Tech News
Elon Musk Champions AI Regulation in California: Is that Good, Bad or Ugly?
In a significant development for the AI sector, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of the social media platform X, recently voiced his support for California’s proposed SB 1047 bill. This bill aims to enforce stricter regulations on advanced AI models, particularly focusing on safety testing conducted by tech companies and AI developers. Musk’s endorsement highlights a pivotal moment in the ongoing dialogue about AI regulation, given his previously more skeptical stance on such measures.
California’s legislative session has been marked by a flurry of AI-related proposals, with 65 bills introduced, many of which have already been shelved. Among these, AB 3211, which calls for the labeling of AI-generated content, has garnered backing from tech giants like Microsoft and OpenAI. This bill seeks to address the growing concerns about the impact of AI-generated content, from harmless memes to potentially harmful deepfakes influencing political landscapes, especially as several countries prepare for elections this year.
Andreas Hassellof, CEO of Ombori, a company with a strong presence in UAE and at the forefront of responsible AI development, shares his perspective on this evolving situation. “Elon Musk’s recent endorsement of California’s SB 1047 has sparked a crucial conversation within the tech community. I believe this debate represents a critical juncture in the evolution of AI technology and policy,” Hassellof comments.
He notes the surprise within the industry at Musk’s shift in stance on AI regulation. “Musk’s support for this bill underscores the complexity of the issues we face as we push the boundaries of AI capabilities,” Hassellof adds. While his company supports the need for regulation to ensure AI is developed and deployed safely, Hassellof expresses concerns about the bill’s approach, particularly its potential limitations on compute capacity. “While the intention behind SB 1047 is understandable, we worry that restricting compute power could inadvertently stifle innovation without effectively addressing the core safety concerns.”
Hassellof emphasizes the importance of open-source development in AI. “The collaborative nature of open-source development has been a cornerstone of AI innovation. Many ventures, including potentially Musk’s own xAI, have thrived in this ecosystem. We must be cautious not to implement regulations that could hinder this vital aspect of AI development.”
He also highlights the global perspective on AI regulation, noting that regions like the UAE, with a strong support for innovation, could emerge as new hubs for AI development if they adopt a more balanced regulatory approach. “Rather than imposing broad restrictions, we advocate for targeted regulations that address specific high-risk applications of AI while still promoting innovation and collaboration,” Hassellof suggests.
As the AI sector continues to advance, Hassellof calls for a nuanced approach to governance. “The future of AI is too important to be decided by hasty legislation or blanket solutions. We must work together—policymakers, industry leaders, and the tech community—to create regulations that protect against genuine risks without sacrificing our innovative edge or the spirit of open-source collaboration that has driven so much progress.”
Hassellof reaffirms the company’s commitment to responsible AI development and stresses the need for ongoing dialogue to shape a future where AI benefits everyone. “We believe that open dialogue and collaboration are key to crafting regulations that ensure AI’s potential is realized responsibly,” he concludes.
As the debate over AI regulation continues, it’s clear that finding a balance between safety and innovation is paramount. The growing support for regulatory measures like SB 1047 reflects a recognition of the need to address potential risks associated with advanced AI technologies. However, the challenge lies in crafting regulations that are both effective in mitigating risks and conducive to fostering innovation.
As we move forward, the question remains: How can policymakers design AI regulations that safeguard against genuine threats while preserving the open and collaborative environment that has driven so much progress in the field? The answer will likely involve a thoughtful dialogue between regulators, industry leaders, and the tech community. Only by working together can we ensure that AI’s development is guided by principles that protect society without stifling the innovative spirit that has propelled the industry to new heights.
Tech News
Submer to Address the Infrastructure Challenges Behind Sovereign AI at DCD Connect | MENA 2026
Submer, a full-stack AI and HPC data centre infrastructure provider, will join industry leaders at DCD Connect | MENA 2026, taking place October 26–27 at Grand Hyatt Dubai, to discuss the infrastructure strategies needed to advance sovereign AI across the region.
As governments and organisations across the Middle East accelerate their sovereign AI and cloud strategies, the challenge extends beyond keeping data within national borders. They must also build the high-performance computing infrastructure needed to support increasingly complex AI workloads while meeting regulatory requirements, scaling efficiently and maintaining commercial viability.
Submer will contribute to this discussion through its participation in the panel debate “Building Sovereign AI: Enabling Innovation Through Scalable Compute,” on October 26, from 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. The session will explore the infrastructure requirements of sovereign cloud environments, the trade-offs between fully localised and hybrid infrastructure models, and how the region can develop a sovereign-ready compute backbone without compromising flexibility, performance or return on investment.

Bahaa Al Janabi, Technical and Solution Lead for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Submer, will join fellow industry experts to examine how infrastructure decisions can shape the region’s ability to turn its AI ambitions into scalable, commercially viable deployments.
“Sovereign AI is not simply about where data resides. It is about having the infrastructure to run advanced AI workloads at scale while meeting national requirements and making the economics work. The choices organisations make today will shape their ability to innovate, scale and compete. We look forward to discussing how the right infrastructure strategies can help turn the region’s sovereign AI ambitions into reality,” said Bahaa Al Janabi.
Submer representatives will also be available throughout the event to meet with customers, partners and industry stakeholders and discuss the evolving AI infrastructure landscape across the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.
