His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council has launched the Advanced Technology Research Council’s new AI company AI71. The entity leverages the Technology Innovation Institute’s (TII) Falcon generative AI models and will focus on multi-domain specialisations while offering unprecedented AI data control options for companies and countries looking to self-host for greater privacy.
ATRC’s launch of AI71 follows the successful development and roll-out of the Falcon 7B, 40B, and 180B large language open source models for research and commercial uses by TII. Meanwhile, VentureOne, the commercialisation arm of ATRC, will take AI71 to market across multiple domains, starting with the medical, educational, and legal sectors. The new company will enable access to vast storehouses of anonymised data in these sectors, and offer a critical differentiator over other serious AI markets today – namely, the UAE’s highly digitised and comparatively mature e-infrastructure.
His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan emphasised that investing in artificial intelligence technologies and applications across key sectors will help create new markets with high growth potential and is vital to ensuring long-term sustainable development. His Highness highlighted that the launch of AI71 is in line with Abu Dhabi’s growth as a hub for innovation and advanced technology and pointed out that the emirate’s efforts to establish robust technological infrastructure and a thriving R&D ecosystem are enabling it to expand knowledge and development in emerging fields such as AI.
His Highness added that the use of artificial intelligence is no longer limited to improving government performance, but is finding significant uptake in research and development across key priority sectors, including healthcare, space sciences, renewable energy, transportation, and traffic control systems.
Through partnerships and collaborations, AI71 will enable clients to deploy its AI models and benefit from access to sophisticated data reservoirs to ensure outstanding generative AI performance. More importantly, AI71 will enable decentralised data ownership, allowing clients to retain control of their own data. This offering will set new standards for privacy and security, serving as a differentiator for AI projects where data sovereignty is critical. This is a game-changing option for AI accessibility, particularly for enterprises, large corporations, and foreign government entities keen to ensure that their data remains private.
AI71 will be built on a pro-innovation, whole-of-society approach, and on the premise that AI technology should not remain in the hands of a few but be accessible to more people to foster creative innovation. The new AI company is focused on deepening the credentials of Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE as a serious AI contender, and in doing so, signposts the coming of age of the country’s knowledge economy.
His Excellency Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council, said: "Our Falcon generative AI models, at the heart of AI71, empower developers, companies, and countries, and grant them autonomy to steer their own data destiny. With access to the UAE’s centralised datasets, the deliberate commercialisation of our AI models across diverse sectors stands as a pivotal element in our AI71 roadmap. While we explore this avenue, we also make a firm commitment to perpetually open sourcing our Falcon AI models, because only by democratising these precious data resources do we truly benefit all of society.”
AI71 is collaborating with seven partners across the ecosystem. These encompass the Department of Government Enablement – Abu Dhabi, which centralises over 30 government entities through digitisation; the Office of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, to support with broader adoption; World Wide Technology to co-develop integrated on-premise AI solutions; CNTXT to provide data labeling and annotation services; Hub71 to attract and scale tech and AI startups; PwC Middle East to address customer use cases; and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to supply computer power capacity.
The launch ceremony was attended by a number of senior officials, including His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Advisor of Special Affairs at the Presidential Court and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Airports; His Excellency Zaki Nusseibeh, Cultural Advisor to the President of the UAE and Chancellor of UAE University; His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications; His Excellency Dr Ahmed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office; His Excellency Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Department of Municipalities and Transport; members of the Board of Directors of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), including His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology; His Excellency Khaldoun Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority; His Excellency Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, UAE Minister of Investment; His Excellency Mansoor Ibrahim Al Mansoori; Chairman of the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi; His Excellency Ahmed Tamim Al Kuttab, Chairman of the Department of Government Enablement; and His Excellency Faisal Abdulaziz Al Bannai, Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council; in addition to representatives from leading multinational technology companies.
