Abu Dhabi: Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and President-Designate of COP28, stated that artificial intelligence research will have a crucial role in utilising worldwide opportunities as well as developing practical, concrete solutions to boost AI implementation to generate economic and social worth.
The UAE Minister made the statement during a visit to Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), where he met with G42 CEO Mr. Peng Xiao and Professor Eric Xing, President and University Professor of MBZUAI, to discuss significant research initiatives that will meet the UAE’s national priorities, including sustainable environment and infrastructure, high-quality healthcare and education systems, and exploring large language models in Arabic. The university’s AI research will contribute to the UAE’s net zero strategic initiative by 2050 and help unlock advances in climate progress.
AI adoption across industries will help meet the nation’s goals in advancing technology and diversifying its economy. Projections show AI solutions are on course to contribute an estimated $13 trillion to the global GDP by 2030, optimizing the industries of tomorrow, and dramatically improving the lives of billions of people in the process. We stand on the brink of a technological revolution and MBZUAI is providing a world-leading pipeline of AI specialists, and an ecosystem nurturing industrial collaboration to support the UAE’s innovation trajectory.
Dr. Al Jaber, who is also the Chairman of MBZUAI, commented.
Mr. Peng Xiao commented that “the UAE’s unwavering commitment to advancing artificial intelligence and digital transformation is evident in a thriving academic institution like MBZUAI. In the three years since its establishment, MBZUAI has attracted world-renowned researchers from the most prestigious educational institutions globally. This concentration of talent has catalysed a massive wave of growth in the local AI ecosystem and has helped the UAE build a strong platform for AI development to foster an environment conducive to driving meaningful and sustained innovation, with far-reaching impact across various industries worldwide.”
Dr. Al Jaber further engaged with MBZUAI’s faculty to examine the research on energy-efficient language models and machine learning systems, the maximisation of solar energy outputs, and real-time autonomous malaria diagnosis and evaluation.
Additionally, the President-Designate gave a demonstration of an environmentally friendly chatbot called Vicuna, which was created in collaboration with researchers from MBZUAI, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford, and UC San Diego.