The Landscape of Arabic Large Language Models

"The emergence of ChatGPT marked a transformative milestone for artificial intelligence (AI), showcasing the remarkable potential of large language models (LLMs) to generate human-like text. This wave of innovation has revolutionized how we interact with technology, seamlessly integrating LLMs into everyday tasks such as vacation planning, email drafting, and content creation. While English-speaking users have significantly benefited from these advancements, the Arabic world faces distinct challenges in developing Arabic-specific LLMs."

"Arabic, one of the languages spoken most widely around the world, serves more than 422 million native speakers in 27 countries and is deeply rooted in a rich linguistic and cultural heritage.12 Developing Arabic LLMs (ALLMs) presents an unparalleled opportunity to bridge technological gaps and empower communities. The journey of ALLMs has been both fascinating and complex, evolving from rudimentary text-processing systems to sophisticated AI-driven models."

ChatGPT demonstrated the potential of large language models to generate human-like text and integrate into tasks like vacation planning, email drafting, and content creation. English-speaking users have benefited significantly, while the Arabic world faces distinct challenges in developing Arabic-specific LLMs. Arabic serves more than 422 million native speakers across 27 countries and has a rich linguistic and cultural heritage. Developing Arabic LLMs offers an opportunity to bridge technological gaps and empower communities. Arabic NLP began in 1985 with efforts addressing rich morphology and complex syntax. Early tools included morphological analyzers for word segmentation and root extraction, and statistical models like n-grams and stemming rose in the early 2000s.

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