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Generative AI in KSA: Public Guidelines | Adeptiv AI
Issued by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA). The framework applies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
It applies to all stakeholders designing, developing, deploying, implementing, using, or being affected by GenAI systems within KSA. This includes developers, users, companies, NGOs, public and private entities, researchers, employees, and consumers.
The framework aims to guide the responsible and effective development and use of Generative AI in KSA. It seeks to promote adoption of GenAI technologies, gain their benefits, and reduce risks and negative outcomes. It also aims to foster trust and understanding of GenAI systems.
Why This Framework Matters
This framework matters because GenAI is being quickly integrated into everyday life by individuals and organizations. Although GenAI enhances efficiency and develops new products, it also poses risks of misuse, misinformation, privacy violations, and fraud. SDAIA thus offers direction to ensure that GenAI is used in a safe, ethical, and legal manner, while also promoting the national agenda for technology adoption and public benefit.
Key Areas Covered by the Framework (Regulatory highlights)
The framework points out the following areas:
- Benefits of GenAI
GenAI enhances efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, facilitates communication and collaboration, enables data-driven decision-making, improves accessibility for the disabled and people with diverse backgrounds, and improves public service delivery in areas such as healthcare, education, social services, and legal aid.
Core Principles of GenAI
- Fairness: Prevent bias, discrimination, and stigma in design, data, and
- Reliability & Safety: Ensure systems behave as intended and do not cause
- Transparency & Explainability: Inform users when AI is used and label AI-generated
- Accountability & Responsibility: Hold designers, developers, and owners responsible for negative impacts and legal compliance.
- Privacy & Security: Protect data, apply security-by-design, and conduct privacy and risk assessments.
- Humanity: Ensure AI respects human rights and cultural
- Social & Environmental Benefits: Ensure AI supports social good and sustainability.
- Risks and Mitigation Areas
- Deepfakes and misrepresentation
- Safety threats
- Misinformation and AI hallucination
- Classified data breaches
- Certification fraud
- Intellectual property infringement
- Variability of outputs
Each risk area has its own set of mitigation strategies such as watermarking, content moderation, dataset filtering, awareness training, verification procedures, user caution, in- house usage policies, and licensing verification.
Governance, Documentation & Controls
The framework requires:
- Testing GenAI systems to eliminate bias and ensure diverse training
- Defining reliability and safety criteria and system triggers for human
- Identifying AI-generated content to notify
- Clear communication about the use of AI in public
- Maintaining data quality checks and validation
- Using privacy-by-design and security-by-design
- Performing privacy impact and risk management
- Internal policies to ensure that classified information is not entered into GenAI
- Employee training on legal and ethical
- Periodic verification and validation of AI
These controls are targeted at organizations, developers, and users to ensure compliance, accountability, and auditability.
How Our Platform Enables Compliance
The framework empowers entities with the necessary tools and platforms to achieve seamless compliance:
Assigns clear owners for every framework requirement or compliance control.
Real-time dashboards for quarterly reviews
Single repository for all audit-ready compliance evidence
Relevant compliance controls based on lifecycle stage (ideation, in-development, deployment)
Penalties & Liability Exposure
The SDAIA Generative AI Guidelines are regulatory guidance documents issued for responsible AI use in Saudi Arabia. They do not define offences or prescribe fines, sanctions, or punishment clauses. The document uses advisory language such as “should” and “encourage,” confirming its non-binding nature. No direct legal liability is created for breach of the guidelines. However, it requires compliance with existing laws like Personal Data Protection and Intellectual Property laws. Therefore, penalties and liability arise only under those external binding laws, not under the guideline itself.
Who Should Pay Attention
It is pertinent to the framework:
- Developers of GenAI systems
- Users of GenAI tools
- Public and private sector organizations
- Researchers and data scientists
- Employees handling AI systems
- Consumers interacting with AI services
All stakeholders involved in designing, developing, and using Generative AI in KSA should pay attention to the framework.
Update & Implementation Status
The document is a regulatory guideline, issued in May 2025. It is a general regulatory document, as classified by SDAIA. It is the current ethical guidance for the use of Generative AI in KSA, and all stakeholders are required to follow it.