The UAE's push to develop artificial intelligence tools such as the Falcon large language model is helping to highlight the country's – and the wider region's – potential to become a major player in global technology, a top executive of Amazon Web Services has told The National.
Locally-developed AI models would serve Middle Eastern users well, at corporate and individual levels, as the developers have an up-front view of user requirements, Kevin Miller, vice president for global data centres at AWS, said in an interview.
“Clearly, Falcon is part of the conversation around core foundational models … that alone tells you there's a lot of capability in the Middle East to build game and world-changing technical capabilities,” he said, on the sidelines of the AWS Summit in Dubai on Wednesday.
“It's already shown that it is a strong powerhouse in this space … and absolutely puts the Middle East on the [AI] map.”
The rise of the Middle East as a technology centre is also reflected in the amount of investment flowing in, particularly from the West, on the back of a young and educated workforce and “real interest in start-ups”, Mr Miller said.
“There is also an enterprise customer population that is really interested in transforming their businesses … we're definitely seeing the right combination of factors that are very exciting for the Middle East.”
Falcon is the LLM developed by the Technology Innovation Institute, the Abu Dhabi government-backed research centre.
LLMs are types of generative artificial intelligence that can imitate human intelligence. They can distinguish, review, translate, forecast and produce new content – text, audio or visual – using large data sets.
Earlier this month, the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) introduced its latest iteration, Falcon 2, to compete with the likes of models developed by Meta, Google and OpenAI.
The TII, which is the applied research pillar of the UAE capital’s Advanced Technology Research Council, said the new series is multilingual and has been tested against several prominent AI models.
Another Abu Dhabi-made LLM, Jais, has also gained traction. Developed by local AI major G42, it was released in 2023 in collaboration with the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and Silicon Valley-based Cerebras Systems.
“It's really smart for universities and countries to be investing in foundational research and development in this space,” Mr Miller said.
The UAE, the Arab world's second-biggest economy, has continued to emphasise its goal of becoming a leader in the AI industry, as it diversifies away from oil.
The development of LLMs in the Emirates has received worldwide attention, underpinned by government efforts to encourage the sector's growth, consultancy PwC previously told The National.
Generative AI's transformative capability is a key foundational technology “that is going to have decades of innovation” coming with it, Mr Miller said.
“It's meaningfully different from some things that have shown up as fads, in part because it really solves problems that customers have today.”
AWS, the cloud computing unit of the world's biggest e-commerce marketplace, has its Amazon Q generative AI platform, announced at its re:Invent conference in Las Vegas in November.
Amazon had largely maintained a low profile as the generative AI boom raged on, but chief executive Andy Jassy, in his annual letter to shareholders in April, acknowledged that the technology would be the next big thing.
The Seattle-based company has been able to launch more capabilities for its generative AI product, which is going head-to-head with Google's Gemini and industry leader OpenAI's ChatGPT.
AWS does not have any immediate plans to open more data centres, but it continues to track customer forecast and demand “every week” so it can plan expansion accordingly, Mr Miller said.
The latest major project to be opened in the Middle East will be AWS's infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia, announced at February's Leap technology conference in Riyadh.
AWS will invest $5.3 billion in Saudi Arabia and establish two innovation centres in the kingdom, the company said.
The company established data centres in Bahrain and the UAE in 2019 and 2022, respectively.
“We're seeing really nice demand for our services in the Middle East and we … continue building the capacity that they need,” Mr Miller said.
Cultural fiesta
What: The Al Burda Festival
When: November 14 (from 10am)
Where: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Al Burda Festival is a celebration of Islamic art and culture, featuring talks, performances and exhibitions. Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, this one-day event opens with a session on the future of Islamic art. With this in mind, it is followed by a number of workshops and “masterclass” sessions in everything from calligraphy and typography to geometry and the origins of Islamic design. There will also be discussions on subjects including ‘Who is the Audience for Islamic Art?’ and ‘New Markets for Islamic Design.’ A live performance from Kuwaiti guitarist Yousif Yaseen should be one of the highlights of the day.
Profile Idealz
Company: Idealz
Founded: January 2018
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Size: (employees): 22
Investors: Co-founders and Venture Partners (9 per cent)
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Company%20profile
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Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Draw:
Group A: Egypt, DR Congo, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Group B: Nigeria, Guinea, Madagascar, Burundi
Group C: Senegal, Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania
Group D: Morocco, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Namibia
Group E: Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, Angola
Group F: Cameroon, Ghana, Benin, Guinea-Bissau
WTL%20SCHEDULE
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Profile of Bitex UAE
Date of launch: November 2018
Founder: Monark Modi
Based: Business Bay, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: Eight employees
Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings