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Indian Express
27-04-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
AI to reboot UAE's skyscraping tech ambitions, away from fossil fuels
Dubai, the gleaming metropolis on the edge of the Arabian desert known for its shiny high-rises, fast life and limitless ambitions, epitomises the UAE's towering tech-fuelled aspirations in more ways than one. It is no secret that the Emiratis want to lead the world in artificial intelligence (AI), as they seek to pivot their economy away from fossil fuels. And as part of its intensifying technological ambitions, the Emirates have heralded plans to become the first nation in the world to deploy AI to help write new laws and amend existing ones — a move expected to accelerate its law-making process by up to 70 per cent, but one that has also raised some concerns among technologists. This novel 'AI-driven regulation' system, to be overseen by the newly-created Regulatory Intelligence Office, a unit tasked with managing the AI's integration into its lawmaking process that will change how laws are created, making the process faster and more precise, according to Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE's Vice President, Prime Minister, and the ruler of Dubai. The AI system, announced just weeks ago, is expected to comb through a comprehensive database of federal laws, court rulings, and government services, and come up proactively with legal updates. AI's role, said UAE officials attending the third edition of the Machines Can See Summit in Dubai over the weekend — touted as the largest computer vision event and a leading AI gathering in the Gulf region — goes beyond just drafting; the system will track the real-world impact of new laws on the Emirates' population and economy, allowing the administration to adapt legislation in real time. The plan, though, has raised concerns among researchers and technologists, who have flagged the propensity of AI models to produce unreliable outputs, hallucinate and its potential shortcomings with legal interpretations. These risks notwithstanding, the UAE has made AI a national priority, pumping in billions into the sector through its new sovereign wealth vehicle, MGX. While its fascination with tech is not new, it is the scale of the Emirates' plan, alongside that of neighbouring Saudi Arabia, that is key. The UAE's centralised government structure is a facilitator of this kind of rapid technological experimentation, something that could be difficult to achieve in other countries. 'Humans usually like to speak, to discuss, to get options and also to negotiate. And this is what the machine is (now) doing. We are going to a more human-centric approach. In Dubai, we are designing a multi AI agent, where a single AI can talk to one or multi AI agent in order either to perform tasks or execute commands or get a notification in order to finish a service. So what we'll see in the future, and I think this is one of the most complicated things that we'll see, we'll see more AI working with the digital tool. So each one of us will have a digital tool,' Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director General of Digital Dubai, said at the first day of the Machines Can See summit here on April 23. Mansoori said the provincial administration is gearing for a future where AI agents or virtual ' Metaverse -type' avatars of citizens could be potentially designated to carry out tasks on behalf of citizens, such as applying for a licence or a business permit. That is the level of crystal ball gazing that the UAE administration is willing to do in its pursuit of AI leadership. Within the Emirates, Dubai has taken a lead in AI, and policymakers hope to keep it that way, Omar Sultan Al Olama, head of the UAE Ministry of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, said at the event that the administration is following a whole-of-government approach to keep that lead. 'There is a saying… Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter who you are, when the sun comes up in Dubai, you'd better be running,' Olama said in his opening keynote. The approach is backed by action. In March 2024, the UAE floated MGX, a tech-investment company by two state-owned entities – global investment fund Mubadala and an artificial intelligence firm G42 — with a target size of $100 billion that will invest in AI infrastructure, including data centres and chip-making facilities. It has also set up a $10 billion AI venture-capital fund. Earlier in 2023, the Technology Innovation Institute, a state-owned research body, unveiled Falcon, a large language model or LLM, and is currently working on new, smaller models. As part of these efforts, G42 had unveiled Nanda, a Hindi LLM while Mubadala had earlier invested in Anthropic, a top global AI startup. Countries such as India have been slower to get started. On Saturday, the Indian government said it had selected a Bengaluru -based start-up Sarvam to build the country's first indigenous AI large language model. The start-up, chosen from among 67 applicants, will receive support from the Union government in terms of compute resources to build the model from scratch and is the first to get approved for sops under the ambitious Rs 10,370 crore IndiaAI Mission to build its own LLM model. In the Emirates, non-AI companies are simultaneously being roped in to prep up the region's infrastructure to match its AI projections. E&, an Emirati telecom company, has been roped in as part of a project to build a 45,000-km long undersea cable that makes its way around south Asia, Africa to the UK. Khazna, an arm of G42, is also building peripheral infrastructure, all part of a concerted plan. Last August Mubadala invested in Yondr, an American data-centre developer. The UAE is also reported to be in talks with TSMC, the world's largest chipmaker, to build a semiconductor foundry in the Emirates. A big concern, though, is the worsening relation between America and China, analysts attending the conference told The Indian Express. Companies from the UAE are reliant on American companies for technological and capital support, even as most of them have heavy exposure to multiple Chinese players for hardware and software requirements. Having to pick sides would be an emergent risk for the tech-focused administrators sitting in Abu Dhabi, as will be the case for those in other capitals around the world.
