Prakash Nanda
IT becomes a big challenge to deal with when one has two close friends, but these close friends are not exactly friendly with each other. This is what the United Arab Emirates seems to be facing today, with a friend like China on the one hand and the United States on the other.
The UAE’s ‘The National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031’ to make the country a global hub of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now under increasing American scrutiny because of the country’s strong technological collaborations with Chinese scientists and institutions. That is because of China’s ‘reputation’ as a leading practitioner of ‘Intellectual Property Theft’.
Given the finiteness of its oil power, the UAE is systematically pursuing its larger goal of transitioning to a knowledge-based economy, and AI has a huge role to play in this. It aims to develop a digital technology ecosystem by commercializing and deploying AI in priority sectors.
Abu Dhabi’s foreign policy is said to be ‘neutral’ in the sense that it wants to work with ‘everyone’. The country has sufficient capital, but it lacks talent and technology to transform high-tech. To fill this gap, it has invited huge technological and academic collaborations from all leading countries, including the US and China. However, the Americans’ suspicion of China is making it very difficult for the institutions promoting AI in the UAE, particularly those that are simultaneously collaborating with the Americans.
Last year, the US grounded the UAE’s plans to participate in China’s 2026 Chang’e-7 moon mission, citing US technology transfer restrictions. Similarly, there are now reports that Microsoft has decided to scale back its $1.5-billion partnership with Abu Dhabi AI firm Group 42 for its connections with China.In April, Microsoft announced a $1.5-billion investment in Group 42 (G42). The investment was said to strengthen the two companies’ collaboration on bringing the latest Microsoft AI technologies and skilling initiatives to the UAE and other countries around the world.
House panel move
But, according to a report in ‘Politico’ news portal, Microsoft has now decided to scale back its $1.5 billion partnership with G42, presumably because the US Government’s House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party recently called out G42 for its connections with China.
The Congress feared that G42’s ties to China would mean that the deal could allow Beijing to siphon off cutting-edge tech from the US. Under the new plan, Microsoft will instead lease its AI products to G42, an arrangement that will allow it to exert more oversight.
Latest reports suggest that universities in the UAE are also now under scanner by the US for their links with China. Cheryl Yu, a Fellow in China Studies at the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, points out how the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) of the UAE, which has important collaborations with leading US technology companies and universities, poses a high risk of technology transfer due to its deep connections with China.
AI research varsity
Incidentally, MBZUAI is the first university in Abu Dhabi focused on graduate-level AI research. According to its website, it was established to support the UAE’s National Strategy for AI. Though mostly funded by the UAE Government, MBZUAI, it is said, has been supported by some Chinese entities, and PRC firms such as Huawei have supported researchers and projects.
Yu has written that MBZUAI is linked with organisations and individuals with strong ties to the Chinese Government. The university was incubated by Shao Ling, its first Executive V-P and Provost, and his UAE-based national research organisation, the Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (now part of G42).
