In the future, how an AI utopia would work

It is more than 500 years since Sir Thomas More found inspiration for the "Kingdom of Utopia" while taking a stroll on the streets of Antwerp, Belgium. So, when I traveled there from Dubai in May to speak about artificial intelligence (AI), I couldn't help but draw parallels to Raphael Hythloday, the character in Utopia who regales sixteenth-century Britons with tales of a better world.

As home to the world's first Minister of AI, as well as museums, academics and foundations dedicated to studying the future, Dubai is on its own Hythloday-esque voyage. While Europe, in general, has grown increasingly anxious about technological threats to employment, the United Arab Emirates has enthusiastically embraced the labor-saving potential of AI and automation.

There are practical reasons for this. The ratio of indigenous-to-foreign labor in the Gulf states is highly imbalanced, ranging from a high of 67 percent in Saudi Arabia to a low of 11 percent in the UAE. And because the region's desert environment cannot support further population growth, the prospect of replacing people with machines has become increasingly attractive.