Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) has launched a new AI model built to understand Emirati Arabic, including the expressions, idioms and cultural references used in everyday conversation.

Falcon-Emirati, a 7-billion-parameter language model, was unveiled on Wednesday alongside two other AI models focused on speech recognition and Arabic documents.

The three tools can understand the UAE dialect, turn speech in six languages into text and extract Arabic information from images and documents.

TII is the applied research arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).

Falcon-Emirati was developed specifically around the way Arabic is spoken in the UAE, rather than relying only on Modern Standard Arabic.

Faisal Al Bannai, Advisor to the UAE President for Strategic Research and Advanced Technology Affairs and Secretary-General of ATRC, said the development was also about building AI capability within the country.

“Our language belongs in the future we are building. With Falcon-Emirati, we are putting our knowledge and expertise behind that belief. There is real pride in building technology that understands our people. And there is real freedom in having the capability here in the UAE to develop it further, set our own priorities and turn our ambitions into something people can use.”

AI built for Emirati Arabic

Falcon-Emirati is based on TII’s Falcon-H1-Arabic model.

Researchers trained it using native Emirati material, Modern Standard Arabic content covering UAE culture and heritage, and synthetic data developed with Emirati-specific linguistic resources.

TII said the model scored 84.83 per cent on Alyah, a benchmark that tests native Emirati Arabic across everyday language, figurative expressions, heritage knowledge and poetry.

It outperformed the Arabic and multilingual open-source models included in TII’s evaluation, according to the institute.

Falcon-Emirati will be available through the Falcon Chat platform.

Dr Najwa Aaraj, CEO of TII, said local language use needed to be reflected in the development of sovereign AI.

“Sovereign AI capability must reflect the language used in daily life. Emirati Arabic carries distinctive expressions, cultural references and ways of communicating. Falcon-Emirati and Falcon-ASR will help ensure that the next generation of AI understands not only Arabic but how Emirati communities actually speak it.”

Six languages from speech to text

The second model, Falcon-ASR, converts spoken language into written text.

It supports Emirati Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic as well as English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Possible uses include meeting and interview transcription, subtitles, multilingual customer service, accessibility tools and other voice-based services.

The model has 1.6 billion parameters. TII said it performed strongly across public Arabic benchmarks and its own tests of Emirati speech.

On the Emirati speech benchmark, it also beat a 30-billion-parameter multimodal model included in the comparison.

Falcon-ASR can also timestamp individual words within an audio file, which could make lengthy recordings easier to search and use.

Reading Arabic documents

Falcon-OCR-Arabic, the third model announced on Wednesday, is designed to read Arabic text and structured information contained in images and documents.

It can identify content including tables, mathematical formulas and separate document sections.

The technology could be used to digitise documents and archives or extract information automatically from large numbers of records.

Dr Hakim Hacid, Chief Researcher at TII’s Artificial Intelligence and Digital Research Centre, said the three models targeted areas where Arabic AI still had scope to improve.

“These capabilities empower developers, researchers and communities across the region to build on Emirati language and culture, while expanding what is possible for Arabic AI more broadly. Across Falcon-Emirati, Falcon-ASR and Falcon-OCR-Arabic, we have applied targeted specialisation to language, speech and document understanding, addressing areas where Arabic AI still has significant room to advance.”

UAE rolls out more homegrown AI

The launches add to a string of new AI models developed in the UAE this year.

In September, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence’s Institute of Foundation Models launched K2 Horizon, a family of six foundation models ranging from 0.9 billion to 375 billion parameters.

The university released the models with their weights, code, training data and methodology. Smaller versions were developed to work on devices such as phones and smart glasses, while the larger models target more demanding uses.

In July, Abu Dhabi-based Inception42 launched Seraj, an Arabic-focused enterprise AI model developed with Microsoft.

Built on GPT-4.1, Seraj was designed for Arabic-language use across government and business, including different dialects and regional context.

G42 company Inception also launched InceptionClaw in May, an AI assistant aimed at government and business users.

The system can work across tools including email, calendars and project-management platforms to prepare briefs, highlight tasks and surface information requiring attention.

TII, meanwhile, launched Falcon Perception in May.

The 600-million-parameter multimodal model combines visual and language capabilities, allowing it to analyse and interpret information contained in images.

Russia should share more information about the death of a plague laboratory worker who died last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday, in an incident Washington was watching “very closely”.

A laboratory worker at Siberia’s plague research institute fell ill and died in undisclosed circumstances on Friday, prompting authorities to quarantine dozens of ‌people and sparking public health fears on social media.

Russian authorities have said the situation is under control.

“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Rubio told reporters in Iceland. “We’re watching it very closely, hour by hour.”

Rubio said the US has measures available to help Russia if the situation turns out to be more serious than has so far been acknowledged, but needed to know more before it could step in.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday he had a call scheduled very soon with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

When asked what intelligence agencies were saying about the situation in Russia, Trump replied: “So far we are in very deep discussions, we’ll be able to report about it probably tomorrow.”

“Leadership is about creating lasting impact. It’s about building systems that empower people to live healthier lives today while laying the foundation for future generations,” says Dr Khadija Al Marashda.

As global healthcare shifts from reactive treatment to preventive care and proactive wellness, Dr Al Marashda stands at the forefront of this transformation in the UAE. An Emirati woman, consultant physician and accomplished executive, she leads SEHA CLINICS — Abu Dhabi’s trusted healthcare provider and a key subsidiary of Pure Health, making accessible multispecialty care the strategic foundation of a sustainable, future-ready healthcare system. Through strategic foresight, innovation, talent empowerment, and unwavering focus on patient impact, she shapes a modern paradigm of sustainable healthcare solutions that balances multispecialty expertise and technology with deep human connection.

