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Monocle Weekend
Edition: Sunday

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The Faster Lane / Tyler Brûlé

Desert bloom

Desert bloom

The week has been punctuated by a series of key words that have popped up in conversations social, work-related and all chatter in between. We start in Abu Dhabi but the focus was on a neighbour up the coast.Bahrain The tiny Gulf state is on everyone’s lips. But why? “Bahrain was a first mover in the region and it’s a bit ahead of everyone else. In part because it’s much more in private hands than other states,” explains the elegant lady across from me. “Less control and more relaxed. More confident.” More from Manama soon.Saadiyat Island Currently a building site that already boasts a branch of the Louvre and the Abrahamic Family House, Saadiyat Island is on track to become one of the most impressive cultural hubs between Paris and Tokyo. With the Guggenheim nearing completion, the island on the doorstep of Abu Dhabi’s CBD reminds me of tracts of Singapore circa 1992 – but with more architectural and design ambition.Huna At a busy intersection in the Jumeirah 3 district, a real-estate brand is fast establishing itself as a new neighbourhood. The current offer is a gleaming white mix of F&B outlets and apartments while across the street a raft of new shops are about to throw open their doors and new residences are on the rise. Part of ARM Holdings, Huna is a developer whose name might come to define the whole area as the group seeks to upgrade the public realm for locals and visitors alike.AI I need to ask the question: is the AI hype akin to all the airtime that the metaverse consumed four years ago? I can remember every big corporate I met with in 2021 being completely distracted by this new technology and how it was going to transform consumer behaviour. At the World Governments Summit in Dubai this week we heard some radical and frankly depressing scenarios that will be rendered by AI. As I write this from the Summersalt Beach Club, surrounded by people hustling trays, mixing drinks and spinning discs, I am not entirely convinced about how transformative AI will be in the end. Feel free to challenge me on this but if you don’t want to be impacted, you can opt out. As one tech investor suggested, we’re likely to see the rise of more Amish-style societies that will simply reject technology that’s designed to make us dumber and more dependent.Etihad Keep an eye out for the UAE’s other carrier as its Brazilian CEO, Antonoaldo Neves, plans to make Etihad the only airline with a first class on all aircraft while still focusing on the fastest-growing regions in the world. I’ve even started to hear Dubai locals grumbling for the first time about Emirates and some are now starting and finishing their journeys in AUH rather than DXB. The sentiment expressed over a dinner dominated by Lebanese, Syrians, French and Monocle Patrons at Cala Vista on Friday evening was that Emirates has become a little arrogant and less personal.

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