President Sheikh Mohamed on Sunday pledged his support for the launch of a UAE-made AI model which is being hailed as the most advanced in the world.
K2 Think – an open-source reasoning model – has been developed by Abu Dhabi's Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in partnership with the capital's AI-focused company G42 and is set to be released in the “coming week”.
The announcement of the platform coincided with the anniversary of the birth of the late President Sheikh Khalifa on September 7, in recognition for his crucial role in championing technology and innovation in the Emirates.
Sheikh Mohamed said the UAE continues to make significant progress in advancing investment in modern technologies and harnessing their power to drive national growth.
What is AI reasoning?
AI reasoning models are viewed as the next frontier in the rapidly-evolving artificial intelligence sector.
The principles behind the model would enhance AI's ability to embrace critical thinking and in-depth decision-making to tackle complex problems and interpret a treasure trove of intricate data, using humanlike logic and thought processes.
State news agency Wam reported on Sunday that K2 Think is primed to be the “world’s most advanced open-source reasoning model”.
“Designed to be leaner and smarter, K2 Think delivers frontier-class performance in a remarkably compact form – often matching, or even surpassing, the results of models an order of magnitude larger,” Wam reported.
“The result: greater efficiency, more flexibility, and broader real-world applicability”
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council (AIATC), stated that the launch of K2 Think marks an important step in the UAE’s efforts to strengthen its position in advanced technologies and AI.
He praised the collaboration between MBZUAI and G42, in bringing about a significant achievement in the UAE's vision to unleash the potential of AI for the betterment of society.
"The upcoming launch of the "K2 Think" model will mark a significant step in advancing artificial intelligence from the UAE to the world, reflecting our leadership's vision for technological progress," Sheikh Tahnoon said on X.
"K2 Think will combine the efficiency of smaller models with world-class performance and superior inference speeds, surpassing larger systems to set a new global benchmark for open-source reasoning."
MBZUAI said on social media it was “deeply grateful to the UAE’s leadership for their vision and unwavering support in advancing AI, science, and technology”.
The AI partnership will serve to further cement the UAE's position as a global leader in the advancement of AI.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia were named among the top three artificial intelligence superpowers in the world in a report by a US data centre company last month.
The US led the rankings, followed by the UAE and then Saudi Arabia. The Gulf states were placed ahead of South Korea, France, India, China, the UK, Finland and Germany in the analysis, compiled by TRG Datacentres, a Texas-based company focused on national AI supercomputing power, AI company activity and government AI readiness.
