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His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, honoured winners of the UAE AI Award in a ceremony held in Abu Dhabi during the UAE Government Annual Meeting 2024.
Sheikh Mohammed said, “Artificial Intelligence will radically change business and the delivery of public services, and we are determined to be at the forefront among countries adopting AI tools to accelerate government work.”
The award ceremony was also attended by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence; HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance; HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Second Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Media Council; HH Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah; HH Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman; HH Sheikh Rashid bin Saud bin Rashid Al Mua’lla, Crown Prince of Umm Al Quwain; HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah; HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah; and HH Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), alongside ministers and officials.
Launched last March by the UAE Council for Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, the UAE AI Award seeks to inspire federal, local, and semi-government entities to embrace advanced AI applications. It aims to establish a national benchmark for AI utilisation and foster groundbreaking solutions that envision a future driven by digital innovation, collaboration, and enhanced creative competitiveness.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs won the Service Excellence category award for its groundbreaking Smart Mission project – AI-driven consulate services that require no human intervention. The Smart Mission project, a first of its kind, was launched at the UAE Embassy in South Korea, with five additional missions set to open over the next six months.
DP World received an award in the Operational Efficiency category for its ‘Tanbeeh’ platform – an advanced, AI-powered solution developed by Emirati talent that provides four core capabilities to boost readiness in the face of various challenges faced by swift response teams. Key features include: detection of fires within five seconds by processing over 500 hours of surveillance footage from cameras across Jebel Ali, proactively monitoring compliance with personal safety protocols, enabling seamless site access with up to 99 percent accuracy through facial recognition technology, and analysing traffic patterns to predict and avoid congestion with up to 90 percent accuracy.
The Integrated Transport Centre (Abu Dhabi Mobility) received the award in the Decision-Making category for its STEAM+ integrated modelling and analysis system – a significant advancement for Abu Dhabi Mobility. This ecosystem serves as a key tool for informed decision-making and enhancing transportation investments within the emirate.
Harnessing big data and AI, STEAM+ processes over 70 billion data matrices, categorising and merging them to support seamless decision-making. The system provides insights into current transportation patterns, identifies population needs, anticipates shifts in demand, and forecasts future developments in mobility across Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council secured the Emirati AI Solutions award for its Falcon language model, a groundbreaking achievement that has propelled projects like RAZI and LAW71.
Developed by the Technology Innovation Institute, Falcon is a large generative language model (LLM) designed to support scalable and high-performance application development. Trained on an extensive web dataset enriched with curated sources, the Falcon LLM series stands as the Arab world’s first language model to rival offerings from major tech players such as Meta, Google, and OpenAI.
The UAE AI Award attracted over 225 entries from 76 government and semi-government entities and 44 private organisations, with 12 projects advancing to the finals – a testament to the award’s role in shaping the digital future and strengthening the UAE’s competitive edge.
Nominations underwent rigorous evaluation by a panel of experts and specialists, with criteria focused on innovation, AI ethics, AI maturity standards, scalability and growth potential, and overall impact.