UAE eyes AI models inspired by China’s DeepSeek
The United Arab Emirates is planning to launch new artificial intelligence models inspired by China's DeepSeek, a senior official said, calling the system's disruptive emergence "fantastic news".
Faisal Al Bannai, the driving force behind the UAE's Falcon large language model, said DeepSeek's challenge to American tech giants showed the field was wide open in the race for AI dominance, News.Az reports, citing AFP.
The oil-rich Gulf monarchy is betting big on the transformational technology as part of its push to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels.
Bannai said he was heartened by DeepSeek, a high-performing and apparently low-cost AI model that sent US tech stocks tumbling after its launch.
"It's fantastic news. Because it proves one thing: this game is at its beginning," Bannai said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Tuesday.
The UAE launched Falcon in 2023, a large language model that compared favourably with industry leaders including OpenAI's ChatGPT.
"What happened with DeepSeek was another proof that small teams, agile teams, agile countries, can move fast and can make an impact," said Bannai, the UAE's presidential advisor on advanced technologies.
"So we are learning, I think, from what they showed. We are taking learnings, and we will be also launching other models in this regard.
"And I think (DeepSeek gives) a serious sense of encouragement that you can punch way above your weight in this game, because the game is still starting."
Alongside Falcon, the UAE has developed Jais, an Arabic-language AI chatbot, while digitising and automating government services to a large extent.
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