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The Amazon logo is being displayed on a smartphone in this photo illustration in Brussels, Belgium, on June 10, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Amazon’s spending blitz, Cal State gives everyone ChatGPT, a $50 AI model, France and UAE shake hands
500,000: More than half a million new people will gain access to a specialized version of ChatGPT after OpenAI struck a deal with California State University, which has 460,000 students and 63,000 faculty members across 23 campuses. Students and faculty will be able to use a specialized version of the chatbot that can assist with tutoring, study guides, and administrative tasks for staff. The price of the deal is unclear.
50: Researchers at Stanford University and the University of Washington trained a large language model they say is capable of “reasoning” like the higher-end models from OpenAI and Anthropic. The catch? They did it while spending only $50 in compute credits. The new model, called s1, is “distilled” from a Google model called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, a process that allows training fine-tuned models based on larger ones.
1: France and the United Arab Emirates struck a deal to develop a 1 gigawatt AI data center on Thursday, ahead of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. It’s unclear where the data center will be located, but the agreement means that it will serve both French and Emirati AI efforts.
FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 19, 2024.
Turkey offers to mediate in Sudanese civil war
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Sudanese Armed Forces Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan on Friday offering to help resolve the country’s civil war by mediating negotiations with the rebels and their alleged backers, the United Arab Emirates. The offer comes just days after Erdoğan negotiated an agreement to avoid conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia over port access, as Turkey looms ever larger in the politics of the Horn of Africa.
An end to the fighting is desperately needed. Nearly 15 million Sudanese have fled their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration, one of the worst refugee crises in modern history. Aid organizations struggle to reach major population centers due to intense fighting, leading to widespread hunger and disease. And in the western region of Darfur, Rapid Support Forces are accused of carrying out genocidal violence and mass rape against Black ethnic groups like the Masalit and Fur.
US and Saudi-led negotiations produced a ceasefire in May of 2023, only for it to collapse within 24 hours. Since then, the violence has raged unchecked. SAF airstrikes have devastated the capital Khartoum, but they are unable to dislodge RSF infantry, allegedly supplied via UAE airlifts to neighboring Chad. Abu Dhabi denies any involvement.
Why is Turkey getting involved? For a shot at swaying the post-war order in its favor. Ankara and Abu Dhabi’s relations have been severely strained in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring, when they have found themselves backing opposing sides of crises in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Qatar, as well as diplomatic normalization with Israel. Finding a mediated end to the war reduces the risk that the allegedly Emirati-backed RSF comes out on top.
Avoiding that outcome plays into Turkey’s broader strategy in northeast Africa, which it sees as a key source of future economic growth and political clout. Turkey spent the last decade actively encouraging investment and trade with Sudan and Ethiopia, and the military has provided major backing to Somalia in an effort to stabilize the strategically-placed country. A stable, Turkish-aligned Red Sea coast could present both a tempting market and a key check on regional rivals in the Middle East.A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.
Microsoft gets OK to send chips to the UAE
The Biden administration, which reportedly brokered the deal earlier this year, did so to box out the Chinese government, which has sought to expand its influence with the Persian Gulf’s technology sector. In exchange, G42 has been working to assure US authorities that it can be trusted, despite ties to China.
In greenlighting the latest export, which has not yet been formally announced by the US Commerce Department, the administration will place extensive prohibitions on who can access Microsoft’s facility in the UAE, including China, its officials, and any sanctioned individuals. It’s not yet clear which company’s chips Microsoft will be exporting.
Skykline of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on November 21, 2022 .
Will rabbi’s murder in the UAE amplify Iran-Israel tensions?
Israeli authorities condemned the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan 28-year-old whose body was discovered Sunday in the United Arab Emirates, as an“antisemitic terrorist attack.” They are investigating potential Iranian involvement, including Uzbek nationals with suspected links to Iran. In response, the Iranian embassy in the UAE said it “categorically rejects the allegations of Iran’s involvement in the murder of this individual.”
The UAE has arrested three suspects but has provided no further details. Should a link to Iran be established, it would likely renew calls for retaliation by Israel, and possibly set off a new cycle of escalation.
Meanwhile, Israeli military operations continue in both Gaza and Lebanon. The Israeli army ordered the evacuation of a suburb of Gaza City on Sunday after Hamas militants fired rockets at Israel,prompting a new wave of displacements in the enclave. Hamasclaimed late Sunday that a female Israeli hostage had been killed in Israeli operations in northern Gaza, but Israel said it was unable to verify the information.
In Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike targeted an army center, resulting in the death of one soldier and injuries to 18 others. Hezbollah retaliated on Sunday by launching 340 drones and rockets into Israel andclaimed to have also destroyed a total of 11 Israeli tanks in a series of ground battles. Talks over a potential cease-fire with Hezbollah have thus far been fruitless, but the Israeli ambassador to the US said a deal could be reached “within days” on Monday.
