In May 2025, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman inaugurated HUMAIN, a state-sponsored artificial intelligence company to assist in transforming the Kingdom into an AI innovation hub. Backed by the powerful Public Investment Fund (PIF), HUMAIN will run end-to-end in the AI value chain — from next-generation data centers and AI infrastructure to advanced Arabic large language models and cloud services.
On the surface, this statement might first seem to be a positive step towards the Arab world’s digital future, but a closer look reveals sinister undertones. Saudi Arabia’s massive push into AI is not an isolated incident — it is one aspect of a deliberate strategy of “image laundering” through both sportswashing and now techwashing. As Saudi Arabia prepares to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, it is imperative that the global community accepts this reality and takes a moral position: Boycott Saudi FIFA 2034.
Intentional Journey from Sportswashing to Techwashing
HUMAIN is being promoted by state media as a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification strategy, Vision 2030. HUMAIN will develop intellectual property, attract foreign AI talent, and push the Kingdom to the global forefront of high-tech leadership, the Saudi Press Agency reports.
Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia has spent billions on sport, hosting Formula One Grand Prix motor racing events, high-profile boxing matches, LIV Golf events, and the purchase of Newcastle United Football Club. They have come under scathing attack as distraction exercises for Saudi Arabia’s dismal human rights record, one of them described as sportswashing.
With the tag of an AI superpower, the Kingdom is trying to recast itself as modern, progressive, and innovative, concealing the fact of repression, surveillance, and rights abuses that persist on its soil. The risks are even higher in the case of AI.
While sports events, for instance, are something that can be affected by AI technologies such as large language models, data centers, and cloud services, these are instruments that can increase state power, especially in an authoritarian context. The Kingdom’s control over state-of-the-art data infrastructure presents the possibility of an unprecedented scale of surveillance, censorship, and manipulation.
AI as a Means of Repression
Repressive regimes around the world have already demonstrated how to employ artificial intelligence as a means of repression. China’s sinister Social Credit System, mass surveillance technology, and predictive policing are all fine test cases of AI-enabled repression. Saudi Arabia, as glistening as its AI ambitions, has long experience with using technology to spy and stifle dissent. Consider this:
- In 2018, Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. There is evidence that spyware and surveillance tools were used to track Khashoggi and his fellow journalists before the assassination.
- Saudi officials have repeatedly used Pegasus spyware (developed by Israel’s NSO Group) to hack activists’, dissidents’, and journalists’ phones.
- The mass surveillance of citizens’ online activities — through social media monitoring, content filtering, and internet censorship — goes on unabated.
With HUMAIN consolidating control over data centers, cloud computing, and large language models, the Saudi regime will be able to exponentially expand its ability to monitor conversations, predict dissent, and shape narratives domestically and internationally.
A FIFA World Cup That Legitimizes AI-Powered Authoritarianism
The World Cup is not just a football competition — it is the world’s most-watched sporting event, drawing the eye of billions and bringing respectability to the world on the hosting nation’s part. In hosting the 2034 World Cup, FIFA has given the Kingdom a powerful soapbox upon which to sweep its human rights violations under the rug and project its geopolitical influence outward.
Empowering Saudi Arabia to host this event may entrench and legitimize AI-based repression as a worldwide phenomenon. The infrastructure that’s being built under HUMAIN isn’t so much about advancing technology — it’s about expanding the extent and depth of authoritarianism. Visiting Saudi Arabia in 2034 would make players, fans, companies, and nations accessories to maintaining a surveillance state that suppresses human rights.
Vision 2030: A Mirage of Modernity
Saudi Vision 2030 espouses a vision of modernity — futuristic cities, groundbreaking technology, and an economy independent of petroleum. Modernity without freedom is an illusion.
- Saudi women are still severely constrained despite recent liberalization.
- Political opposition is still criminalized.
- Freedom of expression remains tightly limited, and harsh penalties lie in store for critics.
- Executions and corporal punishment still occur at shocking rates.
Advanced AI systems will not liberate Saudi nationals; instead, they can expand the government’s grip on its citizens.
The Global Risk: Exporting AI-Enabled Repression
There is also the threat of AI authoritarianism going global. Saudi Arabia’s ambitious AI plans include scaling up solutions globally and regionally, with HUMAIN in a position to export its technologies abroad. If Saudi Arabia were to become a pioneer in AI surveillance technology, it could invite other authoritarian governments to deploy similar models of electronic repression, further undermining global human rights.
HUMAIN: The New Frontier of Sportswashing
Saudi Arabia’s launch of HUMAIN is not just a tech start-up — it is an evolution of its already established sportswashing policy. Through pairing massive investment in AI with overseas sporting spectacles like the 2034 FIFA World Cup, the Kingdom attempts to buff its image worldwide and avoid focus on sustained abuses. Where high-end sporting spectacles have served in the past to overshadow repression against opposition, high-technology
AI tools have the potential to keep the world from the eyes of the regime’s fundamentally authoritarian activities. HUMAIN bolsters the same playbook: wow the world with innovation to cover up repression. Boycotting Saudi 2034 is a protest against this dangerous charade.
Why a Boycott Matters
A boycott of the Saudi 2034 is not symbolic. It is a moral act of resistance that sends a clear message:
- Innovation does not justify oppression.
- Global sporting events should not incentivize surveillance states.
- Technology without rights is a threat, not progress.
By boycotting, we can:
- Undercut Saudi Arabia’s bid to reform its reputation through the World Cup.
- Highlight the risks of AI-powered authoritarianism to a global audience.
- Sustain the pillars of human dignity, freedom of expression, and the rule of law.