Hello, I'm Anthony Butler.
This is my site where I frequently write about the impact of emerging technologies, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, on societies and economies.
I am currently Chief Architect for an initiative to establish Saudi Arabia's global AI leadership and, prior to this, was Senior Advisor to the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) responsible for applied research and experiments with emerging technologies in the financial sector.
This follows a long career as Chief Technology Officer for IBM in the Middle East and Africa and as an IBM Distinguished Engineer focused mostly on leading innovative work in blockchain, AI, and cloud technologies.
I live in and am focused on supporting the development of one of the most exciting and future-oriented places in the world – the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
If you're interested in reading my thoughts as they get published, feel free to subscribe below.
The AI Productivity Paradox?
Most people believe AI is already transforming workplace productivity. Tools like ChatGPT are everywhere. Workers are writing faster, coding more efficiently, and summarising dense documents in seconds. But here’s a less popular, but increasingly important idea: The productivity gains from today’s AI tools largely accrue to the employee—
The Sovereignty Imperative: Five Layers of AI Independence
With artificial intelligence becoming increasingly important economically and politically, terms like "Sovereign Cloud" and "Sovereign AI" are frequently used in policy discussions. However, they often lack clear, comprehensive definitions. Many existing definitions—particularly those promoted by technology vendors—fall significantly short of what governments should consider to establish genuine strategic
On AI Embassies
AI Embassies: Securing Sovereign AI Infrastructure As governments increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI) for national security, public services, and economic management, protecting AI systems has become an urgent priority. The compromise of critical AI systems could have cascading effects across defense, healthcare, and economic stability. While "sovereign clouds" offer
The Evolution of Interfaces: A Hybrid Future
The history of user interfaces is one of constant evolution—from the command-line interfaces of early computing to the graphical systems that democratised technology. Now, with the rise of AI-driven conversational interfaces like ChatGPT, we're seeing a new paradigm emerge. But does this shift represent progress, or does it reveal
Building National AI Sovereignty: A Strategic Framework
"Just deploy local data centers and you'll have AI sovereignty." I hear this surprisingly often from senior leaders and from vendors arguing that local deployment is the same as sovereign deployment. Unfortunately, this view isn't just oversimplified—it's dangerously inadequate in a world in which AI is becoming increasingly important
A graph pathfinding approach to FX liquidity challenges
In blockchain networks that are focused on enabling PvP cross-border payments, such as the BIS Innovation Hub’s mBridge, addressing the FX conversion requirement is important. There may be a challenge with these multi-currency payment networks around the liquidity of certain currency pairs. This can, of course, be solved by
Liquidity-saving mechanisms in trade credit networks: Optimising corporate liquidity
Trade Credit Liquidity Savings Mechanism vFTrade Credit Liquidity Savings Mechanism vF.pdf1 MBdownload-circle Trade credit, or the delayed payment for intermediate goods, has been reported as an important source of short-term external finance for many non-financial firms. The value of trade payables is comparable with that of outstanding corporate bonds
IP considerations in consulting/services agreements
As a result of Vision 2030, there is a tremendous amount of innovation occurring across every dimension of Saudi Arabia: from the digital transformation of government, the development of the gigaprojects (such as NEOM), or the vast efforts of the Public Investment Fund to accelerate the growth of the non-oil
Designing a privacy preserving rCBDC
There has been a lot of global debate about privacy in the context of retail CBDCs, particularly in the context of them being a replacement for cash. The perception is that the introduction of a retail CBDC would enable broad surveillance powers for the government as well as the ability
Decentralized Liquidity Savings Mechanisms with Privacy-Preserving Cryptography
In the context of the wCBDC discussion, there is a lot of focus on the standard lifecycle of the CBDC from issuance through to redemption but not as much consideration of the possible liquidity implications. One of the most powerful concepts in financial markets is the concept of the Liquidity
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