Dubai's Dewa to deploy ChatGPT to boost digital services

The utility intends to provide the technology through its subsidiary Moro Hub

Dewa began adopting AI technologies in 2017. Photo: Dewa

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has announced plans to deploy ChatGPT technology to boost its digital offerings and support its services.

The move will make Dewa “the first utility globally and the first UAE government entity to use this new technology”, it said on Wednesday.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence-based chatbot launched by OpenAI, which was acquired by Microsoft. The programme comes up with human-like responses to prompts in seconds, based on information publicly available on the internet.

Dewa intends to provide the technology through its subsidiary Moro Hub (Data Hub Integrated Solutions). The aim is to “provide services supported by this technology and employ it in serving customers and employees”, the utility said.

“Dewa is investing in developing its digital infrastructure to accelerate its digital transformation to enhance customer happiness and provide added-value advanced digital services that enrich their experiences,” said Saeed Al Tayer, managing director and chief executive of Dewa.

The move is also part of the entity's plan to “contribute to shaping a new digital future for Dubai through Digital Dewa, the digital arm of Dewa, becoming the world’s first digital utility to use autonomous systems for renewable energy and storage”, he said.

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, includes algorithms that are capable of creating new content, including text, video, audio, software codes and images.

ChatGPT can interact with users through dialogue and is also capable of writing programming codes and solving coding problems.

Recent new breakthroughs in the field could drastically change the way we approach content creation, a recent report by McKinsey & Company found.

Dewa, the first Dubai entity to go public among the 10 state enterprises the government plans to list on the Dubai Financial Market, began adopting AI technologies in 2017 by developing an AI road map, it said.

“We … look forward to further exploring the possibilities of integrating cutting edge technologies into their [Dewa's] products to enhance their business, services and customer experience,” said Naim Yazbeck, general manager of Microsoft UAE.