Reading In The AI Era Highlighted As The UAE Embassy Hosts Seminar At Cairo International Book Fair

The Embassy of the UAE in Cairo highlighted the role of reading alongside artificial intelligence during a seminar held at the 57th Cairo International Book Fair, where discussions focused on how technology supports, rather than replaces, human knowledge and the culture of books across the Arab region.

The event took place on the National Library and Archives platform at the fair, and brought together Hamad Obaid Al-Zaabi, UAE Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt and Permanent Representative of the UAE to the Arab League, children’s literature writer Samah Abu Bakr Ezzat, and a wide group of intellectuals, media professionals and visitors.

Hamad Obaid Al-Zaabi stressed that reading has always been the basic route to building a conscious person, adding that artificial intelligence and modern digital tools act as supporting means for learning and research, and do not replace either books or the human mind that interprets information and turns it into understanding.

Al-Zaabi underlined the long cultural and intellectual partnership between the UAE and the Arab Republic of Egypt, noting Egypt’s leading contribution to Arab publishing, literary production and reading movements, and linking the seminar’s theme of reading in the age of artificial intelligence to the wider historical role Egyptian institutions have played in promoting books across the region.

The Ambassador reviewed key UAE efforts that aim to strengthen a culture of reading, including the National Policy for Reading 2026, which sets clear goals, the decision to mark every March as official Reading Month in the UAE, and the Arab Reading Challenge initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, while noting the strong participation by readers and students from Egypt.

Al-Zaabi referred to the cultural vision set by the late Founding Father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, explaining that books have remained central to building societies and individuals, and recalling the famous saying, "The book is the vessel of knowledge and civilisation." Al-Zaabi added that this approach continues under President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with culture treated as a national project, reading seen as a civilisational policy, and investment in the human mind described as the most reliable investment for shaping the future.

Writer Samah Abu Bakr Ezzat focused on children’s needs in the age of artificial intelligence, stating that reading forms the real passport for a child’s mind towards the future, and stressing that the book is still the safest companion for shaping children’s conscience and shielding them from distractions and superficial content that can appear in the virtual world.

With inputs from WAM