Business

What Eric Xing’s Abu Dhabi project says about the next phase of AI power

Published

5 months ago

July 22, 2025

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

AI IN THE NEWS

White House to unveil plan to push global export of U.S. AI and crack down on restrictions. According to a draft seen by Reuters, the White House is set to release a sweeping new AI strategy Wednesday aimed at boosting the global export of U.S. AI technologies while cracking down on state-level regulations seen as overly restrictive. The plan will bar federal AI funding from states with tough AI laws, promote open-source and open-weight AI development, and direct the Commerce Department to lead overseas data center and deployment efforts. It also tasks the FCC with reviewing potential conflicts between federal goals and local rules. Framed as a push to make “America the world capital in artificial intelligence,” the plan reflects President Trump’s January directive and will be unveiled during a “Winning the AI Race” event co-hosted by the All-In podcast and featuring White House AI czar David Sacks.

OpenAI and Google DeepMind sparked math drama. Over the past few days, both OpenAI and Google DeepMind claimed their AI models had achieved gold-medal-level performance on the 2025 International Mathematical Olympiad—successfully solving 5 out of 6 notoriously difficult problems. It was a milestone that many considered years away: a general reasoning LLM reaching that level of performance under the same time limits as humans, without tools. But the way they announced it sparked controversy. OpenAI released its results first, based on its own evaluation using IMO-style questions and human graders—before any official verification. That prompted criticism from prominent mathematicians, including Terence Tao, who questioned whether the problems had been altered or simplified. In contrast, Google entered the competition officially, waited for the IMO’s independent review, and only then declared its Gemini DeepThinker model had earned a gold medal—making it the first AI system to be formally recognized by the IMO as performing at that level. The drama laid bare the high stakes—and differing standards—for credibility in the AI race.

SoftBank and OpenAI are reportedly struggling to get $500 Billion Stargate AI Project off the ground. According to the Wall Street Journal, the $500 billion Stargate project—announced with fanfare at the White House six months ago by Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman, and President Trump—has hit major turbulence. Billed as a moonshot to supercharge U.S. AI infrastructure, the initiative has yet to break ground on a single data center, and internal disagreements between SoftBank and OpenAI over key terms like site location have delayed progress. Despite promises to invest $100 billion “immediately,” Stargate is now aiming for a scaled-down launch: a single, small facility, likely in Ohio, by year’s end. It’s a setback for Son, who recently committed a record-breaking $30 billion to OpenAI but is still scrambling to secure a meaningful foothold in the AI arms race. However, Bloomberg reported today that Oracle will provide OpenAI with 2 million new AI chips that will be part of a massive data center expansion that OpenAI labeled as part of its Stargate project. SoftBank, though, isn’t financing any of the new capacity—and it’s unclear what operator will be developing data centers to support the new capacity, and when they will be built.

EYE ON AI RESEARCH

Sounding the alarm on growing opacity of advanced AI reasoning models. Fortune reporter Beatrice Nolan reported this week on a group of 40 AI researchers, including contributors from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, and Anthropic, that are sounding the alarm on the growing opacity of advanced AI reasoning models. In a new paper, the authors urge developers to prioritize research into “chain-of-thought” (CoT) processes, which provide a rare window into how AI systems make decisions. They are warning that as models become more advanced, this visibility could vanish.

The “chain-of-thought” process, which is visible in reasoning models such as OpenAI’s o1 and DeepSeek’s R1, allows users and researchers to monitor an AI model’s “thinking” or “reasoning” process, illustrating how it decides on an action or answer and providing a certain transparency into the inner workings of advanced models.

The researchers said that allowing these AI systems to “‘think’ in human language offers a unique opportunity for AI safety,” as they can be monitored for the “intent to misbehave.” However, they warn that there is “no guarantee that the current degree of visibility will persist” as models continue to advance.

The paper highlights that experts don’t fully understand why these models use CoT or how long they’ll keep doing so. The authors urged AI developers to keep a closer watch on chain-of-thought reasoning, suggesting its traceability could eventually serve as a built-in safety mechanism.

FORTUNE ON AI

Mark Cuban says the AI war ‘will get ugly’ and intellectual property ‘is KING’ in the AI world —by Sydney Lake

$61.5 billion tech giant Anthropic has made a major hiring U-turn—now, it’s letting job applicants use AI months after banning it from the interview process —by Emma Burleigh

Experienced software developers assumed AI would save them a chunk of time. But in one experiment, their tasks took 20% longer —by Sasha Rogelberg

AI CALENDAR

July 26-28: World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), Shanghai.

