G42 & Microsoft in $1b Kenya deal; New Huawei 100B Arabic LLM

Middle East AI News weekly digest...

Good morning!

Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News!

Another full newsletter this morning and lots of big announcements to share from this week. Yesterday, G42 and Microsoft announced a UAE-US sponsored $1 billion digital infrastructure deal with Kenya. Meanwhile, Huwaei and SDAIA have announced new Arabic LLMs, Dubai’s Crown Prince opens Dubai AI Campus, Jais Chat 30B is released on Azure’s AI model catalog, and much more!

Scroll down for more news!

You also will not want to miss today’s Middle East AI News LIVE - THURSDAY DEEP DIVE on LinkedIn later today at 12 noon KSA | 1pm UAE time | 9am GMT!

I’ll be talking to Thomas Pramotedham, CEO of G42’s multi-billion dollar big data analytics company Presight, about how AI and big data is changing public services, the company’s hundreds of AI products and its new partnership with Intel!

Click here to attend today’s THURSDAY DEEP DIVE!

As always, thanks for reading!

/Carrington

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Digital Infrastructure

Microsoft and G42 announce $1 billion digital investment in Kenya

#Kenya #UAE #infrasctructure - Microsoft Corp. and G42 have joined forces to create the largest single private-sector digital investment in Kenya’s history, supporting economic development across East Africa and creating a new Microsoft Azure East Africa Cloud Region. The two companies will deliver a comprehensive package of digital investments in Kenya. (Middle East AI News)

LLMs

Huawei reveals 100B Arabic LLM

#Egypt #LLMs - Huawei Cloud announced a new Huawei-developed Arabic large language model with Arabic speech recognition. Trained with Modern Standard Arabic language data, the 100 billion parameter multi-modal model is the largest Arabic language-focused LLM to be announced to-date. (Middle East AI News)

SDAIA's Arabic 13B LLM now live on watsonx

#USA #LLMs - Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and IBM have announced the launch of SDAIA’s open-source Arabic large language Model ALLaM 1 13B on IBMs’ enterprise AI and data platform, watsonx. Government and commercial users can access the model via the watsonx.ai studio and leverage advanced AI capabilities to train, tune, and deploy ALLaM. (Middle East AI News)

Jais Chat 30B now available as-a-service via Azure

#UAE #LLMs - G42's new Arabic language Jais Chat 30 B is now available as-a-service on Microsoft Azure's AI model catalog! The new a bilingual English and Arabic chatbot iOS app Jais Chat, was just announced last week by Core42. (Microsoft)

Quantum

Saudi Aramco orders 200-qubit quantum computer

#Saudi #quantum - Saudi Aramco has signed an agreement with neutral atom quantum computing specialist Pasqal to install, maintain, and operate a 200-qubit quantum computer. the first in the Kingdom. The quantum computer is scheduled for deployment in the second half of 2025. (PRNewswire)

Startups

Dubai AI Campus official opening

#UAE #startups - Dubai's Crown Prince inaugurated phase one of the Dubai AI Campus at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) last Saturday. The Dubai AI Campus is expected to grow into the largest cluster of AI companies in the Middle East and North Africa, attracting 500 new companies and creating more than 3,000 jobs by 2028. (Emirates News Agency)

GenAI

Winners announced for Global Prompt Engineering Championship

#UAE #GenAI - Global Prompt Engineering Championship the world’s biggest AI prompt challenge took place in Dubai this week, 30 finalists competed across three main categories: Art, Literature, and Coding. The winners were Megan Fowkes (Art), Aditya Nair (Literature), and Ajay Cyril (Coding). (The National)

Dubai to train 1 million prompt engineers

#UAE #GenAI - Government of Dubai has launched of the world’s first AI prompt engineering training initiative. Called One Million Prompters, the programme aims to upskill one million people in prompt engineering over the next three years. The initiative was announced during the first Global Prompt Engineering Championship, held in Dubai this week. (Gulf Business)

Advanced Air Mobility

Qatar plans air taxi tests in 2025

#Qatar #eVTOLs - Qatar plans to test air taxi and electric delivery aircraft during early 2025, according to a Ministry of Transport statement on Sunday. FlyNow Aviation, NextNorth and CRISALION, have all been talking to the government about air mobility plans. (Gulf Times)

Front End plans Saudi air taxi trials by year end

#Saudi #eVTOLs - air taxis could be launched in Saudi Arabia by the end of this year with Alkhobar-based firm Front End. The CEO of the company revealed plans at this week's Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh. Front End already has a collaboration with electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft developer Ehang. (Arab News)

Archer partners with Etihad Aviation Training for pilot training

#UAE #training - Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer Archer has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Training to recruit and train prospective pilots for Archer’s Midnight aircraft. (Archer)

R&D

Intel and Presight sign strategic collaboration agreement

#UAE #smartcities - Abu Dhabi-based big data analytics company Presight, and U.S. semiconductor giant Intel, have announced a strategic collaboration to develop AI products, including Smart Cities solutions. There will be a focus on strengthening AI data security, leveraging Intel trust authority technologies. (Presight)

AI Governance

G42 signs AI safety pledge

#UAE #Korea #safety - Sixteen companies at the forefront of developing AI have pledged to develop the technology safely, at a time when regulators are scrambling to keep up with rapid innovation and emerging risks. The companies, which include G42, Google, OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft, signed the agreement at an AI Safety Summit hosted jointly by South Korea and the UK. (Reuters)

AI Policy

Morocco, first African, Arab country to implement AI ethics guidelines

#Morocco #ethics - Morocco is the first African and Arab country to implement UNESCO’s Recommendations on Artificial Intelligence Ethics, according to Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, during his visit to Rabat last week. (MSN)

AI Diplomacy

UAE, France sign MoU on artificial intelligence

#France #UAE #bilateral - Abu Dhabi Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council (AIATC) and the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty jointly signed an MoU on AI for digital infrastructure, AI investment, manufacturing and talent. (Emirates News Agency)