UAE launches Arabic language AI model as Gulf race gathers pace

DUBAI, May 21 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates launched a new Arabic language artificial intelligence (AI) model on Wednesday as the regional race to develop AI technologies accelerates in the Gulf.
The UAE, a major oil exporter, has been spending billions of dollars in a push to become a global AI player, looking to leverage its strong relations with the United States to secure access to technology.
U.S. President Donald Trump said during a visit last week that an AI agreement with the UAE creates a path for it to access some of the advanced AI semiconductors from U.S. firms, a major win for the Gulf country.
Falcon Arabic, developed by Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), aims to capture the full linguistic diversity of the Arab world through a "high-quality native (non-translated) Arabic dataset," a statement said.
It also matches the performance of models up to 10 times its size, it said.
"Today, AI leadership is not about scale for the sake of scale. It is about making powerful tools useful, usable, and universal," Faisal Al Bannai, ATRC secretary general said in the statement.
ATRC also launched Falcon H1, which it said outperforms competitors from Meta and Alibaba by reducing the computing power and technical expertise traditionally required to run advanced systems.
AI was a central theme during Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia as well, which is pitching itself as a prospective hub for AI activity outside the U.S.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Time of India

41 minutes ago

• Time of India

S&P 500, Nasdaq finish lower; investors uneasy about Middle East conflict

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended lower on Friday, with investors on edge over the Iran-Israel conflict heading into the weekend, as the U.S. considers whether to get involved. Trading was choppy for much of the session. The S&P 500 also ended lower for the week, while the Nasdaq registered a weekly gain. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 23.7% Returns in last 5 years with Shriram Life's ULIP Shriram Life Insurance Undo Iran said it would not discuss the future of its nuclear program while under attack by Israel, as Europe tried to coax Tehran back into negotiations. The White House said on Thursday that President Donald Trump will decide in the next two weeks whether the U.S. will get involved in the Israel-Iran air war, adding pressure on Tehran to negotiate. "Investors are a little bit nervous about buying stocks right in front of this situation and, more specifically, right in front of this weekend," said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey. Live Events Israel's attacks have been aimed at suppressing Tehran's ability to build nuclear weapons. A week into its campaign, Israel said it had hit dozens of military targets. Tech-related megacap stocks, including Nvidia, were among the biggest negatives on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 35.16 points, or 0.08%, to 42,206.82, the S&P 500 lost 13.03 points, or 0.22%, to 5,967.84 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 98.86 points, or 0.51%, to 19,447.41. For the week, the Dow was little changed, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and the Nasdaq was up 0.2%. Friday's volume was higher than the recent average. The day marked a "triple-witching" event, which is the simultaneous expiration of stock options, stock index futures, and stock index options contracts that takes place once every quarter. U.S. exchanges' volume was 20.91 billion shares, compared with the 18.06 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Investors also weighed comments from Federal Reserve officials after the Fed on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged and Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned inflation could pick up pace over the summer as Trump's tariffs work their way to consumers. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he felt the inflation risk from tariffs was small, and that the Fed should cut rates as soon as its next meeting. Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin took a more tempered view, saying there was no urgency to cut rates. Kroger shares jumped 9.8% after the grocery chain increased its annual sales growth forecast. Shares of Accenture fell 6.9% after the IT services provider said new bookings decreased in the third quarter. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.1-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 102 new highs and 59 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 1,894 stocks rose and 2,651 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.4-to-1 ratio. (Additional reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Rod Nickel)

Hans India

an hour ago

• Hans India

Iran rules out N-talks under fire

Dubai/Jerusalem: Iran said on Friday that it would not discuss the future of its nuclear programme while under attack by Israel, as Europe tried to coax Tehran back into negotiations and the United States considers whether to get involved in the conflict. A week into its campaign, Israel said it had struck dozens of military targets overnight, including missile production sites, a research body involved in nuclear weapons development in Tehran and military facilities in western and central Iran. Iran launched a new barrage of missiles at Israel early on Friday, striking near residential apartments, office buildings and industrial facilities in the southern city of Beersheba. After air raid warnings on Friday, Israeli media said initial reports pointed to missile impacts in Tel Aviv, the Negev and Haifa. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there was no room for negotiations with the US "until Israeli aggression stops". But he was due to meet European Foreign Ministers in Geneva for talks at which Europe hopes to establish a path back to diplomacy over Iran's nuclear programme. Two diplomats said before the meeting with France, Britain, Germany and the European Union's foreign policy chief that Araqchi would be told the US is still open to direct talks. Expectations for a breakthrough are low, diplomats say. A senior Iranian official told Reuters Tehran was ready to discuss limitations on its uranium enrichment and that the European's role was now more prominent because Iran is unwilling to engage with the US while under fire from Israel. But any proposal for zero enrichment - not being able to enrich uranium at all - will be rejected "especially now under Israel's strikes", the official said. Meanwhile, world oil markets are on high alert for any strikes that hit energy facilities in Iran or elsewhere in the Gulf which affect supplies. Qatar held crisis talks this week with energy majors after Israeli strikes on Iran's huge gas field, which it shares with Qatar, an industry source and a diplomat in the region told Reuters. Doha was asking firms to raise the US, UK and European governments' awareness of increasing risks to global gas supply, they said.

Indian Express

an hour ago

• Indian Express

Google offers to tweak search results to promote rivals, stave off EU antitrust fine, documents show

Alphabet's Google has proposed more changes to its search results to better showcase rivals in a bid to stave off a possible hefty EU antitrust fine, according to documents seen by Reuters. Google's latest proposal came three months after the European Commission charged the U.S. tech giant with favouring its own services such as Google Shopping, Google Hotels and Google Flights over rivals in breach of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The landmark DMA sets out a list of dos and don'ts for Big Tech aimed at reining in their power and giving rivals more room to compete and consumers more choices. Under Google's new proposal a vertical search service (VSS) selected on objective and non-discriminatory criteria would get its own box at the top of the search page with the same format, information and features as Google's, the document said. The box would contain three direct links picked by the VSS, to hotels, airlines, restaurants and transport. Other VSS, which are specialised search engines within Google, would be ranked below but without a box unless users click on them. 'We do not agree with the (Commission's) preliminary findings' position but, on a without prejudice basis, we want to find a workable solution to resolve the present proceedings,' the documents sent by both Google and the Commission to the rivals said. The rivals will provide feedback at a July 8 meeting called by the Commission. A number of rivals, who did not want to be named ahead of the meeting, told Reuters that the changes still do not go far enough to ensure a level playing field.