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Saudi Arabia’s Ceer, KAUST Partner for Breakthroughs in Smart Mobility

Ceer, Saudi Arabia’s first electric vehicle (EV) brand
Ceer, Saudi Arabia’s first electric vehicle (EV) brand
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Saudi Arabia’s Ceer, KAUST Partner for Breakthroughs in Smart Mobility

Ceer, Saudi Arabia’s first electric vehicle (EV) brand
Ceer, Saudi Arabia’s first electric vehicle (EV) brand

Ceer, Saudi Arabia’s first electric vehicle (EV) brand, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a leading graduate research institution, are partnering to research, develop and innovate for breakthroughs in smart mobility.

The agreement covers a host of areas, including connectivity and autonomous driving, and is in line with KAUST’s new strategy to transform research into economically productive innovations in sectors such as sustainable energy.

By working together, Ceer’s technical experts and KAUST’s researchers will advance technologies and find groundbreaking solutions that can be implemented as global firsts in Saudi Arabia, with applications for Ceer’s electric vehicles.

Ceer and KAUST Innovation will work together to develop an automotive vertical in support of Saudi-based, technology-focused SMEs and the Kingdom’s growing automotive manufacturing industry; promote economic diversification; and create jobs.

As part of efforts to enhance cooperation and foster knowledge exchange, Ceer and KAUST will share facilities for the purpose of conducting seminars, conferences, research and development and other collaborative activities.

“Our strategy is built on our ambition to contribute to both Saudi Vision 2030 and the country’s research, development and innovation priorities,” said KAUST President Dr. Tony Chan. “We want to transform groundbreaking research in smart mobility into concepts that can be used by the electric vehicle industry and in Ceer’s own EVs. By joining with Ceer, we can co-develop new ideas and applications that will help reduce emissions, make our vehicles safer and smarter, and ultimately help diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy.”

“I am excited about the opportunity to partner with KAUST to co-create next-gen technologies for our made-in-Saudi electric vehicles,” said Ceer CEO James DeLuca. “Together, we will accelerate research in the automotive industry to create innovations here in the Kingdom while creating more high-value jobs for young nationals to further diversify the Saudi economy.”

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Microsoft Looks to Boost AI Performance in European Languages

FILE PHOTO: Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo
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Microsoft Looks to Boost AI Performance in European Languages

FILE PHOTO: Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo

US tech behemoth Microsoft is investing millions of dollars to funnel more European-language data into AI development, company president Brad Smith told AFP Monday.

With today's leading AI models mostly trained on material in English, "the survival of these languages and the health of these cultures is quite literally at stake" without a course correction, Smith said in an interview.

AI models are "less capable when it is in a language that has insufficient data," he added -- which could push more users to switch to English even when it is not their native language.

Microsoft will from September set up research units in the eastern French city Strasbourg to "help expand the availability of multilingual data for AI development" in at least 10 of the European Union's 24 languages, including Estonian and Greek.

The work will include digitizing books and recording hundreds of hours of audio.

"This isn't about creating data for Microsoft to own. It is about creating data for the public to be able to use," Smith said, adding that the information would be shared on an open-source basis.

The US-based company has in recent months striven to position itself as especially compatible with a gathering political push for European technological sovereignty.

Leaders in the bloc have grown increasingly nervous at their dependency on US tech firms and infrastructure since Donald Trump's reelection to the White House.

In June, Microsoft said it was stepping up cooperation with European governments on cybersecurity and announced new "data sovereignty" measures for its data centers on the continent.

Smith said that Monday's announcement was just the latest evidence of the company's commitment to Europe.

Most leading AI firms are American or Chinese, although Europe has some standouts like France's Mistral or Franco-American platform Hugging Face.

Away from Microsoft, some European initiatives such as TildeLM are pushing to develop local-language AI models.

The Windows and Office developer also said Monday that it was working on a digital recreation of Paris' Notre-Dame cathedral that it plans to gift to the French state, as well as digitizing items from the country's BNF national library and Decorative Arts Museum.