take place between the 15th and 17th of November and will host 250 exhibitors and over 200 speakers, with tech experts from Cisco, IBM, Spire and Infoblox all attending.

The event results from a partnership between the Saudi Federation of Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and events company Informa Markets. It will highlight the Kingdom’s growth in cybersecurity and modern digital technology.

“Black Hat MEA is a powerful indicator of our intentions within the cybersecurity space. This partnership will spark innovation, supercharge our capacity building and develop investment opportunities which we are excited to share with the world in November,” says Faisal Al-Khamisi, Chairman, SAFCSP.

So what can event goers expect from Black Hat Riyadh?

Speakers: An exciting line-up of world-renowned experts from leading companies, including CISOs of Equifax, Boom Supersonic and Lufthansa, SolarWinds and more. The event will also welcome David Colombo, the teen tech genius who hacked Tesla cars.
Training: 23 training sessions specially developed for the event by 30 Black Hat-approved trainers will take place in a hands-on environment. Training partners include Offensive Security, we45, Orange Cyberdefense and Madiant.
Executive Summit: An exclusive conference featuring over 200 leaders in information security, including senior decision-makers in charge of implementing security strategies.
Arsenal: A developer space where the latest open-source software, tools and products will be showcased, along with hands-on experience from owners and experts.
Briefings: InfoSec gurus will present research on the latest industry trends, hacking tools and security vulnerabilities.
Capture The Flag: A jeopardy-style hacking tournament will take place, with over 1,000 participants joining the game to enhance their hacking skills at various difficulty levels for a piece of the SAR 700,000 prize fund.

Other competitions at Black Hat MEA include the Bug Bounty Cup, with a prize fund of SAR 300,000, and a startup competition featuring judges, angel investors and government stakeholders for a cash prize of SAR 90,000. The event looks set to be an exciting addition to the region’s expo calendar, so head over to the Black Hat site and get your tickets early!

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

6 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

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Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.