United Arab Emirates develops world's most advanced artificial intelligence
When discussing artificial intelligence (AI), we often immediately think of US tech giants as Google is OpenAIHowever, other regions are also emerging as leaders in the field. One such region is the United Arab Emirates, a nation that recently launched an AI model said to be the most advanced in the Arab world. Called Jais, the model is open-source and available to the hundreds of millions of Arabic speakers worldwide.
Jais is the result of a partnership between G42, an AI company with ties to the Abu Dhabi ruling family, the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence Abu Dhabi (MBZUAI), and Cerebras, a California-based AI company.
The Global Technological Challenge: Component Race
The importance of this initiative is made even clearer by the context of global competition for technology resources. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, for example, have acquired thousands of high-performance Nvidia chips to power their AI projects. This is part of a global race to secure the hardware needed to push the AI industry forward.
The United Arab Emirates had previously made significant strides in the field of AI, developing an open-source language model called Falcon. This model was created with the help of hundreds of Nvidia chips and represented one of the most ambitious technological efforts in the region.
Pioneers and Visions: G42 and Global Competition
According to Andrew Jackson, CEO of Inception, G42's applied AI research unit, the United Arab Emirates is seeking to be a pioneer in the field. "We see this as a global race," Jackson says. Most existing academic programs and AI models focus on English, despite Arabic being one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. The goal is therefore to provide the Arab community with a highly efficient and accurate large-scale language model (LLM).
The Importance of Cultural Context: Jais as a Regional Model
One of Jais's key advantages is its understanding of the cultural context of the Gulf region. Unlike other global models that can be ineffective when dealing with languages other than English, Jais was specifically designed to be accurate and reliable when generating text in Arabic. Before its launch, the model was rigorously tested to ensure it did not generate harmful, offensive, or culturally inappropriate content.
Collaboration and Challenges: G42 and the Launch Partners
The creation of Jais was a collaborative effort. G42 partnered with several other Abu Dhabi entities, including the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Mubadala Wealth Fund, and Etihad Airways. One of the biggest challenges was the paucity of high-quality Arabic data available online. To overcome this obstacle, Jais uses a mix of Modern Standard Arabic and various regional dialects, drawing on sources such as media and social media.
In conclusion, the launch of Jais represents a significant step in the global diversification of the AI sector. By focusing on cultural and linguistic context, the UAE is demonstrating that artificial intelligence is truly a global challenge, and not just the prerogative of Western tech powers.
