Google has announced $100,000 in seed research grants to AI researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, as confirmed in the university’s press release.

The research grants are being awarded to the faculties of Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) to advance research in multilingual, multimodal machine learning, especially in the use of generative and large language models (LLMs).

In a comment, Sarah Al Husseini, Google’s Head of Public Policy in Saudi Arabia, said, “Google is committed to empowering local researchers and institutions to introduce relevant solutions to users, businesses, and governments in an AI-first world. By investing in pioneering research with KAUST, we hope to continue fostering multilingual, multimodal machine learning breakthroughs that will benefit the region and beyond.”

Gianluca Setti, Dean of the CEMSE Division at KAUST, remarked, “It is great to see Google recognize the caliber of talent in KAUST’s CEMSE faculty. These grants will allow our faculty to strengthen efforts in multilingual, multimodal machine learning and the development of LLMs in areas with tremendous potential for societal impact.” 

The grants’ initiatives will be carried out within KAUST’s newly established Center of Excellence on Generative AI. In addition, Google will also match each faculty awardee with a Google researcher who can sponsor the research.