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Scale AI alum raises M for AI serving critical industries in MENA | TechCrunch

Scale AI alum raises $9M for AI serving critical industries in MENA | TechCrunch

Bilal Abu-Ghazaleh had just moved to London few days before our call, splitting his time between there and Dubai.

After nearly a decade in the U.S., including a stint at Scale AI, he’s bringing that experience to his next venture: 1001 AI , a company creating AI infrastructure for critical industries across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The startup recently raised a $9 million seed round led by CIV, General Catalyst, and Lux Capital. Other backers include global and regional angels such as Chris Ré, Amjad Masad (Replit), Amira Sajwani (DAMAC), Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud (RAED Ventures), and Hisham Alfalih (Lean Technologies).

Abu-Ghazaleh said his two-month-old company promises to cut inefficiencies in high-stakes sectors like aviation, logistics, and oil and gas through an AI-native operating system for decision-making. 

“Just looking at the top three or four industries like airports, ports, construction, and oil and gas, we see more than $10 billion in inefficiencies across the Gulf alone,” the founder and CEO said in an interview with TechCrunch. “That’s just in markets like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Even without counting other sectors, these industries represent a massive opportunity.”

For example, any efficiencies found in airport operations can compound the savings, impacting both the airport and its airlines. Meanwhile, he said nine out of ten of the regions mega-projects fall behind schedule or go over budget, meaning even small increases in efficiencies can save these projects serious money.

1001 AI hopes to sell its decision-making AI to new projects after it launches its first product, which is scheduled by year’s end. The startup is in talks with some of the Gulf’s largest construction firms and airports, said Abu-Ghazaleh.

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Born and raised in Jordan, Abu-Ghazaleh moved to the U.S. for college and later joined the Bay Area’s startup scene. After an early product role at computer vision startup Hive AI, he joined Scale AI in 2020 during its rapid expansion. There, he rose through the ranks from operations associate to director of the company’s GenAI operations, scaling its contributor network responsible for annotating and labeling training data.

He was later set to join Scale’s international public sector unit, which builds AI solutions for foreign governments. But when Meta invested in Scale, the company shifted direction, and Abu-Ghazaleh left to found 1001 AI.

The Gulf, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, has become one of the world’s most aggressive adopters of AI. From sovereign-backed ventures like G42 in Abu Dhabi to Saudi Arabia’s National Center for AI, governments are investing billions to build local AI infrastructure and attract global talent.

For Abu-Ghazaleh, that mix of appetite, budget, and urgency makes the region a perfect testing ground. But unlike most AI startups focused on software or enterprise tools, 1001 targets real-world physical operations, an area where the company’s investors believe the potential is even greater in the Middle East.

“We’re extremely bullish on AI that solves physical-world problems at scale i.e, optimizing how airports turn around flights, how ports move cargo, how construction sites operate,” said Deena Shakir, partner at Lux Capital. “The MENA region offers significant potential in this space with mission-critical infrastructure that’s under-digitized and ripe for transformation.”

While the product is still under development, Abu-Ghazaleh offered a glimpse into how it works. The system pulls in data from a client’s existing software, models operational workflows, and issues real-time directives to improve efficiency.

“Today, an operations manager might manually call someone to reroute a fuel truck or send a cleaning crew to another gate,” said Abu-Ghazaleh. “With our system, that orchestration happens automatically. The AI orchestrator uses real-time data to reroute vehicles, reassign crews, and adjust operations without human intervention.”

Unlike most early-stage AI startups that target specific industries, Abu-Ghazaleh says 1001 can be accessible by many because operational flows across industries often look the same.

That model borrows from the rigor of consulting and contract work. The team spends weeks embedded with clients, running co-development sprints to tailor its systems to each operation’s realities, the CEO said. 

“Bilal is building the decision engine to automate that complexity with Scale-proven execution and the regional gravity to make 1001 the platform this market builds on,” commented Neeraj Arora, managing director at General Catalyst.

The new funding will accelerate early deployments across aviation, logistics, and infrastructure, while fueling recruitment in engineering, operations, and go-to-market role as it grows its team across Dubai and London.

1001 AI plans to launch its first customer deployment by the end of the year, starting with construction. Over the next five years, Abu-Ghazaleh wants the company to become the Gulf’s go-to orchestration layer for these industries before expanding globally.

