Mastercard is partnering with the Rochester Institute of Technology's Dubai satellite campus to promote artificial-intelligence talent development in the region as part of Mastercard's growing role in helping the UAE build a new digital economy powered by AI.
Through a memorandum of understanding that Mastercard signed with RIT, which has operated a nonprofit outpost in Dubai since 2008, the card network will work to foster talent in the UAE region with the goal of advancing AI development and innovation, the companies said in a Wednesday press release.
Mastercard will collaborate with the institute to host AI lectures and workshops and help develop an AI curriculum for hundreds of students attending RIT in Dubai, and students will also have access to Mastercard's recently opened AI Center in Dubai to prepare for AI careers, the release said.
The New York-based card network has had
H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, minister of state for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, recently said he aims to position the UAE as a leading hub for AI by 2031, because he sees AI as a way to fast-track development of the UAE's digital economy, Mastercard said in a release announcing its pact with the government. Olama is working to drive a series of private-sector collaborations and partnerships with leading international companies.
Toward that end, Mastercard in August unveiled its new global Center for Advanced AI and Cyber Technology in Dubai, where the card network will use AI to battle financial crime and drive inclusive financial growth in the region. The goal is to hire local AI talent, including data engineers and data scientists.
PwC estimates that AI will contribute $320 billion to the Middle East region and more than $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
While banks are initially
Mastercard recently launched a new AI-powered consumer fraud risk tool in the U.K. Operating in partnership with U.K. financial institutions Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Monzo and TSB, Mastercard is using large-scale payments data to spot real-time payment scams before the funds leave the victim's account, according to a recent press release.
Through its collaboration with several of the U.K.'s largest banks, Mastercard has worked over the last five years to follow the flow of funds through the so-called "mule accounts" that fraudsters use to illegally move stolen funds across the financial ecosystem. Short-circuiting these flows is key to blocking authorized push payment fraud, which accounts for about 40% of U.K. bank fraud losses. Last year there were 207,372 incidents of APP scams in the U.K., amounting to gross losses of $591 million. If present trends continue, APP scams could cost $4.6 billion in U.S. and U.K. bank fraud losses by 2026, according to data Mastercard cited.
TSB, one of the first banks to adopt Mastercard's new AI tool, has seen significant improvements from its use in blocking real-time payment scams, Mastercard said in its release describing the new tool.