Her leadership is defined by a clear commitment to advancing sustainable, value-based healthcare systems that align with national priorities while addressing the evolving needs of patients and communities.

REDEFINING HEALTHCARE AT SCALE

Under Dr Al Marashda’s strategic direction, SEHA CLINICS operates an expansive network of over 37 healthcare centres, 19 visa screening facilities, and more than 200 school health clinics across Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and Al Dhafra, managing over four million patient visits annually.

By championing integrated networks focused on preventive care, chronic disease management, and seamless digital care pathways, she directly aligns SEHA CLINICS with Abu Dhabi’s ambitious vision for a proactive, community-centred health ecosystem.

PIONEERING INNOVATION WITH A HUMAN TOUCH

As a passionate advocate for innovation and digital transformation, a key component of Dr Al Marashda’s forward-looking approach is the strategic integration of advanced health technologies. From deploying AI-assisted diagnostic solutions in radiology to pioneering early-detection tools for diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and macular degeneration, she actively integrates next-generation tools to sharpen clinical decision-making.

Crucially, Dr Al Marashda maintains that innovation must augment — never replace —the essential human connection at the heart of patient care. Her forward-thinking strategy also ensures equitable access across all communities, leveraging mobile healthcare units and expanding services into underserved regions so that high-quality care reaches every individual.

EMPOWERING PEOPLE AND INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION

As a prominent Emirati woman leading large-scale transformation within strategic national industries, Dr Al Marashda embodies the UAE’s commitment to fostering top-tier national talent. Beyond technology and operations, she prioritises human capital, fostering a culture rooted in collaboration, continuous learning, and accountability.

By investing in workforce development as passionately as infrastructure, Dr Al Marashda continues to model what modern, visionary healthcare leadership looks like: driving institutional excellence today while safeguarding the health and well-being of the UAE for generations to come.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday as the market weighed supply constraints from a storm heading for US oil-producing regions and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi Arabia against increased supplies of Middle East crude.

Brent futures LCOc1 rose 93 cents, or 0.92%, to $101.51 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 82 cents, or 0.92%, to $90.25.

US forecasters said on Tuesday a storm forming in the Gulf of Mexico would become the first Atlantic hurricane of 2026 within two days and would likely hit oil and gas producing facilities.

The offshore areas in the Gulf in the storm’s path produce 15% of US crude oil and 5% of the country’s natural gas.

KCM Trade chief analyst Tim Waterer said the storm was an “unwelcome complication for crude, raising the prospect of production and refining disruptions at a time when the market already has enough supply-side headaches”.

The storm could affect six refineries.

Refineries in US Gulf states account for about 50% of the national capacity of 18.2 million barrels per day (bpd).

US crude oil and gasoline inventories fell, while distillate stocks rose marginally last week, market sources said on Tuesday, citing data from the American Petroleum Institute.

Crude stocks fell by 2.09 million barrels in the week ended October 2.

Supply had been rising as the East-West pipeline hit 5.8 million barrels a day, according to Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Tuesday.

Around 12 million barrels per day of crude oil and 2 million bpd of refined products were leaving the Middle East on tankers in the last 7 to 10 days, the head of Vitol said.

However, Saudi Arabia’s airports in Jazan and Najran were targeted in two attacks on Monday evening, the Saudi aviation authority said, as hostilities between the kingdom and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis escalated.

The attacks occurred as Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces pressed a major offensive to retake territory from the Houthis, after weeks of rebel advances, with Riyadh stepping up airstrikes in support of the campaign.

Attacks and refinery outages are “likely to keep the cracks elevated and scarcity will transmit to crude. Prices will stay elevated near a $100 level without any material de-escalation emerging,” said Mukesh Sahdev, chief oil analyst at X Analysts in Sydney.

US-Iran relations are no closer to repair with US President Donald Trump saying on Tuesday that nobody knew who was running Iran during the eight-month US-Israeli war with Iran.

“Their leaders are gone, their second group of leaders are gone, and the biggest problem I have is nobody knows who the hell is running the country,” Trump said.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday Washington knows very well who their counterpart is in Iran and how the decision-making system in Iran works.

Dubai residential property sales reached more than Dhs72.6bn in Q3 of 2026, with about 34,000 transactions recorded during the period, real estate consultancy Cavendish Maxwell said on Tuesday.

Sales values fell 47 per cent from the same quarter last year, while transaction volumes declined 38 per cent, the consultancy said.

Cavendish Maxwell said the declines reflected weaker purchasing activity as delays between property purchases and their formal registration continued to work through the market data.

Off-plan properties remained the largest part of the market, accounting for 65 per cent of total residential sales value and 72 per cent of transactions during the quarter.

“The Q3 2026 data captures a mix of recent and earlier buying activity, reflecting the time between a purchase being agreed and formally registered as a sale,” said Ronan Arthur, director and head of residential valuation at Cavendish Maxwell.

“This confirms what we have suggested before: purchasing activity became more measured, with buyers being more cautious in the weeks and months following the start of the conflict.”

Arthur said Dubai’s underlying property demand remained intact, but near-term activity would be influenced by the pace of new project launches, regional uncertainty and a broader normalisation in buyer activity.

In September alone, residential sales were worth nearly Dhs23.2bn across about 10,300 transactions, according to the consultancy.

Residential sales values for the first nine months of 2026 reached Dhs292bn from 112,580 transactions.

Compared with the same period last year, sales values were down 27 per cent, and transaction volumes fell 23 per cent, Cavendish Maxwell said.

Read: Dubai real estate Q2 ’25 sales transactions hit Dhs184.9bn: Property Finder