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Google Gemini has been ranked the world’s most culturally aware large language model for the United Arab Emirates, securing first place in the inaugural “AI in the Ring” Index launched by the UAE’s Office of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications.
The groundbreaking benchmark the first of its kind globally evaluated 11 leading AI models on their ability to accurately understand and reflect Emirati culture, traditions, dialects, national values, and social nuances.
Over 400 culturally specific questions were asked across seven dimensions, producing more than 5,200 responses. A panel of Emirati cultural experts then scored each model on accuracy, sensitivity, and depth of contextual understanding.
Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro claimed the top spot, followed closely by OpenAI’s GPT-4o and o1 models, Cohere, and xAI’s Grok, rounding out the top five.
His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, hailed the index as a vital step in ensuring AI respects and reinforces national identity.
“As the UAE accelerates its digital transformation, preserving our cultural heritage must remain at the heart of technological progress,” he said. “AI must not only be intelligent it must be culturally intelligent.”
The Minister highlighted a pressing challenge less than 5% of global digitized content is in Arabic, yet nearly half of Generation Z now relies on AI as their primary source of information. Without deliberate efforts to embed authentic Emirati and Arab cultural knowledge into AI systems, future generations risk inheriting distorted or incomplete representations of their identity.
The “AI in the Ring” Index is expected to be updated regularly and may expand to include other national and regional cultural contexts, setting a new global standard for culturally responsible artificial intelligence.
