The UAE's national identity is synonymous with advances in artificial intelligence, the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior said.
Sheikh Saif bin Zayed made his comments while addressing the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Thursday. The Emirates was recognised as a global leader when it came to AI, he said. This, coupled with traditional family values and strong security, made the nation an “Emirati fortress”.
“By competing globally across all pillars of AI, the UAE has become the world's leading country in the AI adoption index,” Sheikh Saif said.
An index on AI adoption was recently released by Microsoft and ranked nations on the share of people who had used a generative AI product. The UAE topped the rankings for the second half of last year with 64 per cent.
The closest country to the Emirates on the list was Singapore with 60.9 per cent. Both the UAE and Singapore were well ahead of third-place Norway, with 46.4 per cent.
Sheikh Saif offered the Stargate UAE project as an example of how the country was leading the way when it came to AI. “The pillars of strength for nations are industry, technological leadership, a comprehensive deterrence while the most important pillar is a solid family,” he said.
“To preserve a civilisation, you must have a fortress. Our ancestors laid the foundation of the Emirati fortress and our leaders and sons fortified it. The strength of the Emirati fortress is the Emirati family. No matter the challenges today and tomorrow, the Emirati fortress grows stronger and more stable with the people.”
Another sign of the UAE's global standing was in its reputation for safety and security, Sheikh Saif said. The National reported last month how the UAE is planning to produce 60 trillion AI tokens through its vast Stargate data centre, as it bids to become the global centre for the technology.
The figure would be equal to about 60 per cent of global production. Tokens in AI are the basic unit to calculate the length of text and can include punctuation marks and spaces, and vary from language to language.
“The world trusts the UAE because it will handle the data of nations and companies the same way it handles embassies protected by law,” he said.
Sheikh Saif said proof of this was provided by the fact the UAE tied with China for first place in the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer, which ranks nations on public trust in their institutions.
