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Will ChatGPT Plus Be Free for Everyone in the UAE? đŸ€Ż

How to use Google AI Studio's branching feature to explore different ideas

Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,

The major AI partnership between the UAE and OpenAI is sparking excitement across social media, with reports claiming they plan to provide free ChatGPT Plus to all 11 million citizens
 but is that really true?

Let’s take a look!

Read Time: 4.5 min

Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI

  • UAE to Give All 11M Citizens Free ChatGPT Plus? đŸ€Ż

  • Ex-Meta Exec Says Asking Artists for Permission Would 'Kill' the AI Industry

  • AI Tutorial: How to use Google AI Studio's branching feature to explore different ideas

  • AI Tools to check out

  • AI Findings/Resources

  • Video of the Day

  • The Latest in AI and Tech 💡

AI News

OPENAI

UAE to Give All 11M Citizens Free ChatGPT Plus? đŸ€Ż

The recent buzz about free ChatGPT Plus access for all UAE residents seems to be largely based on misinterpretations of OpenAI's announcements.

Details:

  • OpenAI has confirmed that the UAE will become the first country to “enable nationwide access to ChatGPT,” integrating it into sectors like education, healthcare, energy, and government services. However, there is no mention of plans to provide free personal subscriptions for all residents, and neither OpenAI nor UAE authorities have confirmed that claim.

  • The UAE's partnership with OpenAI includes the development of the Stargate UAE project, a large-scale AI data center in Abu Dhabi, which aims to position the country as a global leader in AI.

  • This initiative is part of OpenAI's broader "OpenAI for Countries" program, designed to help nations build AI systems tailored to their local languages, governance structures, and societal needs.

While the idea of a country offering free ChatGPT Plus is very enticing, there’s no confirmation of it happening just yet and it remains a paid service in the UAE. Regardless, this collaboration is truly promising, and OpenAI hopes it will be “the first of many OpenAI for Countries collaborations,” as they are already in talks with other countries for similar partnerships.

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AI & LAW

Ex-Meta Exec Says Asking Artists for Permission Would 'Kill' the AI Industry

Former Meta executive Nick Clegg says the UK's AI industry will be killed if tech companies must ask artists for permission to use their work when training models.

Details:

  • Speaking at the Charleston Festival while promoting his book How to Save the Internet, Clegg acknowledged that allowing artists to opt out of data use is reasonable. However, he argued that mandating prior permission is impractical due to the vast amounts of data involved in AI training.

  • He suggested that if Britain enforces such a law while other countries do not, it would “basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight.”

  • Clegg's comments come amid debates over the UK's Data (Use and Access) Bill, which currently permits the use of copyrighted materials unless rights holders opt out.

Prominent artists, including Elton John, have criticized the bill, with John describing it as large-scale theft, while figures like Clegg warn that overly stringent regulations could stifle innovation and harm the UK's position in the global AI landscape.

AI Tutorial

How to use Google AI Studio's branching feature to explore different ideas

  1. Go to Google AI Studio and choose the Gemini model you want from the dropdown menu.

  2. Begin a conversation and keep going until you decide to try a different direction.

  3. Click the three-dot menu (⋼) next to any message and choose "Branch from here." By doing this, you can create multiple conversation paths from a single starting point without losing context.

  4. Use the "See original conversation" link at the top of each branch to switch between them.

You can branch off from an ongoing conversation to experiment with different prompts or explore tangents without starting over, and once you’ve pursued these alternate ideas, you can easily return to the original thread and continue where you left off.

AI Tools to check out

🎹 AI Color Match: Instantly match colors form any image.

📚 StudyPal: The #1 tool to learn anything 10x faster.

⭐ Flow: AI filmmaking tool custom-designed for Google’s most advanced models — Veo, Imagen and Gemini.

💬 ChatNode: Turn your website and data into AI that answers customers 24/7 with the highest accuracy.

đŸ’Œ Quick Mock: Turn any job on LinkedIn into a mock interview instantly.

AI Findings/Resources

👉 6 must-use MCP servers for all developers (open-source)

đŸ€– Tesla Optimus is learning new tricks

⭐ What is Mistral AI? Everything to know about the OpenAI competitor

🔼 Google CEO: “Quantum feels like where AI was in 2015...”

đŸ‘šâ€đŸ’» Experiments with "Vibe Coding"

Video of the Day

Google's Co-founder says AI performs best when you threaten it

The latest in AI and Tech

Eric Schmidt explained that software development is "scale-free"—requiring only code and feedback, not real-world input. Schmidt noted that AI can run the try-test-repeat loop millions of times in minutes, accelerating the development process far beyond human capabilities.

Within days of launch, gamers manipulated Epic's AI Darth Vader to curse on stream, forcing a rapid hotfix while SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair labor practice charge over the James Earl Jones voice clone, despite his estate's permission.

This open-source framework is designed to simplify and standardize the evaluation of large language and multimodal models, providing researchers and developers with a unified process that makes it easier to compare AI models from different companies.

The study from the National Bureau of Economic Research analyzed data from approximately 25,000 Danish employees across 7,000 workplaces between 2023 and 2024, focusing on 11 occupations potentially affected by generative AI, including accounting, customer service, financial consulting, IT support, journalism, law, marketing, software development, and teaching.

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