Express Tribune
25-04-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
UAE becomes first country to use AI to write laws
Listen to article The United Arab Emirates has become the first nation in the world to implement artificial intelligence to draft, review and amend federal and local legislation, government officials confirmed this week. The announcement came alongside the establishment of a new cabinet unit, the Regulatory Intelligence Office, which will coordinate with federal and local entities to deploy AI systems across the country's legislative process. According to the Financial Times, the system will also use AI to assess the impact of laws on the population and the economy through a centralised database of legal texts. 'This new legislative system, powered by artificial intelligence, will change how we create laws, making the process faster and more precise,' said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the UAE's prime minister and ruler of Dubai. Government officials expect AI to speed up lawmaking by up to 70 percent and reduce associated costs by 50 percent, citing internal projections. The initiative is also expected to raise the UAE's gross domestic product by 35 percent by 2030. As part of the shift, laws, judicial rulings, executive regulations and public services will increasingly be written or amended by machine-driven processes. The UAE was the first country to appoint an artificial intelligence minister in 2017, naming Omar Sultan al-Olama to lead the government's digital transition under the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence. By 2030, officials estimate the global AI market will be worth $15.7 trillion, with the UAE aiming to position itself as a regulatory and development hub in the sector. Sheikh Mohammed added that the AI system would 'regularly suggest updates to current legislation', ensuring that the legal framework remains dynamic and responsive to emerging needs.
Malay Mail
25-04-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
UAE becomes first country to use AI for law drafting, review
The UAE will use AI to draft and review laws as part of a major digital overhaul. Leaders say AI will speed up lawmaking and cut political delays. However, experts warn AI still faces reliability and trust issues. DUBAI, 25 April — The United Arab Emirates has announced plans to become the first country in the world to systematically use artificial intelligence for writing and reviewing laws. This ambitious initiative will extend beyond federal and local legislation to include judicial rulings, executive procedures and public services as part of the Gulf nation's broader digitalisation strategy, The Telegraph reported. Last week, the UAE government established the Regulatory Intelligence Office, a new cabinet unit tasked with overseeing this technological transformation of the legislative process. 'This new legislative system, powered by artificial intelligence, will change how we create laws, making the process faster and more precise,' said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the UAE's Vice-President and ruler of Dubai. The UAE's commitment to artificial intelligence is not new. In 2017, it appointed Omar Sultan al-Olama as the world's first AI minister shortly after launching the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence. According to Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati political commentator, 'The UAE is very serious about AI. It wants to be a global AI and digital economy hub just as it is a global financial and logistics hub.' He noted that the country is 'investing massively in digital infrastructure to stay ahead of the crowd in the next 50 years, just as it invested generously in its physical infrastructure over the past 50 years.' Words reading "Artificial intelligence AI" are seen in this illustration taken December 14, 2023. — Reuters pic The economic implications are substantial, with the UAE estimating that by 2030, AI will have a global market value of US$15.7 trillion (RM69 trillion), potentially boosting the country's GDP by 35 per cent while reducing government costs by half. Hesham Elrafei, a solicitor and UAE law drafter, explained that this initiative goes beyond merely using AI to write laws. 