The UAE’s Technological Innovation Institute (TII) has unveiled Falcon 180B, a groundbreaking open-source language model with 180 billion parameters. This impressive achievement positions the UAE as a serious contender in the field of artificial intelligence, potentially challenging the dominance of OpenAI’s GPT models.
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Size and Training
Falcon 180B, trained on 3.5 trillion tokens across 4096 GPUs using Amazon SageMaker, is ranked just behind OpenAI’s GPT-4 in terms of scale and performs on par with Google’s PaLM 2. The model’s size is 2.5 times larger than Llama 2 and required four times more computational power for training.
Developing AI
As an oil-rich nation, the UAE possesses significant financial resources. Approximately 30 percent of the UAE’s GDP is directly derived from the oil and gas industry, with 13 percent of its exports dependent on these sectors. In addition, the UAE has allocated a portion of its oil earnings to fund AI projects and has shown a strong commitment to developing its AI capabilities. Also, the National Strategy for AI 2031 aims to make AI a significant contributor to the UAE’s economy, targeting up to 13.6 percent of GDP by 2030.
Establishment of TII and ARTC
Moreover, the UAE government established the Advanced Technology Research Council (ARTC) in 2020. This initiative aimed to drive scientific research and innovation in the field of AI. As a result, the creation of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ARTC) led to the establishment of the Technological Innovation Institute (TII). The TII’s successful development of Falcon 180B demonstrates the UAE’s dedication to building its AI prowess.
Securing computing power and talent
Furthermore, the UAE’s proactive approach to securing computing power and talent has been instrumental in its AI advancements. Despite persistent global supply shortages of NVIDIA GPUs, the UAE managed to secure thousands of these chips. This acquisition ensures the nation’s independence from dependencies on Chinese or American sources. Furthermore, the UAE has forged strategic partnerships with companies such as Cerebras Systems. These collaborations have strengthened the nation’s AI capabilities. Additionally, investments from U.S. tech firms have provided further support and advancements in this field.
Shaping AI landscape
In a related development, the UAE Minister Omar Al-Olama has recently been recognized by Time magazine. He has been named as one of the 100 most influential people in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Al-Olama, who serves as the UAE’s Minister of State for AI, digital economy, and remote work applications, was acknowledged in the “shaper” category for his contributions to shaping the AI landscape. Alongside Al-Olama, Time magazine also recognized notable figures for their contributions to the field of AI. These included Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
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