Abu Dhabi has made food import checks the first live use of Machine-Readable Government, its initiative with OpenAI to make a defined set of laws and policies machine-readable, Gulf News reported on November 9, 2026. At the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), each case is checked against the relevant rules and traced to the rule behind it.
Machine-Readable Government (MRG) initially changes how existing rules are applied, not the legislation itself, according to Gulf News, and officials keep responsibility for final decisions. The National reported on November 2 that the ADAFSA pilot was already in production, alongside agreements between Abu Dhabi and OpenAI. The pilot focuses on food imports, and the UAE as a whole imports about 90% of its food, according to Khaleej Times and Gulf News.
Gulf News reported that the UAE government seeks to reduce that dependence by building domestic processing capacity, a push toward UAE food self-reliance.
The pilot was developed with Inception42, a G42 company, and tested a Policy Adoption Engine, which converts written government policies into automated compliance checks, Gulf News reported. MRG will initially support routine regulatory assessments, including applications for permits and certificates, and each assessment is linked to the clause behind the outcome, creating an audit trail.
The announcements leave several questions open for importers. Neither Gulf News nor The National says which food import rules the system checks, how many ADAFSA applications it has handled, how fast it processes them, or whether halal certificate checks are included.
The reports also do not say how importers are told a decision was AI-assisted, how the machine-readable rules are updated when regulations change, or what the MRG work is worth; no contract value has been reported. The initiative is led and governed by Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement (DGE), according to The National.
Officials Keep Final Decisions as AI Handles Routine Cases
Officials will set standards, review complex applications, and keep responsibility for final decisions under MRG, according to Gulf News. The framework is not meant for autonomous decisions in high-stakes areas, or in cases that materially affect individuals’ rights, eligibility, or access to essential services, the outlet reported.
Gulf News also reported that routine cases can be processed autonomously around the clock, which it said could cut decisions that took days of manual review to minutes. Gulf News framed it as an aim and gave no case volumes or processing times for ADAFSA. The National described the role differently, saying AI systems will assist officials with routine regulatory compliance assessments. Neither outlet sets out an appeal route for applicants.
Officials can also see overlaps or conflicts between departments’ rules and test proposed policy changes against related regulations, Gulf News reported. Ahmed Tamim Hisham Al Kuttab, chairman of the DGE, called the framework the “connective tissue” between Abu Dhabi’s AI ambitions and their implementation. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said that “by making certain laws machine-readable, while keeping people in control of decision-making, Abu Dhabi has set a new standard for AI-enabled public services.”
Machine-Readable Government Runs AI Processing Inside the UAE
AI processing for Machine-Readable Government takes place within UAE national infrastructure, according to Gulf News. Under OpenAI’s UAE inference residency, real-time computation runs on GPUs in UAE data centers, and the system uses a “fail-closed” security architecture governed by UAE cybersecurity standards and subject to Abu Dhabi law.
The government will retain full ownership of data generated through the system, and that data will not be used to train AI models, Gulf News reported, with agreed safeguards governing how information is stored, used, and deleted. Gulf News describes the UAE as the first country in the Middle East to use OpenAI’s GPT models through in-country inference. The National likewise reported that MRG runs on GPT models using UAE-based inference infrastructure.
ADAFSA Moved Food Import Services Online Years Before MRG
ADAFSA built two digital import tools in 2022, and the MRG announcements do not describe either one as part of the new initiative. In October 2022, ADAFSA launched the Food Import and Export Management Information System (FIEMIS) at GITEX Technology Week, according to the Abu Dhabi Media Office. FIEMIS was launched to run through the Advanced Trade and Logistics Platform (ATLP), operated by Abu Dhabi Ports’ Maqta Gateway.
The Abu Dhabi Media Office presented FIEMIS as a single window for importers and exporters. It lets users release food shipments before they arrive at port and track import and export orders, with customs clearance for food imports, pre-shipment inspection, and shipment tracking. The system put seven ADAFSA services online, including registration of food import companies and imported food products, import requests, export certificate requests, and customs declarations.
Earlier that year, Khaleej Times reported on March 1, 2022, that ADAFSA had developed a smart system that uses AI and machine learning to predict the quantity and cost of imported agricultural, animal, and poultry food products. It was built on import and re-export data from 2015 to 2020, covering products such as beef, eggs, frozen chicken, and tomatoes, to find import diversification opportunities and reduce waste.
Construction Permits and Business Licensing Follow Food Imports
Construction permits, business and freelance licensing, data access governance, human resources compliance, and procurement are the next MRG applications, according to Gulf News. MRG will also integrate with TAMM, Abu Dhabi’s unified government services application, which brings together more than 1,200 public and private services. AI use cases are already active across 40 government entities, the outlet reported.
The National’s November 2 coverage followed a meeting between Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, and Sam Altman, after which a series of agreements was signed; a video caption described them as four strategic agreements. Those named include one under which Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and Inception42 work with OpenAI on AI-powered investment analysis, opportunity identification, and risk assessment, and a five-year agreement for Inception42 to adopt OpenAI’s Frontier platform across government, enterprise, and education.
MRG is a cornerstone of Abu Dhabi’s Dh13 billion ($3.5 billion) Government Digital Strategy for 2025-2027, according to Gulf News. The National reported that the strategy, led by the DGE, aims to automate 100% of government processes and is expected to contribute more than Dh24 billion to Abu Dhabi’s economy by 2027. That is also the year by which Abu Dhabi says it aims to become the world’s first AI-native government, Gulf News reported.
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