DUBAI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 8, 2026--
Dubai has launched the Create AI Agents Championship, a global competition inviting innovators to develop practical and scalable AI-agent solutions that address real-world challenges, with a total prize pool exceeding AED 2.5 million.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008883373/en/
The launch of the championship was announced by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, who encouraged innovators from around the world to participate.
Led by Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, the championship aims to accelerate the adoption of Agentic AI and support the development of innovative AI-agent solutions with strong potential for practical application, scalability, and commercial growth. It also seeks to encourage the creation of solutions that can deliver measurable value for individuals, businesses, and society.
The competition is open to innovators from technical and non-technical backgrounds, with no minimum age requirement. Individuals and teams may enter with an innovative idea, prototype, or early-stage minimum viable product, while existing businesses may submit a new AI-agent solution or capability.
Participants will compete across four categories: Best Societal AI Agent, Best Personal AI Agent, Best Business AI Agent, and Best Youth AI Agent. Each category winner will receive AED 550,000, while one of the four winners will also receive the AI Agent of the Year title and AED 1 million.
Participants are encouraged to identify priority challenges, design AI agents to address them, test their impact, and explore their potential to develop into viable and scalable products, services, and commercial ventures.
The championship will also provide participants with access to advanced training, practical workshops, self-paced learning content, specialised sessions, and mentorship to support the development and refinement of their solutions.
Registration opened on 7 October and will close in December 2026.
To find out more, please visit http://www.dubaichamberdigital.com/en/create-ai-agents
About Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy
Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy works to position Dubai as a global leader in the digital economy. Its mandate includes attracting companies, talent, and investment while creating a supportive environment for digital business growth.
Source:AETOSWire
Dubai has launched the Create AI Agents Championship as part of its efforts to accelerate the adoption and development of Agentic AI (Photo: AETOSWire)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration is suspending tech giant Microsoft from a program to apply for green cards for workers who come to the U.S. to live and work using H-1B visas as it accuses the company of fraud.
Supporters of the Republican president have long argued that various programs like the one Vice President JD Vance accused Microsoft of abusing essentially empower American companies to recruit foreign workers for jobs that end up undercutting Americans. In a wide-ranging announcement Thursday, Vance and other top administration officials also called out universities over their use of J-1 visas for international students and information technology outsourcing firms.
The announcement came hours before Trump was scheduled to award the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, part of an event at which he is granting some of the nation’s most prestigious science and technology awards to his tech billionaire allies.
Vance said the program from which Microsoft is being suspended requires companies to advertise jobs in America before applying to the Department of Labor to show they need to give a foreign worker a green card because of a lack of American workers.
“They’ll put an advertisement in a small-town newspaper. They’ll go out there and say that ‘We have advertised for a position with our company, and nobody is responding to it.’ And they will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants," Vance said. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has used this system more than Microsoft."
Microsoft is No. 5 among U.S. employers when it comes to using H-1B visas, according data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Amazon is No. 1.
Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, near Seattle, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Doug Rand, a former senior adviser at USCIS during the Biden administration, called Vance's announcement “incoherent.”
“If the Trump administration were truly concerned that H-1B workers are ‘indentured servants,’ then the last thing they would do is block companies from helping their own H-1B workers get green cards,” he said. "Once you have a green card, you’re no longer dependent on your employer for your immigration status — you’re a permanent resident who can change jobs and negotiate higher wages without fear.”
Vance said Microsoft last year laid off 6,000 American workers but also obtained 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.
“If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants,” Vance said in a White House news conference announcing the decision. "Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers."
Vance said H-1B workers are effectively foreign indentured servants because if they lose their job, they have to leave the country, and they earn less than Americans in the same position.
The H-1B program has long been a target of Trump supporters who say that the program undercuts American workers and is rife with abuse.
H-1B visas are meant for high-skilled jobs that are difficult to find American workers to fill. Technology companies are the biggest users, with nearly three-quarters of approvals going to workers from India.
Trump last year attempted to ratchet up the fee for H-1B work visas to $100,000, saying it would protect American workers from losing their jobs to lower-paid foreigners, but a federal judge struck that down in June.
The administration has since tried a different tack, announcing plans in August for a $103,265 fee. The proposed regulation described the new fee as a “dedicated revenue mechanism to help recover a portion of the federal government’s costs of administering the lawful immigration system.” The rule isn’t yet final and is expected to face a legal challenge, like the one before it.
The Vance announcement came a day after Trump's administration launched another broadside against international students and their ability to work in the U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the United States. The proposed rule would require schools to pay the fee for every student who participates in the Optional Practical Training program, known as OPT, which allows students to work in jobs related to their major during or after their time in school.
Vance also called out universities that he suggested were abusing a program to allow international students to come to the U.S. These temporary visas, called J-1 visas, allow international visitors to temporarily come to the U.S. for work and study exchange programs. Vance singled out nine universities that he said merited further investigation for J-1 visa fraud, saying they used the program in greater proportions than their counterparts.
Associated Press writer Heather Hollingsworth contributed from Mission, Kansas. Ortutay reported from Oakland, Calif.
Vice President JD Vance speaks as Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, from left, and Attorney General Todd Blanche listen during a news conference on the Fraud Task Force inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Vice President JD Vance speaks as Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling listens during a news conference on the Fraud Task Force inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella walks to the White House to attend a state dinner hosted for China's President Xi Jinping, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news conference on the Fraud Task Force inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, listens as Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news conference on the Fraud Task Force inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news conference on the Fraud Task Force inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