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#Scale #alum #raises #serving #critical #industries #MENA #TechCrunch

These days, new versions of AI chatbots don’t just launch; they’re unshackled and released to the public following government scrutiny. OpenAI’s new GPT-5.6 models were – like Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and Fable – apparently too powerful to just launch; but now, after some tinkering, they’re available to you, dear customer.

In practice, it simply means that the new GPT-5.6 models are very powerful and smarter than before. In its introductory post, OpenAI shared a bunch of graphs showing just how much better GPT-5.6 is than the competition, whilst using fewer tokens and generally costing less.

OK, great. But GPT-5.6 is not just one model; it comes in three distinct flavors: Sol, Terra, and Luna. So what do different kinds of users get, what should they pay for, and which models should they (mostly) use? Let’s dive in.

Free users get (almost) nothing

Sorry; if you’re not a paying customer, you’ll have to make do with OpenAI’s previous flagship model, GPT-5.5. Any sort of access to GPT-5.6 models requires a subscription of some sort. Fortunately, GPT-5.5 is still quite capable at most tasks, but if you want the best of the best, you’ll have to cough up the dough.

There’s an exception to this: Free and Go users can access GPT-5.6 through ChatGPT Work. More on that below.

If you’re a Plus or Business user, you can only get Sol (the most powerful model) at medium and higher effort settings. There’s another, higher level of performance called Sol Pro, but that’s only available for Pro and Enterprise users.

In terms of availability per one million tokens, the prices are: $5 input and $30 output for Sol. $2.5 input and $15 output for Terra, and $1 input and $6 output for Luna.

Sol, Terra, or Luna?

Why are there three models in the first place? Well, OpenAI always had a multi-tier model; for example, previously users were able to choose a “mini” version of the main model to get results done cheaper. Now, the model has been split into three tiers.

If you’re a paying customer, you’re free to use all three. But you know how it is in the world of LLMs: If you pick the smartest one, your usage limits will get hit faster (yes, there are always usage limits, even if you throw a ton of money at OpenAI).

In the simplest sense, GPT-5.6 Sol is the smartest model, Terra is in between (with roughly GPT-5.5 level of performance), and Luna is the cheapest, fastest, but also least capable of the bunch.

The breakdown is as follows: Terra is a “balanced” model for everyday work. That’s the one you should be asking most of your questions. Don’t underestimate it, though, as OpenAI claims it performs better than Anthropic’s Fable 5 in some cases.

Luna is cost-efficient, and should be used for easy, non crucial everyday tasks; think recipes and movie recommendations. Again, OpenAI says it outperforms Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 in some cases, so it’s not a slouch, either.

Sol should be reserved for coding, deep research, planning, and cybersecurity: The most demanding tasks. Of course it comes at a (literal) cost: While OpenAI claims it spends less tokens than Anthropic’s Fable 5, Sol will still hit usage limits a lot faster than the other variants.

Fun fact: If you ask GPT-5.5 about any of this, right now, it’ll give you completely wrong answers. Hopefully OpenAI will fix this soon.

Wait, what’s this ChatGPT Work thing, then?

Oh yeah, OpenAI also launched ChatGPT Work, which is a new agent in ChatGPT that can access and take actions on your apps and files, and work in the background until a task is finished. It’s powered by Codex (OpenAI’s software engineering agent) and GPT-5.6. Think about it as your buddy that will go through your emails and files, browse the web, fetch the relevant data, and create that presentation your boss wants before the day is done.

ChatGPT Work is rolling out to Pro, Enterprise and Edu users first on web and mobile; this will be expanded to Plus and Business users “over the next few days.”

On the desktop, Work is available for everyone, including Free users.

Oh, and one more thing: The fact that ChatGPT Work has a built-in browser also means that OpenAI is sunsetting its standalone web browser, Atlas. Sorry.

How about GPT Live?

GPT Live is a new version of ChatGPT Voice and it will show up when you start talking to ChatGPT.

We’ve covered this in more depth here, but the bottom line is that GPT Live can listen and speak at the same time, allowing it to keep up a more realistic conversation.

Wrapping it all up

The new GPT-5.6 model is smart. It comes in three flavors: Luna, Terra, and Sol, with Sol being the most capable variant, Luna the most affordable one, and Terra somewhere in the middle. You can currently only get them on paid tiers, unless you’re using ChatGPT Work on desktop. And ChatGPT Voice has also gotten smarter with GPT-Live underneath, a model that can listen and speak at the same time.

