In an interview on CNN’s Connect the World with Becky Anderson,the President of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) Eric Xing discussed the benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence.

Xing said that many people are overestimating the power that A.I. has currently, “I think the power and capability of A.I. might be a little bit exaggerated at this point.”

As president of the world’s first A.I. university, Xing discussed how the UAE’s adoption of the technology will bring benefits to the region, “I think these opportunities will be all very rewarding in the long run because the UAE is among the fewer early nations to really embrace A.I. to see beyond an energy driven economy to move it into knowledge driven economy and A.I. is the driving force. Being in the game and developing domestic capability of doing basic R&D is really putting UAE into the game. Maybe to have a upper hand position in the global competition.”

Many tech leaders have called for a pause in A.I. research as the technology becomes more and more advanced. Xing explains that most people agree that the A.I. sector needs regulation, “People on both sides calling for regulation, suspension, or advocating that, are trying to say the same thing, which is A.I. is switching to a point that it requires people’s attention and the government’s attention in terms of mitigating and managing the consequences and risk. But people disagree on the methodology and approach.”

Xing also spoke about the role MBZUAI is playing in the future development of the A.I. sector, “As a university we’re actively playing our role as a thinktank to help our government officials and stakeholders to understand the implication of A.I. in terms of the technological nuances behind it, the risk and also the potential. And that’s where we see the university play the best role in influencing the decision makers.”