'It's introducing a new way of making them. Instead of the traditional parliamentary model — where laws get stuck in endless political debates and take years to pass — this approach is faster, clearer, and based on solving real problems,' Elrafei said. According to Elrafei, AI technology can analyse court judgments, identify problems and suggest legislation to address gaps in the legal framework. It can also study successful laws from around the world and help draft improved versions tailored to the UAE's specific context. This capability is particularly valuable in a country where only 10 per cent of the population is local, and clear legal communication across multiple languages is essential for a community comprising approximately 200 nationalities. While Brazil has previously tested AI for drafting a single law, the UAE's approach represents a more comprehensive transformation of the legislative process. Elrafei described it as 'a move away from outdated systems built on political compromise, towards one built on technology,' potentially redefining how modern governments create laws. In contrast to many Western democracies, where lawmaking is influenced by political negotiations, the UAE is shifting towards a model based on 'data, logic, and results.' However, some experts have expressed concerns about this technological shift. Vincent Straub, a researcher at Oxford University, cautioned against complete reliance on AI systems, arguing that 'we can't trust them ... they continue to hallucinate [and] have reliability issues and robustness issues.' Keegan McBride, a lecturer at the Oxford Internet Institute, said the UAE has had an 'easier time' implementing sweeping government digitalisation compared to many democratic nations due to its governance structure, commenting: 'They're able to move fast. They can sort of experiment with things.'
Al Etihad
24-04-2025
- Business
- Al Etihad
UAE to become first country to utilise AI in writing laws
25 Apr 2025 00:20 KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI) The UAE is set to become the first country to actively use AI to help write and review new and existing legislation. The landmark initiative will further solidify the country as a leading practitioner of emerging technology and could possibly serve as a case study for the rest of the world. The new programme will fall under the umbrella of the newly formed 'Regulatory Intelligence Office', which was approved by the Cabinet on April 14. It seeks to create a singular body to integrate AI into every stage of lawmaking, using data to analyse the effectiveness of new and existing legislation. 'The new system will allow us to track the daily impact of laws on our people and economy using large-scale data, and it will regularly suggest updates to our legislation,' His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said in a statement. 'The system will be linked to leading global research centres to follow the best international policies and legislative practices, adapting them to suit the UAE's unique circumstances,' His Highness added. The move is a continuation of the UAE Government's world-leading push to become a centre for both the implementation and development of AI. Having launched its AI Strategy 2031 and appointed the world's first Minister of AI, the UAE Government is looking to lead by example by utilising emerging technologies across its functions. As part of Dubai AI Week, the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DCAI) on Thursday released a report detailing 15 use cases across government that have already yielded substantial efficiency gains. In one case, an existing programme managed to see a 300% increase in the recovery of lost items. Another recorded a 94.6% improvement in the accuracy of multilingual government digital texts and transcripts, while some other case witnessed an 85% boost in real estate valuation accuracy.'We are building a comprehensive platform that unites the public and private sectors with academia to develop and deploy AI solutions, shape enabling policies and legislation, raise awareness, and spread knowledge,' said Saeed Al Falasi, Director of report included key research that detailed how AI could be further implemented to improve urban environments, healthcare, operational and logistical costs as well as customer satisfaction. It forecast that by making these changes, the Dubai Government can radically reduce its overhead by 70%, improve results and help usher in an industry that could make up to14% of the UAE's GDP by 2030. In Abu Dhabi, a strategy has been set to create an AI-powered government, based on an announcement early this year. With an investment of Dh13 billion in innovations for 2025-2027, the emirate seeks to build the world's first fully AI-native government across all digital services in two years. The 'Abu Dhabi Government Digital Strategy 2025-2027' aims to establish a robust digital infrastructure, creating a flexible and scalable foundation to achieve 100% adoption of sovereign cloud computing for government operations and digitising and automating 100% of processes, according to the announcement in January. The transition to AI integration is not without its costs, with the UAE leading the world in AI investment both domestically and abroad. A recent report by Boston Consulting Group found that the country led the region in AI preparedness due to its substantive infrastructure both existing and under development, including 35 Data Centres already in operation. Moreover, the report found that the UAE had succeeded in attracting almost 7000 AI specialists to help implement the transition although it warned that talent could be a constraint going forward.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UAE first country set to use AI to write laws
