Arabia Saudita and China Collaborate on Arabic Language AI System
Arabia Saudita and China Join Forces in AI Development
The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Arabia Saudita has partnered with two Chinese universities to create an artificial intelligence (AI) system focused on the Arabic language. The large-scale language model (LLM), named AceGPT, is built on Meta’s LlaMA2 and was launched by a Chinese-American professor from KAUST in collaboration with the School of Data Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHKSZ), and the Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data (SRIBD).
Enhancing Arabic Language Processing with AI
AceGPT, developed as an AI assistant for native Arabic speakers, aims to answer questions in Arabic. However, its developers caution that it may not yield satisfactory results in other languages. They have also improved the model to recognize potential forms of abuse, including mishandling sensitive information, producing harmful content, spreading misinformation, or disregarding security checks. Users are reminded to exercise responsibility in their utilization of the model due to the lack of security controls.
Data Sources and Saudi Arabia’s Technological Ambitions
AceGPT is said to have been created based on open-source and processed data from researchers. This development aligns with Saudi Arabia’s commitment to becoming a regional leader in emerging technologies like AI. In July, the Saudi Arabian central bank collaborated with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on tokenization and payments. Earlier this year, the Saudi government partnered with the Sandbox platform to accelerate future metaverse-related plans. While authorities initially urged Nvidia and AMD to restrict the export of their high-level semiconductor chips for AI development to “some” Middle Eastern countries, they later denied explicitly blocking chip exports to the region.
Translation by Walter Rizzo
