UAE can become world's AI regulatory sandbox: Sam Altman
OpenAI's Sam Altman has suggested that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could become the world's "regulatory sandbox" for experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. He believes that this would help create global rules to govern AI's use. "It's very hard to get all the regulatory ideas right in a vacuum," Altman said, adding that a "contained way" to test AI's future potential would be an "interesting experiment."
UAE's potential role in unifying AI policies
Altman thinks that a unified policy is necessary to manage AI's future advancements, and the UAE could play a leading role in these discussions. This idea comes as he seeks Middle Eastern investors for a semiconductor project aimed at advancing AI. The UAE has already heavily invested in AI and made it a key policy focus, despite some concerns in the United States of America about its connections to China.
Some Emirati firms are lowering Chinese presence
The CEO of G42 has informed Bloomberg that the firm will scale back its Chinese presence to meet Washington's demands. G42 is an Emirati AI firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE's National Security Advisor. To note, G42 has partnerships with Microsoft, OpenAI, and Cerebras Systems Inc.
OpenAI's plans for LLMs and tools for poorer nations
In other news, Altman revealed that OpenAI plans to make some of its large-language models open-source, although it hasn't decided which ones yet. He also expressed the company's goal to create tools for countries that can't afford the high costs of developing their own AI systems. "We want to have an offering that makes sense for countries that want to offer AI services," Altman stated.
