G42, Microsoft Launch Middle East's First Responsible AI Foundation

G42 and Microsoft launched the Responsible AI Foundation, the first center of its kind in the Middle East, on Monday with support from research partner Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).

MBZUAI is a foundation that aims to promote responsible AI standards and best practices in the Middle East and the Global South. Inception, a company under G42, will lead the foundation's programs to drive its mission forward, WAM reported.

Microsoft also announced the expansion of its AI for Good Lab to Abu Dhabi, a regional branch of Microsoft's AI for Good Lab, in collaboration with G42.

It will collaborate with NGOs and government organizations to use AI to solve societal challenges. The lab will focus on projects in the Middle East and Global South, with its first researchers starting work in March this year.

With the launch of the Responsible AI Foundation and the expansion of Microsoft's AI for Good Lab, G42 and the UAE are strengthening their position as a global leader in responsible AI development.

The Responsible AI Foundation will focus on two main areas: Responsible AI Research and Responsible AI Implementation & Governance.

Responsible AI Research includes studying both the technical and ethical aspects of AI. The foundation will work on AI safety, reducing bias, and improving transparency. It will also collaborate with global and regional research institutions to set new standards for fairness, accountability, and responsible AI practices.

Responsible AI Implementation & Governance involves creating guidelines to ensure AI is developed and used ethically and responsibly, while considering cultural differences. The foundation will design risk assessment models, external ethics boards, audit tools, and flexible governance policies to promote fair and inclusive AI adoption.

Last year, G42 announced plans to launch NANDA, a new Hindi Large Language Model, featuring 13 billion parameters trained on about 2.13 trillion tokens of language datasets, including Hindi. The announcement was made during Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's visit to India.

In 2023, G42 launched JAIS, the first open-source Arabic language model, which revolutionized Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP). This gave over 400 million Arabic speakers access to generative AI tools in their native language.