Ruler of Sharjah witnesses the launch of the Historical Arabic Dictionary GPT Project

Sharjah, October 17, 2024 / His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, Supreme Chairman of the Arabic Language Academy of Sharjah (ALAS), witnessed on Thursday morning, in the presence of Her Excellency Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, President of the American University of Sharjah, the launch of the Historical Arabic Dictionary GPT Project.

The launch took place during the first Sharjah International Conference on AI and Linguistics, held at the American University of Sharjah on October 17-18, in Partnership between the university and the Emirates Scholar Center for Research and Studies, Subsidiary of the Emirates Science and Research Foundation, with the participation of more than 50 prominent speakers from various fields of education, scientific research, culture and technology, as well as prominent leaders in the academic and technological sectors.

His Highness, the Supreme President of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah emphasized the importance of utilizing modern technologies, artificial intelligence and rapid progress in the technical and technological fields to harness them in the service of the Arabic language, preserve it and promote its spread, and deal with the challenges that accompany technical development and artificial intelligence to ensure that they are not negatively affected by them.

His Highness, the Ruler of Sharjah watched a visual presentation on the first version of the Moajam GPT project, which is the first reliable and credible digital platform based on artificial intelligence for the history and roots of the Arabic language vocabulary, highlighting the efforts made to develop the lexicon based on modern technologies that enhance the accuracy of research and ease of access to linguistic information.

Dr. Firas Habbal, President and Vice-Chancellor of the Emirates Scholar Center for Research and Studies and Dr. Fawaz Habbal, Director General of the Emirates Scholar Center for Research and Studies and a member of the Board of Trustees, with the participation of Dr. Mohamed Safi Mostaganmi, Secretary General of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah, reviewed a number of features and capabilities of the GPT, including a feature called “Talk to Me”, which allows non-Arabic-speaking users to listen to answers to their linguistic questions with the ability to choose the appropriate voice for each user, said Dr. Firas Habbal:”We noticed that non-Arabic speakers have difficulty with pronunciation and morphology, hence the idea of adding the ‘Talk to Me’ feature, to make the Moajam available to all segments of society, not just experts.”

Dr. Firas Habbal said: “The Moajam is available to all segments of society, not just experts.

For his part, Dr. Fawaz Habbal reviewed the “Visual Expression” feature in GPT Moajam, saying: “We noticed the trend of the majority of AI users towards visual scenes and their use on social media pages. We noticed that the majority of AI users tend to visualize scenes and use them in social media, so we developed the visual expression feature, which allows users to choose templates from various social media sites, where the Moajam creates a complete visual and audio video ready to be published.”

Dr. Ammad Safi Al Mostaganmi, Secretary General of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah, explained the importance of the historical dictionary of the Arabic language and the need to integrate it with modern technologies to reach all groups of native and non-native speakers of the Arabic language and to keep pace with modern uses in the search for the origins and meanings of vocabulary.

The launch of the GBT project comes as part of Sharjah’s efforts to strengthen the status of the Arabic language, protect it from the challenges it faces in the modern era, and employ modern innovations to serve the language and spread it around the world.

Linking the dictionary to AI allows researchers and interested parties to access more than 20 million Arabic words in the dictionary, as well as the ability to write and read texts and convert them into videos, with the dictionary being continuously fed with information through cooperation between the Arabic Language Academy of Sharjah and the Emirates Scholar Center for Research and Studies.

The Sharjah Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language represents a scientific achievement that contributes to documenting the development of the Arabic language through the ages, and through the use of artificial intelligence techniques, the dictionary allows tracing the roots of words and the evolution of their use, which would provide researchers and linguists with an advanced research tool, and improve the use of Arabic vocabulary and expand its spread in modern technologies, this project is also an important educational resource that can contribute and facilitate the development of curricula in educational institutions.