Jais LLM as a service; the Middle East's biggest supercomputer
Jais LLM as a service; the Middle East's biggest supercomputer
Middle East AI News weekly digest...
Good morning!
Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News! Running late again, but the reason is much to long a story to bore you with here!
A shorter newsletter today, but some big AI news for the Middle East! The latest news is that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote at the company’s developer conference broke the news that Microsoft will soon introduce ‘Model-as-a-Service’, with G42’s Jais LLM being one of the AI models to be made available!
There’s also big computer news, and I mean big! Cerebras Systema and G42 have begun building the next AI supercomputer in their ambitious plan to create a massive supercomputing cloud network. Meanwhile, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has begun operating its new supercomputer, Shaheen III. The system is the largest in the region.
If you’re a Middle East AI News LIVE listener, then note there will be no THURSDAY DEEP DIVE show today, but I am going to release a new Deep Dive podcast interview instead!
Tomorrow (Friday), I’ll be hosting Middle East AI News LIVE - THE WRAP on LinkedIn at 7am UAE time | 6am KSA | Thu 7pm PST!
Click here to register for tomorrow’s Middle East AI News LIVE - THE WRAP!
Thanks for reading!
/Carrington
LLMs
Microsoft to offer Jais LLM as a service
#USA #UAE #LLMs - Microsoft has announced Model-as-a-Service, which will soon off G42’s Jais Arabic large language model. Developers will soon be able to integrate the latest AI models such as Llama 2 from Meta, Command from Cohere, or Jais, as an API endpoint to their applications. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced the news to a packed audience at the company's annual conference for developers and IT professionals on Wednesday. (Microsoft Tech Community)
Supercomputers
The Middle East’s most powerful supercomputer
#Saudi #supercomputing - King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) now operates the Middle East’s most powerful supercomputer, Shaheen III, first announced by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). The details were revealed at SC23, the International Conference for High Performance Computing in Denver, Colorado this week. (Middle East AI News)
Cerebras and G42 begin building CG-2
#UAE #USA #supercomputing - Sunnyvale-based AI chip and systems company Cerebras Systems and Abu Dhabi technology holding group G42 have begun building the Condor Galaxy 2 (CG-2), their second four exaFLOP AI supercomputer with and 54 million AI-optimized compute cores. (Middle East AI News)
Cloud
Google Cloud launches Dammam cloud region
#Saudi #cloud - Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha, and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian launched a new Google Cloud region for the Kingdom yesterday in Dammam. It was also announced that Google Cloud Platform Services are available to Saudi Arabia-based customers through CNTXT. (Zawya)
Startups
COGNNA closes $2.25 million Seed round
#Saudi #funding - Saudi cybersecurity startup COGNNA has closed a $2.25 million Seed round, led by Riyadh headquartered investment firm IMPACT46. A graduate of the National Cybersecurity Authority's inaugural accelerator program in 2022, Cogna uses AI and advanced data analysis to detect threats in customers' systems and networks. (Wamda)
Morocco’s CloudFret closes $2.1 million round
#Morocco #funding - Logistics company CloudFret, has secured €;2 mllion in funding ($2.1 million) from AfriMobility, and Azur Innovation Fund. CloudFret has an algorithm-driven platform, to connect shippers and carriers throughout the Mediterranean. (Wamda)
AI Ethics
Saudi unveils International Centre for AI Research and Ethics
#Saudi #ethics - Saudi Arabia's Minister of Culture Prince Bada Bin Farhan announced the creation of an International Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Ethics in Riyadh during the 42nd session of UNESCO’s General Conference in Paris on November 11th. The centre aims to advance AI ethics and legislative frameworks. (Arab News)
Government
Oman uses Generative AI to relay real-time election results
#Oman #ShuraCouncil - Oman’s government used Yepic AI’s generative AI platform to reveal Shura Council election results to citizens in real-time. The Ministry of Interior partnered with the London-based generative AI startup to deliver high-quality videos at scale within minutes, in multiple languages (Yahoo!)
Entertainment
OSN+ to use Google Cloud’s Vertex AI
#UAE #streaming - OSN+, the streaming service division of the Middle East and North Africa's leading satellite TV services company OSN, has partnered with Google to add generative artificial intelligence to its platform. Google Cloud’s Vertex AI system will be integrated with the streaming service to enable improved content discovery and viewing recommendations. (Arab News)