LISBON: In her first public address since she leaked a trove of damaging documents about Facebook’s inner workings, whistleblower Frances Haugen urged her former boss, Mark Zuckerberg, to step down and allow change rather than devoting resources to a rebrand.
“I think it is unlikely the company will change if [Mark Zuckerberg] remains the CEO,” Haugen told a packed arena on Monday at the opening night of the Web Summit, a tech fest drawing dozens of thousands to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.
The former Facebook product manager replied in the positive to the question of whether Zuckerberg should resign, and added: “Maybe it’s a chance for someone else to take the reins... Facebook would be stronger with someone who was willing to focus on safety.”
The social network, with nearly 3 billion users, changed its name to Meta last week, in a rebrand that focuses on building the “metaverse,” a shared virtual environment that it bets will be the successor to the mobile Internet.
But early adopters of the virtual worlds known as the metaverse blasted Facebook’s rebranding as an attempt to capitalize on growing buzz over a concept it did not create to deflect from recent negative attention.
Commenting on the rebranding, Haugen said it made no sense given the security issues that have yet to be tackled.
“Over and over Facebook chooses expansion and new areas instead of sticking the landing on what they’ve already done,” Haugen told an animated crowd which frequently burst into applause as she spoke.
Facebook’s announcement came amid strong criticism from lawmakers and regulators over the corporation’s business practices — particularly its enormous market power, algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its services.
The social media network, which operates a dual class share structure through which Zuckerberg and a small group of investors control the company, has hit back saying the documents leaked by Haugen were being used to paint a “false picture.”
Haugen told British and American lawmakers last month that Facebook would fuel more violent unrest worldwide unless it curbed its algorithms which push extreme, divisive content and prey on vulnerable demographics to keep them scrolling.
“A key problem is that the foundation of the platform’s security is based on monitoring content language by language, which does not scale to all the countries where Facebook operates,” Haugen noted.
Facebook whistleblower Haugen urges Zuckerberg to step down
https://arab.news/6j7ve
Facebook whistleblower Haugen urges Zuckerberg to step down
- Haugen told British and American lawmakers last month that Facebook would fuel more violent unrest worldwide unless it curbed its algorithms which push extreme, divisive content and prey on vulnerable demographics to keep them scrolling
MenaML hosts 2026 Winter School in Saudi Arabia to boost AI education, collaboration in region
- Second edition of Winter School will be hosted in partnership with KAUST
DUBAI: The Middle East and North Africa Machine Learning Winter School will host its second edition in Saudi Arabia this year, in partnership with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
The non-profit held its inaugural edition in Doha last year in partnership with the Qatar Computing Research Institute.
The initiative began when like-minded individuals from Google DeepMind and QCRI came together to launch a platform connecting a “community of top-tier AI practitioners with a shared interest in shaping the future of the MENA region,” Sami Alabed, a research scientist at Google DeepMind and one of the co-founders of MenaML, told Arab News.
Along with Alabed, the core team includes Maria Abi Raad and Amal Rannen-Triki from Google DeepMind, as well as Safa Messaoud and Yazan Boshmaf from QCRI.
Messaoud said that the school has three goals: building local talent in artificial intelligence, enhancing employability and connection, and reversing brain drain while fostering regional opportunity.
AI has dominated boardrooms and courtrooms alike globally, but “AI research and education in MENA are currently in a nascent, yet booming, stage,” she added.
Launched at a pivotal moment for the region, the initiative was timed to ensure “regional representation in the global AI story while cultivating AI models that are culturally aligned,” said Rannen-Triki.
The school’s vision is to cultivate researchers capable of developing “sophisticated, culturally aligned AI models” that reflect the region’s values and linguistic and cultural diversity, said Messaoud.
This approach, she added, enables the region to contribute meaningfully to the global AI ecosystem while ensuring that AI technologies remain locally relevant and ethically grounded.
MenaML aims to host its annual program in a different city each year, partnering with reputable institutions in each host location.
“Innovation does not happen in silos; breakthroughs are born from collaboration that extends beyond borders and lab lines,” said Alabed.
“Bringing together frontier labs to share their knowledge echoes this message, where each partner brings a unique viewpoint,” he added.
This year, MenaML has partnered with KAUST, which “offers deep dives into specialized areas critical to the region, blending collaborative spaces with self-learning and placement programs,” said Abi Raad.
The program, developed in partnership with KAUST, brings together speakers from 16 institutions and focuses on four key areas: AI and society, AI and sciences, AI development, and regional initiatives.
“These themes align with the scientific priorities and research excellence pillars of KAUST as well as the needs of regional industries seeking to deploy AI safely and effectively,” said Bernard Ghanem, professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science at KAUST and director of the Center of Excellence in Generative AI.
The program will also highlight efficiency in AI systems, with the overall goal of equipping “participants with the conceptual and practical understanding needed to contribute meaningfully to next-generation AI research and development,” he told Arab News.
For KAUST, hosting the MenaML Winter School aligns with Saudi Arabia’s ambition to become a global hub for AI research under Vision 2030.
By attracting top researchers, industry partners, and young talent to the Kingdom, it helps cement the Kingdom’s position as a center for AI excellence, Ghanem said.
It also aligns closely with Vision 2030’s “goals of building human capital, fostering innovation, and developing a knowledge-based economy” and “contributes to the long-term development of a world-leading AI ecosystem in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Although the program accepts students from around the world, participants must demonstrate a connection to the MENA region, Abi Raad said.
The goal is to build bridges between those who may have left the region and those who remain, enabling them to start conversations and collaborate, she added.
A certain percentage of spots is reserved for participants from the host country, while a small percentage is allocated to fully international students with no regional ties, with the objective of offering them a glimpse into the regional AI ecosystem.
Looking ahead, MenaML envisions growing from an annual event into a sustainable, central pillar of the regional AI ecosystem, inspired by the growth trajectory of global movements like TED or the Deep Learning Indaba, a sister organization supporting AI research and education in Africa.
Boshmaf said MenaML’s long-term ambition is to evolve beyond its flagship event into a broader movement, anchored by local MenaMLx chapters across the region.
Over time, the initiative aims to play a central role in strengthening the regional AI ecosystem by working with governments and the private sector to support workforce development, AI governance and safety education, and collaborative research, while raising the region’s global visibility through its talent network and international partnerships.
He added: “If TED is the global stage for ‘ideas worth spreading,’ MenaML is to be the regional stage for ‘AI ideas worth building.’”
The MenaML Winter School will run from Jan. 24 to 29 at KAUST in Saudi Arabia.
