Microsoft to launch ‘responsible AI’ foundation in Abu Dhabi

American tech giant Microsoft says it will open a foundation to promote “responsible” artificial intelligence (AI) in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.

The foundation, in partnership with Emirati AI developer G42 and the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), “aims to promote responsible AI standards and best practices in the Middle East and Global South”, Microsoft said ahead of an AI summit in Paris this week.

Microsoft said in April 2024 that it would invest $1.5 billion (NZ$2.65b) into G42, which is controlled by Tahnoon bin Zayed, brother of the Emirati president and the country’s national security advisor.

Meanwhile, MBZUAI has taken in a role in several initiatives launched around the Paris AI summit, which will gather political and tech business leaders as well as experts on Monday and Tuesday in the French capital.

The UAE is pushing for a leading role in the emergence of AI with multiple collaborations including in France.

Paris' Polytechnique school has announced a research partnership with MBZUAI.

And Emirates leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan this week signed a deal with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to build a vast AI campus and data centre in France worth up to $50b.

France hopes the AI summit will help add to its tally of data centres, computer installations that offer processing power and storage capacity, and has offered prospective builders 35 sites “ready for use” across the country ahead of the event.

11 tech bosses back launch of ‘public interest’ AI partnership

Meanwhile, a group of 11 tech industry chiefs on Sunday threw their backing behind a partnership promising tools, data and infrastructure for “public interest” artificial intelligence (AI), the Current AI organisation said in a statement.

Figures including Mistral AI chief Arthur Mensch and LinkedIn boss Reid Hoffman said they would support Current AI’s mission, with $400m in funding coming from governments including France, Germany, Finland, Chile and Nigeria as well as companies and philanthropic organisations.

© Agence France-Presse