Tech News
Thermax showcases advanced desalination and water recovery technologies to strengthen UAE’s industrial water security at WETEX 2026
Thermax Limited showcased its advanced seawater desalination and industrial water recovery technologies at the Water, Energy, Technology and Environment Exhibition 2026 (WETEX), held from October 20 to 22 at Dubai World Trade Centre. Through its digital showcase, the company highlighted solutions designed to help industries secure reliable water supplies, improve resource efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
Thermax’s participation came as Dubai continues to strengthen its desalination infrastructure to meet growing water requirements. According to Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) Financial Annual Report, desalinated water production increased by 5.51 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, reaching a record 37.57 billion imperial gallons. By June 2026, Dubai’s installed desalination capacity had reached 555 million imperial gallons per day, with seawater reverse osmosis accounting for 23 per cent of the total. These developments highlight the growing importance of efficient and reliable water infrastructure in supporting the UAE’s evolving water requirements.
At the event, Thermax highlighted its desalination solutions that help industries meet their water needs while easing pressure on freshwater resources. The systems use energy-efficient membrane technology to remove salts from seawater and produce water suitable for industrial use, with designs tailored to each customer’s water quality and operating requirements.
Through its digital showcase, Thermax also highlighted portable and containerised desalination systems that bring key equipment together in compact units. This reduces installation work on site, supports faster deployment and allows treatment capacity to grow with demand.
Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax Limited, said: “Water security shapes where industries invest and how competitively they operate. Businesses need dependable supply at a cost they can sustain. That means planning water and energy together, with investment decisions guided by performance throughout a plant’s life.”
Beyond desalination, Thermax also showcased Advanced Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology that recovers additional usable water from the concentrated stream left after treatment. By concentrating the remaining brine, the technology reduces the load on downstream evaporation systems and supports more efficient industrial wastewater management. When combined with suitable additional treatment and crystallisation processes, it can also support salt recovery, creating opportunities to recover valuable resources from wastewater and promote circular water management.
Thermax also showcased industrial water treatment, wastewater recycling and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) solutions that help industries treat and reuse wastewater for suitable applications while reducing freshwater dependence. Complementing these solutions, Thermax’s EDGE Live digital platform supports plant performance through real-time monitoring, AI-driven analytics and predictive diagnostics, helping industrial operators identify potential issues early, optimise maintenance and improve operational reliability.
These solutions align with the objectives of the UAE Water Security Strategy 2036, which targets 95 per cent reuse of treated water by 2036. Through its regional office in Dubai, Thermax is focused on exploring various opportunities across the UAE’s industrial desalination, water treatment and wastewater recycling sectors, particularly within water-intensive industries such as oil and gas, chemicals, metals, food and beverages, and pharmaceuticals.
Thermax has been active across the Middle East and North Africa region since 1993, with more than 1,000 installations across its regional energy and environment portfolio, serving over 30 industries.
Tech Features
TrendAI™Expands Vision One with New Security Capabilities for AI Agents and Application Development
TrendAI™, the global AI security leader and enterprise business unit of Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), has announced new capabilities for TrendAI Vision One™. These include the private preview of Autonomous Vulnerability Discovery and expanded support for Claude’s Compliance API, which now covers Claude Code and Cowork sessions. Together, these services help enterprises identify exploitable vulnerabilities in source code before attackers do, investigate how AI agents operate, and maintain oversight as AI adoption scales.
The need for this oversight is growing rapidly across the region. According to research conducted by The Harris Poll for Dataiku, 62% of UAE chief information officers believe their organisation have more than 50 AI agents running in production, yet only 18% have a fully unified view of agents across platforms, data environments, and business applications. At the same time, AI is accelerating both how quickly code is written and how quickly attackers can identify flaws. Security teams therefore need to keep pace with AI adoption without losing visibility into what is happening across their environments.
The new capabilities extend TrendAI Vision One™ across both software development and AI agent activity. TrendAI Vision One™ Autonomous Vulnerability Discovery is powered by AESIR, TrendAI’s agentic exploit-remediation engine, which identifies and validates vulnerabilities, including zero-days. It also verifies fixes in customer source code. The engine uses purpose-built, multi-model AI architecture that relies primarily on Anthropic models and has outperformed single-model and agentic system scores on the CyberGym Leaderboard. Every finding is validated by experts from the TrendAI™ Zero-Day Initiative™ (ZDI), the world’s largest vendor-agnostic bug bounty programme. The Autonomous Vulnerability Discovery is deployed and operated on Amazon Bedrock from Amazon Web Services (AWS), enabling the full workflow to run within the customer’s AWS environment
In parallel, the expanded Claude Compliance API integration brings Claude Code and Cowork session records from Claude Enterprise into TrendAI Vision One™. These records include prompts, responses, and tool calls, each tied to a verified user. It enables security teams to investigate AI activity in context, correlate it with endpoint, identity, cloud and network signals, and build custom detections for relevant agent behaviour.
Commenting on the announcement, Salah Suleiman, Managing Director, South Gulf, TrendAI™, said, “AI is changing both how software is built and how work gets done across the enterprise. Code is being written faster than ever, while AI agents are increasingly able to access systems, call tools and act on behalf of users. As organisations across the UAE and the wider region scale AI at pace, their security teams need to identify vulnerabilities early while maintaining clear visibility into what AI systems are doing and whether their actions align with organisational policies. With these additions to TrendAI Vision One™, we are helping organisations move faster with AI while maintaining the context, oversight and control needed to do so securely.”
TrendAI Vision One™ also continues to ingest activity logs from Claude Enterprise, covering user logins, administrative actions and configuration changes, as well as from Claude Platform, covering administrative, system and resource events. Autonomous Vulnerability Discovery is now available in private preview to select enterprise customers running on AWS, while Claude’s Compliance API integration in TrendAI Vision One™ is available to TrendAI Vision One™ customers using Claude Enterprise.
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