From Riyadh... Mask reveals the best novel predicting the future of artificial intelligence.

In a striking scene combining politics and technology, American billionaire and renowned business magnate Elon Musk appeared at the Al-Yamamah Palace in the Saudi capital Riyadh yesterday, Tuesday, accompanied by US President Donald Trump, who is on his first official visit outside the United States during his second presidential term. The meeting was part of a prominent event that witnessed the presence of high-ranking American officials, where Musk shook hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and exchanged brief conversation, drawing smiles on all three faces. Musk, who serves as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and the founder of the emerging artificial intelligence company XAI, did not go unnoticed during his participation in the Saudi-American Investment Forum held on the sidelines of Trump's visit, attended by elite leaders of major global technology companies such as Meta, Amazon, Nvidia, and OpenAI. However, what caught the attention of the audience and social media followers the most was Musk's recommendation to read a novel series that he described as "the best depiction of the future of artificial intelligence." He pointed out that it presents a stunning science fiction imagination reflecting advanced visions of what our world could become, referring to the "Culture" series written by Scottish novelist Iain M. Banks. The series, which intrigued many, consists of ten novels published between 1987 and 2012, set in an advanced space world known as "the Culture," a utopian society post-scarcity not governed by governments or corporations, but managed by superintelligent and self-aware AI minds. These entities are not only responsible for operating ships and space colonies but also oversee the entire society's affairs, often with a more ethical spirit than humans themselves. The novels explore how this society succeeded in eliminating wars, poverty, and disease while providing individuals with almost absolute freedom to choose their bodies, genders, ages, and even lifestyles in a world free from scarcity and oppression. The series delves into deep philosophical aspects through conflicts between this ideal civilization and less advanced or more oppressive societies. The series also presents an ambitious vision of an economy entirely driven by artificial intelligence, in an environment governed by values of freedom and diversity, while the intelligent minds remain the most conscious and responsible. Additionally, a collection of short stories titled "State of the Art" was published in 1991 within the same imaginative world, bringing the total works in this context to 13 novels, with 9 directly belonging to the "Culture" series. Musk's interest in this genre of literature comes at a time when the role of artificial intelligence is growing on the global stage, especially in Saudi Arabia, which announced one day before the forum the launch of "HuMAIn," owned by the Public Investment Fund, aiming to develop Arabic-language artificial intelligence technologies and build advanced infrastructure for cloud computing and data centers to become a leader in designing one of the best Large Language Models (LLM) in the Arab world. With these indications, it became clear that Musk does not see artificial intelligence as just a technology but as a gateway to complete civilizational visions, closer to those depicted by Banks in his literature, which may soon become part of the reality we live in.