What Eric Xing’s Abu Dhabi project says about the next phase of AI power
Hello and welcome to Eye on AI…In this edition: my chat with AI leader Eric Xing…Trump’s AI export plan…drama at the International Math Olympiad…Stargate update…transparency in reasoning.
I was excited and curious to meet Eric Xing last week in Vancouver, where I was attending the International Conference on Machine Learning—one of the top AI research gatherings of the year. Why? Xing, a longtime Carnegie Mellon professor who moved to Abu Dhabi in 2020 to lead the public, state-funded Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), sits at the crossroads of nearly every big question in AI today: research, geopolitics, even philosophy.
The UAE, after all, has quietly become one of the most intriguing players in the global AI race. The tiny Gulf state is aligning itself with U.S.-style norms around intellectual freedom and open research—even as the AI rivalry between the U.S. and China becomes increasingly defined by closed ecosystems and strategic competition. The UAE isn’t trying to “win” the AI race, but it wants a seat at the table. Between MBZUAI and G42–its state-backed AI-focused conglomerate–the UAE is building AI infrastructure, investing in talent, and aggressively positioning itself as a go-to partner for American firms like OpenAI and Oracle. And Xing is at the heart of it.
As it happened, Xing and I just missed each other—he arrived in Vancouver as I was heading home—so we connected on Zoom the following day. Our conversation ranged widely, from the hype around “world models” to how the UAE is using open-source AI research as a strategic lever to build soft power. Here are a few of the most compelling takeaways:
A ‘Bell Labs plus a university‘
MBZUAI is just five years old, but Xing says it’s already among the fastest-growing academic institutions in the world. The school, which is mostly a graduate program for AI researchers, aspires to compete with elite institutions like MIT and Carnegie Mellon while also taking on applied research challenges. Xing calls it a hybrid organization, similar to “Bell Labs plus a university,” referring to the legendary R&D arm of AT&T, founded in 1925 and responsible for foundational innovations that shaped modern computing, communications, and physics.
The UAE as a soft-power AI ambassador
Xing sees MBZUAI not just as a university, but as part of the UAE’s broader effort to build soft power in AI. He describes the country as a “strong island” of U.S. alignment in the Middle East, and views the university as an “ambassador center” for American-style research norms: open source, intellectual freedom, and scientific transparency. “If the U.S. wants to project influence in AI, it needs institutions like this,” he told me. “Otherwise, other countries will step in and define the direction.”
The U.S. isn’t losing the AI race
While much of the public narrative around AI focuses on a U.S.-China race, Xing doesn’t buy the framing. “There is no AI war,” he said flatly. “The U.S. is way ahead in ideas, in people, and in the innovation environment.” In his view, China’s AI ecosystem is still constrained by censorship, hardware limitations, and a weaker bottom-up innovation culture. “Many top AI engineers in the U.S. may be of Chinese origin,” he said, “but they only became top engineers after studying and working in the U.S.”
Why open source matters
For Xing, open source isn’t just a philosophical preference—it’s a strategic choice. At MBZUAI, he’s pushing for open research and open-source AI development as a way to democratize access to cutting-edge tools, especially for countries and researchers outside the U.S.-China power centers. “Open source applies pressure on closed systems,” he told me. “Without it, fewer people would be able to build with—or even understand—these technologies.” At a time when much of AI is becoming siloed behind corporate walls, Xing sees MBZUAI’s open approach as a way to foster global talent, advance scientific understanding, and build credibility for the UAE as a hub for responsible AI development.
On ‘world models’ and AI hype
Xing didn’t hold back when it came to one of the buzziest trends in AI right now: so-called “world models”—systems that aim to help AI agents learn by simulating how the world works. He’s skeptical of the hype. “Right now people are building pretty video generators and calling them world models,” he said. “That’s not reasoning. That’s not simulation.” In a recent paper he spent months writing himself—unusual for someone of his seniority—he argues that true world models should go beyond flashy visuals. They should help AI reason about cause and effect, not just predict the next frame of a video. In other words: AI needs to understand the world, not just mimic it.
With that, here’s the rest of the AI news—including that tomorrow the White House is set to release a sweeping new AI strategy aimed at boosting the global export of U.S. AI technologies while cracking down on state-level regulations that are seen as overly restrictive. I will be attending the D.C. event, which includes a keynote by President Trump, and will report back.
Sharon Goldman
sharon.goldman@fortune.com
@sharongoldman
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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