20 million words and counting: UAE’s grand plan to power Arabic with AI

Image credit: WAM/Website

The UAE is setting global benchmarks in the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) to preserve, promote, and digitise the Arabic language—ensuring its continued relevance in the digital age.

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From education to publishing, major national institutions are deploying AI to elevate Arabic’s cultural, academic, and global status, a WAM report said.

One of the most notable initiatives is the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, a landmark scholarly achievement led by Sharjah—widely recognised as the “Capital of Arab Culture.” This monumental work traces the development of Arabic through the centuries.

Building on this foundation, Sharjah also launched the GPT Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, which combines AI technologies with historical linguistics. The tool features a vast database of more than 20 million words and allows users to read, write, and convert texts into videos. It is continuously updated through a partnership between the Arabic Language Academy and the Emirates Scholar Research Centre.

Powering knowledge platforms with AI

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation has also made significant strides through its Digital Knowledge Hub. The Arabic-language platform now hosts more than 800,000 titles and 8.5 million digital items across 18 libraries, helping to solidify the UAE’s leadership in digital Arabic content.

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, part of the Department of Culture and Tourism, launched the region’s first AI-powered Arabic-English dictionary. Designed using computational linguistics, it features over 7,000 core modern terms with automatic pronunciation, simplified definitions, contextual examples, imagery, and grammatical classification.

In collaboration with NYU Abu Dhabi and Zayed University, the centre has also unveiled the Balanced Arabic Readability Corpus (BAREC), a 10-million-word linguistic resource drawn from various literary genres to support research and education.

Bringing AI into classrooms and book fairs

At the latest Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, the newly launched Digital Square offered a tech-forward platform to showcase how AI is reshaping Arabic publishing.

Educational institutions across the country are similarly investing in AI-driven tools to modernise Arabic language instruction, ensuring that the region’s linguistic heritage thrives in the digital era.