The UAE strengthened its position in Arabic artificial intelligence with the launch of Jais 3, a new family of open AI models built for Arabic speech, writing and agentic work. MBZUAI’s Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) and Inception42 developed the system in collaboration with Cerebras Systems.
Jais 3 is the latest addition to the Jais family, which Abu Dhabi first introduced as an Arabic large language model. The new release expands that capability beyond text and brings AI closer to real-world Arabic use.
The models understand Modern Standard Arabic and regional dialects, from Emirati and Gulf Arabic to North African variants. They are trained to reflect the cultural context of more than 400 million Arabic speakers.
The launch also includes Jais Speech, a speech-recognition model that transcribes Arabic dialects across 19 Arab countries. It can follow speakers who switch between Arabic and English or French, while retaining non-Arabic words in their original script. “Arabic AI needs to understand the language in its everyday context,” said Haonan Li, senior research scientist at IFM. He said Jais 3 was designed for Arabic as it is actually used.
Jais 3 comprises six open language models, ranging from 900 million to 375 billion parameters. The smallest model can run on a phone, while the flagship model targets large-scale enterprise and government deployments
All models share a 512,000-token context window, which the developers describe as the longest among Arabic-native models. They can draft documents, create presentations, follow detailed instructions and use software tools to complete multi-step tasks.
The models build on K2 Horizon, IFM’s open-source foundation-model fleet released in September 2026. Each Jais 3 model ships with five training checkpoints, allowing researchers and developers to examine and build on its development.
The launch supports the UAE’s National AI Strategy 2031 and its broader effort to develop domestic AI capability. Governments and enterprises can adapt the models and choose where to deploy them, in line with sovereign AI requirements.
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