Sept. 8-10: Fortune Brainstorm Tech, Park City, Utah. Apply to attend here.

Oct. 6-10: World AI Week, Amsterdam

Oct. 21-22: TedAI San Francisco.

Dec. 2-7: NeurIPS, San Diego

Dec. 8-9: Fortune Brainstorm AI San Francisco. Apply to attend here.

Source link

Business

JetBlue flight near Venezuela avoids midair collision with U.S. Air Force tanker

Published

30 minutes ago

December 14, 2025

Jace Porter

A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curaçao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a U.S. Air Force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.

“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path. … They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.”

The incident involved JetBlue Flight 1112 from Curaçao, which is just off the coast of Venezuela, en route to New York City’s JFK airport. It comes as the U.S. military has stepped up its drug interdiction activities in the Caribbean and is also seeking to increase pressure on Venezuela’s government.

“We just had traffic pass directly in front of us within 5 miles of us — maybe 2 or 3 miles — but it was an air-to air-refueler from the United States Air Force and he was at our altitude,” the pilot said. “We had to stop our climb.” The pilot said the Air Force plane then headed into Venezuelan air space.

Derek Dombrowski, a spokesman for JetBlue, said Sunday: “We have reported this incident to federal authorities and will participate in any investigation.” He added, “Our crewmembers are trained on proper procedures for various flight situations, and we appreciate our crew for promptly reporting this situation to our leadership team.”

The Pentagon referred The Associated Press to the Air Force for comment. The Air Force didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Federal Aviation Administration last month issued a warning to U.S. aircraft urging them to “exercise caution” when in Venezuelan airspace, “due to the worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela.”

According to the air traffic recording, the controller responded to the pilot, “It has been outrageous with the unidentified aircraft within our air.”

Join us at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit May 19–20, 2026, in Atlanta. The next era of workplace innovation is here—and the old playbook is being rewritten. At this exclusive, high-energy event, the world’s most innovative leaders will convene to explore how AI, humanity, and strategy converge to redefine, again, the future of work. Register now.

Source link

Business

Trump admits he can’t tell if the GOP will keep the House despite massive investment pledges

Published

1 hour ago

December 14, 2025

Jace Porter

President Donald Trump admitted that he’s not sure if his economic policies will pay off for Republicans at the ballot box in 2026.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal that was published late Saturday, he pointed to massive investment pledges that he’s secured since returning to the White House.

But when asked if Republicans will lose control of the House in next year’s midterm elections, Trump replied, “I can’t tell you. I don’t know when all of this money is going to kick in,” adding that forecasts say the second quarter.

Trump has previously touted as much as $21 trillion of investments pouring into the U.S., though recent commitments don’t come close to adding up to such levels.

Still, under trade deals Trump has negotiated, the European Union has vowed $600 billion in investment, Japan $550 billion, and South Korea $350 billion. Separately, Saudi Arabia has promised $1 trillion. Companies have also announced plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars, though some of that includes money planned during the Biden administration.

While the timing of all the money is uncertain, not to mention how much will actually be spent, companies have expressed the need to diversify supply chains with more domestic production. Apple has said its $600 billion pledge to build U.S. factories will create a “domino effect” that ignites manufacturing across the country.

At the same time, Wall Street expects Trump’s tax cuts from his One Big Beautiful Bill Act to deliver a significant jolt of fiscal stimulus to the economy next year, potentially reaccelerating GDP growth.

That would come as voters made clear in last month’s off-year elections that affordability is their top priority. Inflation has cooled from its 2022 high, but prices are up sharply from pre-pandemic levels, and consumers are revolting over higher insurance, electricity and grocery bills. Even most Trump voters say the cost of living is bad.

Trump has dismissed the affordability issue as a Democratic “hoax” and insists prices are down. He told the Journal that he will lower prices.

“I think by the time we have to talk about the election, which is in another few months, I think our prices are in good shape,” Trump said.

“I’ve created the greatest economy in history. But it may take people a while to figure all these things out,” he added. “All this money that’s pouring into our country is building things right now—car plants, AI, lots of stuff. I cannot tell you how that’s going to equate to the voter, all I can do is do my job.”

