*

First time a UAE president visits White House

*

UAE ambitiously pursuing AI development

*

U.S. wary of UAE-China relationship

By Alexander Cornwell

DUBAI, Sept 23 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden will host

the United Arab Emirates president on Monday for a visit set to

include White House talks on the Gulf state's plans for

artificial intelligence, an ambitious effort also drawing

interest from U.S. geopolitical rival China.

The UAE, a wealthy oil producer and longtime security

partner of the U.S., is hoping for greater access to American

technology to build its own advanced tech industry.

G42, the state-backed technology company, has already

secured a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft ( MSFT ), partnered with

chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA ) and is using supercomputers built by Cerebras

Systems.

But the U.S. has been concerned about the UAE's warm

relationship with China and placed restrictions on exports of

some American technology to the UAE and other Middle Eastern

states over concerns that it could be shared with Beijing.

Under pressure from the Biden administration, G42 this year

began ripping out Chinese hardware it was using and sold off

Chinese investment so it could work more closely with American

firms. That preceded the $1.5 billion Microsoft ( MSFT ) investment.

"We cannot let this sort of wave of technological

breakthroughs pass by us and not be somehow in partnership with

it," Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE's president

told journalists on Thursday ahead of the White House visit.

The White House has said Biden and UAE President Sheikh

Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss areas of deepening

cooperation like advanced technology, artificial intelligence,

investments and space exploration.

It will be the first time a UAE president visits the White

House, although Sheikh Mohamed, as crown prince of Abu Dhabi,

visited the White House in 2015 to meet President Barack Obama

and in 2017 to meet President Donald Trump. Sheikh Mohamed met

President Biden in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2022.

The UAE president is also due to meet Vice President Kamala

Harris and leaders from the American business community.

AI AMBITIONS

The UAE is pouring billions of dollars into artificial

intelligence, which has included the development of Arabic and

Hindi language chatbot applications similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Emirati officials believe the Gulf state's bet on artificial

intelligence will strengthen its international clout by making

it a key economic actor long after demand for oil has dried up.

"We are in a position to be a pivotal country in this new

information and technology age," said Faisal Al Bannai, Sheikh

Mohamed's adviser on strategic research and advanced technology.

"We think we have the ingredients to build AI that can

compete globally," he told Reuters in a July interview.

Emirati officials also argue the UAE must have control over

its own AI and develop its own, globally-competitive technology

so that it could guarantee no outside actor could shut down the

technology, harm its performance or alter its algorithms.

"The last thing we want to be in, is in the future as a

nation, someone telling us well, you will get the latest version

or you will not get the latest version," Al Bannai said.

Although U.S. officials are wary of the UAE's relationship

with China, some believe artificial intelligence and fostering

closer U.S.-UAE technology ties is one area where Washington

could drive a wedge between Abu Dhabi and Beijing.

The UAE's Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar

Sultan Al Olama has acknowledged that there is a need for

greater alignment and engagement between the UAE and the U.S.

CHINA SEEKS AI PARTNERSHIP WITH UAE

"There is the willingness for us to engage," he said in a

June interview, adding that Abu Dhabi was fully committed to

being a long term strategic technology partner with Washington.

"We haven't been shying away from our ambitions but we're

going to do it in the right way. We're going to do it through

partnership. We're going to do it through transparency."

China also sees the UAE as a long-term technology partner.

During a visit to Beijing in May by Sheikh Mohamed, Chinese

President Xi Jinping called on the two countries to strengthen

artificial intelligence cooperation.

Chinese AI companies SenseTime, sanctioned by the U.S. which

has said it has links to China's military industrial complex,

and Terminus Group, both developers of facial recognition

technology, are also working in the UAE.

Terminus Group's Chief Scientist Ling Shao, who previously

worked for G42, said there were many opportunities in the UAE.

But while the U.S. government may have reservations about

the UAE's pursuit of AI and ties with China, what is crucial for

American industry is that the UAE has both the financial

resources to fund expensive artificial intelligence research and

a government committed to advancing its development.

"They're among the leaders today and they're on a path to be

at the very top," Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman said in July.