In Washington, D.C., on September 23, 2024, President Joe Biden greets His Highness President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates at the White House.
Biden and Sheikh Mohammed talk AI
US President Joe Biden met with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on Monday to discuss artificial intelligence. In his first visit to the US in seven years, the UAE’s leader asked Biden for better access to US technology to fuel his country’s AI ambitions.
The Gulf states have a strained relationship with the US because they’re seen as playing both sides of the US-China war for AI dominance. They’re subject to export restrictions on chips, for instance, out of fears they could be a pass-through for Chinese firms.
That said, it seems that the UAE is leaning heavily toward US allegiance. In April, Microsoft announced it would invest $1.5 billion in G42, a leading artificial intelligence holding company based in Abu Dhabi. The deal was largely brokered by the Biden administration to beat back China’s influence in the UAE.
White House officials said that after the meeting, Biden directed senior officials to begin drafting a memorandum of understanding for future collaboration on artificial intelligence with the UAE.
Rapper Macklemore performs during the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games, in Duesseldorf, Germany.
Macklemore cancels Dubai concert, takes stand against UAE’s role in Sudan war
American rapper Macklemore has called off an upcoming October concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates’ role in the war in Sudan. The UN has accused the UAE of providing the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group fighting the Sudanese Army, with weapons to such a degree that without their alleged involvement, the conflict driving the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis would already be over.
While the UAE has repeatedly denied arming the RSF, UN experts reported “credible” evidence they have sent weapons several times a week from northern Chad. To read our full explainer of why the UAE, and other countries like Russia and Iran, are fueling the war, click here.
Macklemore’s decision comes after the rapper publicly declared his support last spring for Palestinians by dropping a song called “Hind’s Hall” about the Columbia University building student protesters took over and briefly “renamed” after Hind Rajab, a young girl killed in Gaza by Israeli forces.
Addressing his fellow artists, Macklemore says he’s not judging those who choose to perform in the UAE but asks: “If we used our platforms to mobilize collective liberation, what could we accomplish?” It’s worth noting, however, that the rapper performed at the Saudi Arabia-owned LIV Golf tournament in June. The Saudis are suspected of supporting the Sudanese Army, which is also accused of committing war crimes.
FILE PHOTO: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves towards his supporters during a roadshow as part of an election campaign, in Kolkata, India, May 28, 2024.
Hard Numbers: India’s exit polls, China’s moonshot, America’s launch woes, African gold
3: The world’s biggest democratic event has ended with polls closing on India’s multi-week election, and all indications are that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will cruise to a third term. No surprise there, but Modi’s attempts to build inroads in opposition strongholds appear to have fallen somewhat short. Official election results are due Tuesday.
4.4: China’s Chang-e 6 probe intends to collect a 4.4-pound sample from the surface of the far side of the moon after its second successful landing attempt. China is the only country to have landed probes on the dark side of the moon, which is challenging because radio communications from Earth are blocked by the moon’s mass and need to be relayed by a special satellite.
2: Meanwhile, NASA delayed the launch of Boeing’s new Starliner rocket on Sunday for the second time after a crucial computer program failed to load just minutes before launch, pushing back the arrival of two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeing’s public relations have been in turmoil following multiple safety failures on its airliners, but a successful launch could make it just the second private company to ferry people to the ISS.
30 billion: A Swiss NGO estimates that over $30 billion worth of gold is smuggled out of Africa each year, with the lion’s share going to private refiners in the United Arab Emirates who then push the metal onto legitimate markets. The silver lining? With so much of the industry concentrated in the UAE, the NGO says targeted enforcement efforts could prove effective.
AI for good, AI for bad: Bringing balance to the force
AI comes with a lot of stigma. Popular storylines in books and movies have trained us to see artificial intelligence as a bad actor that can take control over humanity and destroy us, says Omar Sultan al Olama, the UAE's Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence.
Minister al Olama, speaking in a GZERO Global Stage discussion from the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, highlights that in the UAE, AI development isn't just focused on productivity and economic gains, but on its potential to improve quality of life. One way to flip the script on AI as simply a scary tech straight out of a sci-fi thriller? Create more content that sheds light on AI's upsides, says al Olama.
The conversation was part of the Global Stage series, produced by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft. These discussions convene heads of state, business leaders, technology experts from around the world for critical debate about the geopolitical and technology trends shaping our world.
Watch the full conversation here: How is the world tackling AI, Davos' hottest topic?
- Episode 7: How AI is changing our economy ›
- Azeem Azhar explores the future of AI ›
- Staving off "the dark side" of artificial intelligence: UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed ›
- How AI can be used in public policy: Anne Witkowsky ›
- Will consumers ever trust AI? Regulations and guardrails are key ›
- Podcast: Talking AI: Sociologist Zeynep Tufekci explains what's missing in the conversation ›