The United Arab Emirates will be the first country to use artificial intelligence to write and review laws. As part of a wider shift to digitise the Gulf country, its ruler announced federal and local laws will be written by computers, along with judicial rulings, executive procedures and public services. A new cabinet unit named the Regulatory Intelligence Office was approved last week to oversee the move, which will streamline the legislative process, the UAE vice president said. 'This new legislative system, powered by artificial intelligence, will change how we create laws, making the process faster and more precise,' said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the ruler of Dubai. Emirati political commentator Abdulkhaleq Abdulla told The Telegraph that AI is a long-term project for the Arab states. 'The UAE is very serious about AI. It wants to be a global AI and digital economy hub just as it is a global financial and logistics hub. 'It is investing massively in digital infrastructure to stay ahead of the crowd in the next 50 years, just as it invested generously in its physical infrastructure over the past 50 years,' said Mr Abdulla. In 2017, the UAE appointed the world's first AI minister, Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, days after the launch of the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, a big part of the UAE's decades-long objectives, aiming to improve government performance. The Gulf state estimates that by 2030, AI will have a global market value of $15.7 trillion (£11.8 trillion) boosting the UAE's GDP by 35 per cent and reducing government costs by 50 per cent. Hesham Elrafei, a solicitor and UAE law drafter, told The Telegraph that the UAE is doing more than just using AI to write laws. 'It's introducing a new way of making them. Instead of the traditional parliamentary model – where laws get stuck in endless political debates and take years to pass – this approach is faster, clearer, and based on solving real problems,' he said. 'AI can analyse court judgements, spot problems, and suggest laws that fill the gaps. It can also study the best laws from around the world and help draft better versions suited to the UAE.' For a country where only 10 per cent of the population is local, making laws clear to the nation comprising around 200 nationalities, is important, he said. 'This also means writing laws in clear, plain language, in both Arabic , English and other languages, so people can understand them. That's essential in a country where so many residents aren't native Arabic speakers. 'In contrast, in many Western democracies, laws are often so complex that ordinary people can't understand them without hiring a lawyer. That creates distance between people and the law. The UAE is closing that gap.' He said it is a move which could redefine how modern governments create laws. 'In many democracies, lawmaking is about compromise and politics. Here, we're seeing a shift to data, logic, and results,' he said. 'Brazil tested AI to draft a law, and it worked. But the UAE is going further, turning lawmaking into a fast, practical, and people-focused process. It's a move away from outdated systems built on political compromise, towards one built on technology.' However, in the Financial Times, experts warned of the possible pitfalls. Vincent Straub, a researcher at Oxford university said: 'We can't trust them … they continue to hallucinate [and] have reliability issues and robustness issues.' Keegan McBride, a lecturer at the Oxford Internet Institute, said the UAE has had an 'easier time' embracing sweeping government digitalisation than many democratic nations have. 'They're able to move fast. They can sort of experiment with things,' he told the FT. 'In terms of ambition, [the UAE are] right there near the top.' A safety net must be in place to safeguard the system, warned Marina De Vos, a computer scientist at Bath university. The AI could propose something 'really, really weird' that 'makes sense to a machine', she told the FT, but 'may absolutely make no sense to really implement it out there for real in a human society'. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
