BOTIM launches region’s first Arabic ChatGPT with MBZUAI

BOTIM’s Arabic Chat GPT will support features such as international money transfers, bill payments and e-commerce

by Gulf Business

April 7, 2023

Consumer technology holding group, Astra Tech, has launched the first Arabic ChatGPT in the Middle East and Africa, leveraging the expertise of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).

Integrated into the BOTIM app, the GPT has the potential to transform access to services through conversational commerce.

BOTIM’s Arabic ChatGPT, an AI-powered platform, will support all its services, ensuring the information provided is always current and accurate by continuously sourcing the latest information from local markets.

It will support various services such as international money transfers, bill payments, government services, and weather checks.

BOTIM Arabic ChatGPT to include more services

The platform is under development to expand in the upcoming months to include additional services such as BOTIM stores and healthcare services, making it the ultimate one-stop-shop for users in the region.

Abdallah Abu Sheikh, co-founder and CEO of Astra Tech, BOTIM’s parent company, stated: “Our Arabic ChatGPT marks another significant step towards simplifying people’s daily lives and transforming the global tech industry while also enhancing the capabilities of our upcoming Ultra app.

“We are very excited to leverage the Arabic language modeling experts at MBZUAI to pilot the service for our select users as we train the model.

“The Middle East is poised to experience a 20 per cent annual growth rate in AI by 2030, and the UAE is set to lead the region with an average annual contribution of nearly 35 per cent. We are excited to be at the forefront of technological innovation and creating new opportunities with local academic collaboration.”

#MBZUAI‘s new Metaverse Lab focuses on developing next-generation #AI algorithms to create photo-realistic virtual humans, digitize dynamic environments, & much more. What aspect of the metaverse are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below. ? #LearnfromMBZUAI

— MBZUAI (@mbzuai) April 6, 2023

Sultan al Hajji, vice president of Public Affairs and Alumni Relations, MBZUAI, added that “This new collaboration with Astra Tech underscores how the university’s research and subject matter expertise in natural language processing is being deployed to address challenges and enable enhanced services for industries and their customers.

“We welcome further opportunities to align our scientific focus with the UAE and wider region’s vision for innovation in technology and communications.”

Initially, the feature will be available to a select group of its 100 million-plus user base before gradually expanding in the near future.

Following the testing phase, users can input their inquiries into the chat field, and the model will process the sentence, providing source URLs that redirect them to more information about a particular service of interest.

Other adopters of the tech

In other news, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announced it is integrating ChatGPT technology from Microsoft to enhance its services.

Read: DEWA becomes first UAE government entity to use ChatGPT

DEWA will be the first utility provider worldwide and the first UAE government entity to use this revolutionary technology. It intends to provide ChatGPT technology through Moro Hub (Data Hub Integrated Solutions), a subsidiary of Digital DEWA.

Also read: Is ChatGPT worth the hype?

In February, Snap, maker of the photo-sharing app Snapchat, released an AI-enabled chatbot, becoming the latest major tech company to roll out features powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology, reported Bloomberg.

Snapchat’s My AI bot will be pinned to the top of the app’s chat tab, letting users engage directly with the AI as they would with friends on the popular photo-sharing and messaging app.

Trained to display a “unique tone and personality,” My AI can be used to recommend birthday gift ideas, dinner recipes and “even write a haiku about cheese for your cheddar-obsessed pal,” the company said in a blog.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has unveiled GPT-4, the successor to an artificial intelligence tool that spawned viral services ChatGPT and the Dall-E image-creation programme.

Read: ChatGPT creator OpenAI debuts new GPT-4 AI system