In an exclusive interview with du Chief ICT Officer (Acting) Jasim Al Awadi, he shed light on the industry-first ChatGPT showcase held during an exclusive padel tournament recently attended by dignitaries and government representatives.
Recently, du's ChatGPT showcase featured unique use cases. What are the key advantages of using AI?
AI is an intriguing field of study and development, in my opinion. In the coming years, AI will usher in an entirely new paradigm for businesses and how things will be conducted. We are only beginning to feel the power of this technology, and with all the advancements we're observing, I'm certain that AI will become even more powerful, and we'll be able to utilize it more and more. We can already see how powerful AI tool [ChatGPT] is based on what we know today.
One of the highlights is the commentator, Khalid, an avatar initiated by GPT. How did this work, and what were the challenges you encountered?
We have utilized artificial intelligence in one of the padel tournaments. Here is where we activated Khalid, the ChatGPT commentator, with impressive results. Since it was the first use case we implemented in a live environment, it was a bit challenging, but thanks to our partners, particularly Microsoft, and all the teams involved in making this project a reality, it was a success.
When we announced the padel tournament, AI and ChatGPT dominated the market conversation. And as members of this industry at the forefront of new technology, we wondered, "How can we incorporate AI into the narrative?" During a session of ideation, someone suggested using it as a commentator. We thought it would be difficult, but with everyone's help, we were able to accomplish it. We created Khalid, an AI-powered avatar with the name, appearance, and personality of an Emirati commentator.
The first obstacle we faced was that the AI ChatGPT is still relatively new and lacks a large number of culturally relevant elements. It took time, but the team was able to create the appropriate look and feel for the commentator. The other difficulty was incorporating the commentator into a live game. The team began providing Khalid with all the available raw data, and he began commenting on the game. Surprisingly, he also made accurate predictions about the game's outcome.
This is the beauty of artificial intelligence. The more data you feed it, the smarter and more powerful it becomes. And we felt this throughout the tournament. Despite the initial tournament's limited scope, this demonstrates the potential for massive implementation of our use cases.
How can du continue to leverage AI platform capabilities to better enhance interactive experiences and services for B2B customers?
As a result of the tournament, where we were able to put a theory into practise, a large number of people became interested, and we began conducting Proofs of Concept with clients. There are numerous applications for AI, including chatbots and call centers. AI can assist us by eliminating numerous unnecessary processes and enhancing the customer experience. And currently, there are several internal projects within our organization that we wish to empower in relation to our customers. This is how we foresee AI evolving and enhancing our business capabilities: by empowering a substantial portion of our daily activities.
As it is coming more to "life" each day, how is Generative AI (ChatGPT) set to boost du's efforts in line with the UAE's goal of becoming a leader in tech innovation?
Our presence in the UAE is an enabler. Being in this country and under the guidance of the government and the leadership, we are always at the forefront of new technology research. In other nations, we observe a great deal of opposition to Artificial Intelligence, but in the UAE, we have embraced it. Certainly, every new technology will have both advantages and disadvantages. It is up to us, as humans, to determine the direction and purpose of this technology. If you use it for the intended purpose, you will achieve the desired outcome, and vice versa.
I believe that from the beginning, we embraced technology and considered how to use it for the benefit of both our organization and our clients. And ultimately, it will be to the benefit of the nation, as we are all interconnected in an ecosystem. As AI empowers us more, I am certain that we will explore a new paradigm for digital transformation. Currently, I believe we are only exploring a small fraction of the internet's and AI's potential through the apps we use and how we interact with the web. Imagine: once we achieve full AI empowerment, everything will change drastically, and it will be extremely difficult to predict the future due to the rapid technological development.