A Dubai restaurant has opened that prides itself on having the world’s “first AI chef”, the latest ostentatious dive into new technology in a city obsessed with being on the cutting edge of the future.The Emirati city has become increasingly known for its growing culinary scene, with thousands of restaurants on offer from luxurious Michelin-starred eateries to greasy spoons serving up bona fide street food from across the Middle East and Asia.But at Woohoo, the brains behind the menu is not a person but an AI programme — known as chef Aiman — trained on thousands of recipes and decades of culinary research and molecular gastronomy.Chef Aiman can also optimise menus and balance flavours, according to the establishment.The real work of preparing and serving the food, however, remains in human hands, for now.”AI is going to create better dishes than humans maybe in the future,” said the restaurant’s Turkish co-founder Ahmet Oytun Cakir.While Woohoo’s menu is mostly comprised of international fusion dishes, some AI creations stand out. This includes a “dinosaur tartare” meant to recreate the taste of extinct reptiles.The restaurant did not reveal the dinosaur tartare recipe, which was created using DNA mapping.Priced at roughly 50 euros ($58), the dish tastes like a combination of raw meats and is served on a pulsating plate to appear as if it were breathing.”It was a total surprise. It was so delicious,” said customer Efe Urgunlu.Along with AI-generated holograms and sci-fi animation, the heart of the neon-lit venue features a giant cylindrical computer — presented as the digital mainframe powering the restaurant’s lights and smoke shows.- ‘I don’t believe in it’ -Woohoo’s Turkish chef Serhat Karanfiloversees the cooking and the final presentation and admits that he does not always agree with the AI chef’s choices and selections.”If I taste it, for example, and it is too spicy, I talk to chef Aiman again. After we discuss, we find the right balance,” he said.Cakir has high hopes that chef Aiman will one day become “the next Gordon Ramsay — but AI”.Not everyone in Dubai’s vibrant food scene is convinced.For Michelin-starred chef Mohamad Orfali, “there is no such thing as an AI chef”.”I don’t believe in it,” the Syrian Dubai-based chef told AFP.His Orfali Bros restaurant snatched a Michelin star last year, after Dubai became the first Middle Eastern city to join the prestigious guide in 2022.Cooking requires “nafas”, or soul, Orfali explained, using the Arabic term that describes a cook’s personal flair for food and their ability to conjure up exceptional meals.”Artificial intelligence lacks feelings and memories; in short, it has no nafas… It can’t imbue it into food.”- Dubai ideas -Orfali said he limited the use of AI in his own establishment to administrative tasks like setting the kitchen schedule and providing additional research.”We use it as a kitchen assistant, but ultimately, it won’t cook,” he said.Nonetheless, Woohoo has resonated with customers accustomed to the lavish offerings of Dubai, a tech-forward megalopolis with a proclivity for extravagance where AI has its own minister.”Everyone is supporting these ideas here in Dubai,” said Cakir.The restaurant has also created a social media buzz, with an Instagram account dedicated to the AI Chef that features chef Aiman’s avatar in videos sharing tips and recipes.Dio, a customer who didn’t give her last name, said she visited the restaurant after seeing the craze around it.”It is such a creative concept, so I thought I must experience it myself,” she said.”The dishes were extraordinary.”

Ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied nations (OPEC+) are expected to keep current output levels unchanged when they meet for online meetings on Sunday, analysts told AFP.The biannual ministerial meeting comes as uncertainty remains over how oil prices will develop in the near future, with traders looking for signs that indicate progress in ongoing negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine, which could lead to the return of Russian crude to markets.Since April, eight key OPEC+ members led by Saudi Arabia and Russia have boosted production in an effort to regain market share amid strong competition from producers outside the group such as the United States, Canada and Guyana.But in early November, the V8 group announced they would pause their output increases in the first quarter of 2026 due to expected lower seasonal demand, following a small increase in December.The OPEC+ ministerial meeting is thus “unlikely to deliver any major new drivers for the market”, said Commerzbank analyst Barbara Lambrecht.”A ceasefire would likely stop mutual attacks on energy infrastructure, and sanctions might be eased or even lifted,” which would reduce the risk premium that is currently driving up oil prices, she said.A deadlock in negotiations, however, “could force (US President Donald) Trump to tighten sanctions again” against Russia’s oil industry, likely pushing oil prices higher, said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, an analyst at Global Risk Management.Uncertainty around the future of oil prices has reinforced analysts’ belief that OPEC+ will maintain group-wide current output levels as earlier predicted by the group of eight.At its previous ministerial meeting, the group said it plans to assess the maximum sustainable production capacity for each member country, which will serve as a benchmark for quotas from 2027 onwards.”There’s some noise around how there could be some discussions around baseline production levels,” said Kim Fustier, an analyst at HSBC.However, Fustier believed it was “still too soon for them to be discussing it” and that the group would wait until 2026.

Pope Leo XIV wraps up a four-day trip to Turkey Sunday after a warm welcome by its tiny Christian community, before heading to Lebanon with a message of peace for the crisis-mired nation. On his first overseas trip since being elected leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Leo met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before travelling to Iznik for a celebration marking 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea, one of the early Church’s most important gatherings. On Saturday, the American pope hosted thousands of worshippers who battled the rain to attend a public mass in Istanbul, with many travelling from across Turkey to join the multilingual service, which left many moved by its beautiful and haunting choral interludes. On his final morning, Leo was expected to attend a prayer service at the Armenian cathedral then lead a divine liturgy — the Orthodox equivalent of mass — at the Patriarchal Church of St. George before a final blessing. He will have lunch with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, a day after they signed a joint declaration in which they pledged to take “new and courageous steps on the path towards unity”.- Next stop Lebanon -Despite doctrinal differences that led to the Great Schism of 1054, resulting in a split between the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the two sides maintain dialogue and hold joint celebrations.They also agreed to continue their efforts to establish a common date for Easter, which is currently celebrated by Catholics and Orthodox Christians on different days.The pope’s trip comes as the Orthodox world appears more fragmented than ever, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerating the split between the Moscow and Constantinople patriarchates.Pope Leo is the fifth pontiff to visit Turkey, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.He is expected to leave Istanbul 1145 GMT and fly to Beirut for a visit lasting until Tuesday.The six-day two-nation trip is the first major international test for the first pope from the United States, who was elected head of the Catholic Church in May and whose understated style contrasts with that of his charismatic and impulsive predecessor, Francis.Although Leo’s visit drew little attention in Turkey, a Muslim-majority nation of 86 million whose Christian community numbers only around 100,000, it is eagerly awaited in Lebanon, a religiously diverse country of 5.8 million inhabitants.Since 2019 Lebanon has been ravaged by crises, including an economic collapse, a devastating port blast in Beirut in 2020 and the recent war with Israel.