Trump has floated some ideas to appease voters on affordability, including a 50-year mortgage to lower monthly payments and $2,000 “dividend” checks. He also continues to pressure the Federal Reserve to lower rates, even though it could worsen inflation, and rolled back tariffs on some food imports.

In his interview with the Journal, Trump didn’t say if he would cut tariffs on other goods. He also warned that if the Supreme Court strikes down his global tariffs, his alternatives are not as “nimble, not as quick.”

“I can do other things, but it’s not as fast. It’s not as good for national security,” Trump added.

Source link

Business

Nicotine pouches can be a better alternative to cigarettes says CEO

Published

3 hours ago

December 14, 2025

Jace Porter

Smoking is one of the clearest public-health failures of our time. More than 500,000 Americans still die each year from smoking-related illnesses, and globally the picture is even more alarming. In the United States, anti-smoking campaigns have reduced the number of new cigarette users, but the effectiveness of these measures may be fading. Indeed, the headline of a widely-shared news story notes “Celebrities Are Making Smoking Cigarettes Cool Again”. Yikes. Meanwhile, a quick trip to Mexico, Europe, or Asia is enough to see that cigarettes remain very much in style.

Reducing cigarette use, and preventing a new generation from getting hooked on nicotine, is a noble goal. That is one reason James Monsees and Adam Bowen founded the vape company JUUL Labs, as a potentially less harmful alternative for adult smokers. But a mix of regulatory missteps by a hostile FDA and market loopholes opened the door to a wave of counterfeit and bootleg vapes, often imported from China, sold in local stores, highly addictive, and completely unregulated. Many people became sick from using vapes with unknown ingredients. Teenagers were easily able to access bootleg vapes from China in youth-friendly flavors. What began as an idealistic goal—moving adult smokers off of cigarettes—turned into a new epidemic.

Now we have two problems: cigarettes and vapes.

I believe science and technology can solve both. I was a tobacco user who became addicted to vaping. I tried everything to quit and cut down my nicotine use. Eventually, I discovered Swedish-style white pouches. That experience led me to create Sesh+, a premium, tobacco-free nicotine pouch made with transparent ingredients. It has been life-changing for me personally: I haven’t picked up a vape since switching to pouches. In Sweden, where oral nicotine products have been widely used for decades, smoking rates are among the lowest in Europe and smoking-related disease is correspondingly lower.

There is growing evidence that nicotine itself, while addictive, is not what primarily causes smoking-related disease; it’s the toxic byproducts of combustion that kill. With vaping, the concern is different: it’s the lack of transparency and quality standards that should alarm us. As a health-conscious consumer, I want to know exactly what I’m putting into my body. That’s why our pouches are independently lab-tested for contaminants like heavy metals and are manufactured in the United States under strict quality controls.

Fake nicotine pouches are already in the U.S. market. Sofia Hamilton writes for Reason that her favorite convenience store unknowingly sells counterfeit nicotine pouches, and how only someone deeply familiar with FDA nicotine rules could tell the difference. No one should have to be a nicotine policy expert just to know whether a product is safe.

Important questions remain. We do not want to create a product that attracts people who don’t already use nicotine. The average Sesh+ customer is over 35, and I’m very proud of that. Early data is encouraging: a recent Rutgers study found that new nicotine users taking up pouches remains very low. Government has a responsibility to keep black-market and counterfeit pouches out of consumers’ hands. Industry must ensure retailers are educated and know what they’re selling. And we need strong youth prevention laws.

Nicotine pouches will only be effective if industry and government work together to ensure we are not attracting youth or non-nicotine users.

In the U.K., the proposed Tobacco and Vapes Bill would ban people born in or after 2009 from ever purchasing nicotine products. In the United States, we have already raised the legal age to buy tobacco to 21. These are the kinds of measures our industry should support. If the legislation in the U.K. passes, I hope other countries will adopt similar policies to prevent youth from accessing nicotine products. I also hope to see product-verification technology adopted as an industry standard so counterfeit nicotine products never reach consumers. Age verification is not enough; we must ensure a market for counterfeit and bootleg nicotine pouches does not emerge.

If companies in the nicotine pouch space work together, we can learn from JUUL’s experience and avoid repeating the same mistakes. Our responsibility is clear: help adult smokers move to potentially less harmful alternatives, without creating a new generation of nicotine users. If we get this right, a world free from tobacco is not just aspirational. It’s achievable.

Max Cunningham is the CEO of Sesh+, a nicotine pouch company based in Austin, Texas and backed by 8VC. The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Source link