Saudi startup Humain to launch new AI-based operating system

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(Refiles story to fix spelling of operating system name Humain One in paragraph 2)

RIYADH (Reuters) -Saudi-based AI startup Humain, set up by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, plans to launch a computer operating system this week that enables users to speak to a computer to tell it to perform tasks, the company said on Monday.

It sees systems such as its new product, Humain One, as an eventual alternative to icon-based systems like Windows or macOS that have dominated personal computer operating systems since the mid-1980s, a company spokesperson said.

“Rather than looking at icons where you click for discrete applications, now you (…) speak your intent,” CEO Tareq Amin said at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh.

While other companies are working on similar products, Humain aims to be the first to officially launch its system.

Humain was launched in May under the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, and is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It offers AI services and products, including data centres, AI infrastructure, cloud capabilities and advanced AI models.  

A computer’s operating system is the software that acts as the bridge between the user and the machine, managing hardware resources and providing essential services for all other programs.

The Humain spokesperson, who declined to be named, said that the company started developing the new operating system shortly after it launched as a company in May. It has been testing the operating system internally for its own payroll and human resources systems, he said.

Amin also said on Monday that Humain plans to build approximately 6 gigawatts of data center capacity, but did not say where. 

(Reporting by Yousef Saba; Writing by Andrew Mills and Tala Ramadan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Susan Fenton)