Building on UAE's AI Excellence
Adapting World-Class UAE Technologies for Sovereign AI in the Global South
Our Vision
Crane AI Labs is building on the UAE's world-class, open-source AI technologies to create sovereign AI solutions for the unique, low-resource environments of Africa and the broader Global South. By leveraging the UAE's vibrant AI ecosystem, including the groundbreaking work from institutions like the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) and its Institute of Foundation Models (IFM), we are building a powerful bridge between cutting-edge research and real-world impact.
Our mission is to ensure that the next generation of AI is not only powerful but also accessible, efficient, and culturally aware.
Building on UAE's AI Foundation
The Goal
Our primary technical goal is to take the powerful, state-of-the-art Arabic LLM, Jais, and create a new family of "Crane-Jais" models.
The Innovation
We will apply our expertise in model optimization and quantization to make these models hyper-efficient, enabling them to run entirely offline on low-cost devices.
The Use Case
We will start by building a model that can perform high-quality, conversational translation between Arabic and key African languages like Swahili, opening up new avenues for trade, culture, and knowledge sharing between the two regions.
The Goal
We will leverage the K2 Series of models, particularly the advanced reasoning capabilities of K2 Think, to build next-generation educational tools.
The Innovation
We will focus on creating tools that enable offline coding and STEM problem-solving in low-resource classrooms.
The Use Case
Imagine an AI tutor, powered by a Crane-K2 model, that can guide a student through a complex physics problem or help them debug their first line of Python, all without an internet connection. We will also explore integrations with agentic frameworks like MCP (Modular Cognitive Pilot) to create more dynamic, interactive learning experiences.
The Goal
Our collaboration extends beyond technology. We aim to build a collaborative research network between innovators in Africa and the UAE.
The Plan
We will actively engage with researchers at HUB71, ADGM, MBZUAI, the G42 ecosystem, and other leading institutions. Our goal is to launch joint research projects, share datasets, and co-author papers on the unique challenges of deploying AI in the Global South.
Why Building on UAE's Ecosystem Matters
For Africa
This collaboration provides direct access to some of the world's most advanced, non-Western AI models. It allows us to build solutions that are not only technically superior but also more culturally and linguistically aligned with our diverse populations.
For the UAE
It provides a strategic collaborator with deep, on-the-ground expertise in the African market. We offer a "living laboratory" to validate, harden, and scale their technologies for the 3.8 billion people in the Global South, dramatically increasing the global impact and adoption of their open-source contributions.
Join Us in Building the Future
Are you a researcher at a UAE-based institution? A developer interested in Arabic-Swahili NLP? An organization looking to deploy AI in a low-resource setting? We want to work with you to build on the UAE's AI foundation.
Connect with Our Research Team