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AI will disrupt every sector says G42 head

19 January 2024

The head of Abu Dhabi-based and owned artificial intelligence (AI) firm G42, Peng Xiao, says the technology will disrupt every sector, and that an AI plan is imperative for every company in its business portfolio.

"We don't really care if every company in our portfolio has a great five-year business plan showing us great cash return," the executive told CNN in an interview from Davos. "If they don't have an AI plan for the next five to 10 years, they don't belong in our portfolio because AI will disrupt every single sector."

Xiao, who has been group CEO of G42 since it was founded in 2018, plays a key role in the development and implementation of the UAE's AI strategy.

Related read: G42 shores up UAE's AI roadmap

Before the interview with CNN, Xiao told an audience at Davos' AI House that his company had initially worked with both the US and China to develop its technology.

“At G42, we made our bet. We believe that the most advanced AI players in the world are centralised around Silicon Valley and we have pivoted towards a large group of partners and are working with them very closely.

"To maintain the previous position, say, from a couple of years ago, where we’re trying to have this neutrality to work with all sides, it’s becoming, frankly speaking, politically more difficult, and also honestly scientifically more challenging.”

The executive referred to China as “a black box".

“It’s right for governments and policymakers to be guarded in their policy vis-a-vis other national players. But we cannot afford for nations to have black boxes around them."

In October, G42 and US-based ChatGPT creator OpenAI partnered to develop sector-focused generative AI models in the UAE and across the Middle East region. 

The partnership will focus on using OpenAI's generative AI models in domains where G42 already has expertise, including financial services, energy, healthcare and public services, G42 said at the time.

In August last year, G42 subsidiary Inception, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and California-headquartered Cerebras Systems released an open-source Arabic large language model, Jais, which is expected to offer generative AI to the world's Arabic-speaking population.

Chaired by the UAE National Security Adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, G42 subsidiaries include Bayanat AI, Khazna Data Centre, Presight AI Holding and Injazat Data Systems.

MEED’s November 2023 special report on the UAE includes: 

> COMMENT: UAE eyes global leadership role
> POLITICS: Abu Dhabi networks on the global stage
> ECONOMY: UAE economy maintains robust growth
> BANKING: UAE banks enjoy the good times
> UPSTREAM: Hail and Ghasha galvanises UAE upstream market
> DOWNSTREAM: Adnoc spurs downstream gas expansions
> POWER: UAE closes ranks ahead of Cop28
> WATER: UAE ramps up decarbonisation of water sector
> PROJECTS: Top 10 UAE clean energy projects
> CONSTRUCTION: UAE construction sector returns to form
> TRANSPORT: UAE aviation returns to growth

 

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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