Nvidia, Abu Dhabi tech hub team up to make smarter AI robots

Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute is collaborating with Nvidia to improve artificial intelligence models and build smarter robots.

The UAE tech center and U.S. chipmaker said on Sunday they will establish a joint research lab focused on developing next-generation AI models, robotics platforms, and humanoid technologies, The National reports.

Among the projects will be pairing Nvidia’s accelerated computing with TII’s Falcon AI software to expand the capabilities of robotic learning in Arabic. 

Najwa Aaraj, CEO of TTI, said the lab will use Nvidia’s Thor chip to build robotic systems capable of reasoning, adapting, and acting in complex environments. TTI already works on four-legged robots, robotic arms, and humanoids that resemble people.

“By combining our advanced robotic platforms with powerful AI models,” she said, “we are accelerating the convergence of perception, control and language – laying the foundation for a new era of intelligent machines.”

The joint venture comes as the UAE pushes to accelerate AI adoption across government and business, aiming to position the country among the world’s most advanced digital economies.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in May to establish an “AI Acceleration Partnership” and build an academic center dedicated to pushing the frontiers of artificial intelligence.

Abu Dhabi introduces Falcon Arabic to compete in AI race

Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute has launched Falcon Arabic, a powerful new Arabic-based large language model, as the UAE vies to stay in the consumer AI race.

The new LLM is trained across both Modern Standard Arabic and dialects, and TII claims that it matches the performance of models up to 10 times its size, Bloomberg reports.

The U.S. and China are increasingly dominating the competition to develop the world’s most powerful AI models, leaving countries like the UAE fighting to keep up.

Earlier this month, it was reported that TII’s flagship Falcon model had fallen behind in the rankings and user adoption, while G42, which backed another system called Jais, had shifted focus to customizing models from companies like OpenAI instead of developing its own.