The White House has privately addressed concerns over an increasingly close relationship between Beijing and private industry in the Middle East that could see Chinese influence over powerful new artificial intelligence (AI) models. "It's very reminiscent of the Huawei issue where you have these technologies with 5G," Dr. Georgianna Shea, the chief technologist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy's Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, told Fox News Digital. "Everyone's using [5G], so that it becomes a backdoor into a lot of different systems within the United States," Shea said. "AI offers that same opportunity when [China] partners with our allies: They can both get in on the development side of it and, possibly, skew some of those biases or directly go through and pull out the intellectual property from what's being put into the model." The Biden administration has made clear in private discussions with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that the oil-rich nation should pay close attention to ties between Beijing and the Emirati company G42, which launched its Jais AI model – reportedly the most advanced Arab-language AI model.

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is teaming up with Abu Dhabi's leading artificial intelligence firm as part of an expansion within the United Arab Emirates and the broader region. The partnership with G42, which is chaired by the UAE's influential national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will focus on delivering OpenAI's generative AI models across sectors spanning financial services to energy and healthcare. "Leveraging G42's industry expertise, we aim to empower businesses and communities with effective solutions that resonate with the nuances of the region," said Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of San Francisco-based OpenAI. The partnership is a "convergence of value and vision," G42 CEO Peng Xiao said. The companies didn't disclose financial details of their collaboration. It's partnering with Cerebras Systems Inc., which recently built the first of nine AI supercomputers as an alternative to systems using Nvidia Corp. technology.