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DUBAI: Embrace artificial intelligence, but do not fear it, said Mona Kattan, CEO of Kayali Perfumes, at the Arab Media Summit in Dubai on Wednesday.

Kattan said resisting change in the industry would only hurt entrepreneurs, and they should learn to adapt.

“People are often scared and they don’t understand that it can be a mutual existence. When e-commerce came about people thought malls would all shut down but malls are still around and people still love to go to them,” she explained.

“I love people, one of my core values is connection. I love bringing people together, we are so blessed to live in a world that has the ability to connect online,” she added.

“Social media will never go away, it’s part of our nature now, embrace it, cultivate it and appreciate it,” she said.

Kattan said she was passionate about social media before it became popular.

“When I moved to Dubai from the US in 2002, my mindset became global even prior to social media. Dubai is the melting pot of cultures and the future. I am so inspired by the people I meet,” she said.

After launching her fragrance brand Kayali in 2018, Kattan was able to enter global markets and her brand is now sold in most of the major beauty stores in the world and is known for its luxurious and rich scents.

“Whenever you are passionate about what you are doing, that obsession is natural and you don’t have to force it,” she said.

NEW YORK: National Public Radio and three of its local stations filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Donald Trump, arguing that an executive order aimed at cutting federal funding for the organization is illegal.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington by NPR, Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KUTE, Inc. argues that Trump’s executive order to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR violates the First Amendment.
Trump issued the executive order earlier this month that instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. Trump issued the order after alleging there is “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.
“The Order’s objectives could not be clearer: the Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The Order is textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, and it interferes with NPR’s and the Local Member Stations’ freedom of expressive association and editorial discretion,” it said.
The court fight seemed preordained, given that the heads of NPR and PBS both reacted to Trump’s move with statements that they believed it was illegal. The absence of PBS from Tuesday’s filing indicates the two systems will challenge this separately; PBS has not yet gone to court, but is likely to soon.
The president’s attempts to dismantle government-run news sources like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have also sparked court fights.
The administration has battled with the press on several fronts. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating ABC, CBS and NBC News. The Associated Press also went to court after the administration restricted access to certain events in response to the organization’s decision not to rename the Gulf of Mexico as Trump decreed.