The UAE’s Technology Innovation Institute introduced its Falcon 2 series, comprising text-based and vision-to-language models, marking a significant step in the country’s AI capabilities. The move reflects the UAE’s ambition to be a major player in artificial intelligence, amid increased scrutiny and global competition.
13 May 2024 – Today, the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), a government research institute in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), unveiled its latest open source GenAI model, potentially challenging those from major tech companies. TII, based in Abu Dhabi and part of the Advanced Technology Research Council, introduced the Falcon 2 series, comprising Falcon 2 11B, a text-based model, and Falcon 2 11B VLM, a vision-to-language model capable of generating textual descriptions of uploaded images.
The UAE, known as a major oil exporter and influential power in the Middle East, has been heavily investing in artificial intelligence. However, these investments have faced scrutiny from U.S. officials, who issued an ultimatum last year: American or Chinese technology. In response, Emirati AI firm G42 divested stakes in Chinese companies and switched from Chinese hardware before securing a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft, in coordination with Washington. Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council and an advisor to the president on strategic research and advanced technology, stated that the UAE aims to demonstrate its prowess as a significant player in AI.
The Falcon 2 series launch comes amidst a global race among companies and nations to develop large language models, spurred by the 2022 release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While some entities prefer to keep their AI code proprietary, others, like UAE’s Falcon and Meta’s Llama, have opted to make their code publicly available. Al Bannai expressed optimism about Falcon 2’s capabilities and revealed that they are already working on the “Falcon 3 generation.” “We’re very proud that we can still punch way above our weight, really compete with the best players globally,” he remarked.
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