Google Gemini Tops AI Cultural Intelligence Benchmark in UAE

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – The UAE’s Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications Office has announced that Google Gemini has secured the top position in the pioneering “AI in the Ring” Index—the world’s first benchmark designed to evaluate how effectively AI language models capture Emirati culture, dialects, traditions, and national values.

The ranking follows an extensive evaluation of over 400 questions spanning seven cultural dimensions, along with 5,200 AI-generated responses from 11 leading language models. A specialized committee of Emirati experts assessed the outputs to determine which AI systems demonstrated the highest cultural intelligence in a UAE-specific context.

Following Gemini 2.5 Pro, the top five models include: ChatGPT (OpenAI GPT-4o), ChatGPT (OpenAI o1), Cohere, and Grok.

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, emphasized that preserving national identity is critical as digital transformation accelerates. He stated that AI technologies must not only advance innovation but also reflect and reinforce the UAE’s cultural heritage, ensuring that emerging systems support the nation’s authentic values with clarity and respect.

Highlighting the importance of culturally grounded AI, the Minister noted that less than 5% of Arabic content is available digitally, while 48% of Generation Z relies on AI as their main information source. This underscores the urgency of training AI models on accurate, UAE-relevant cultural data, safeguarding the country’s heritage for future generations.