#GPT5.6 #Sol #Terra #Luna">GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna are here. See which one’s best for you.
                                                            These days, new versions of AI chatbots don’t just launch; they’re unshackled and released to the public following government scrutiny. OpenAI’s new GPT-5.6 models were – like Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and Fable – apparently too powerful to just launch; but now, after some tinkering, they’re available to you, dear customer.In practice, it simply means that the new GPT-5.6 models are very powerful and smarter than before. In its introductory post, OpenAI shared a bunch of graphs showing just how much better GPT-5.6 is than the competition, whilst using fewer tokens and generally costing less. 


OK, great. But GPT-5.6 is not just one model; it comes in three distinct flavors: Sol, Terra, and Luna. So what do different kinds of users get, what should they pay for, and which models should they (mostly) use? Let’s dive in. 
Free users get (almost) nothingSorry; if you’re not a paying customer, you’ll have to make do with OpenAI’s previous flagship model, GPT-5.5. Any sort of access to GPT-5.6 models requires a subscription of some sort. Fortunately, GPT-5.5 is still quite capable at most tasks, but if you want the best of the best, you’ll have to cough up the dough. There’s an exception to this: Free and Go users can access GPT-5.6 through ChatGPT Work. More on that below. If you’re a Plus or Business user, you can only get Sol (the most powerful model) at medium and higher effort settings. There’s another, higher level of performance called Sol Pro, but that’s only available for Pro and Enterprise users. In terms of availability per one million tokens, the prices are:  input and  output for Sol. .5 input and  output for Terra, and  input and  output for Luna. 
        SEE ALSO:
        
            Visa is connecting with ChatGPT to let AI agents automatically make purchases
            
        
    
Sol, Terra, or Luna?Why are there three models in the first place? Well, OpenAI always had a multi-tier model; for example, previously users were able to choose a “mini” version of the main model to get results done cheaper. Now, the model has been split into three tiers. If you’re a paying customer, you’re free to use all three. But you know how it is in the world of LLMs: If you pick the smartest one, your usage limits will get hit faster (yes, there are always usage limits, even if you throw a ton of money at OpenAI). 
        
            Mashable Light Speed
        
        
    
In the simplest sense, GPT-5.6 Sol is the smartest model, Terra is in between (with roughly GPT-5.5 level of performance), and Luna is the cheapest, fastest, but also least capable of the bunch. The breakdown is as follows: Terra is a “balanced” model for everyday work. That’s the one you should be asking most of your questions. Don’t underestimate it, though, as OpenAI claims it performs better than Anthropic’s Fable 5 in some cases. Luna is cost-efficient, and should be used for easy, non crucial everyday tasks; think recipes and movie recommendations. Again, OpenAI says it outperforms Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 in some cases, so it’s not a slouch, either.Sol should be reserved for coding, deep research, planning, and cybersecurity: The most demanding tasks. Of course it comes at a (literal) cost: While OpenAI claims it spends less tokens than Anthropic’s Fable 5, Sol will still hit usage limits a lot faster than the other variants. Fun fact: If you ask GPT-5.5 about any of this, right now, it’ll give you completely wrong answers. Hopefully OpenAI will fix this soon.Wait, what’s this ChatGPT Work thing, then?Oh yeah, OpenAI also launched ChatGPT Work, which is a new agent in ChatGPT that can access and take actions on your apps and files, and work in the background until a task is finished. It’s powered by Codex (OpenAI’s software engineering agent) and GPT-5.6. Think about it as your buddy that will go through your emails and files, browse the web, fetch the relevant data, and create that presentation your boss wants before the day is done. 



ChatGPT Work is rolling out to Pro, Enterprise and Edu users first on web and mobile; this will be expanded to Plus and Business users “over the next few days.”On the desktop, Work is available for everyone, including Free users. Oh, and one more thing: The fact that ChatGPT Work has a built-in browser also means that OpenAI is sunsetting its standalone web browser, Atlas. Sorry. How about GPT Live?GPT Live is a new version of ChatGPT Voice and it will show up when you start talking to ChatGPT. 


We’ve covered this in more depth here, but the bottom line is that GPT Live can listen and speak at the same time, allowing it to keep up a more realistic conversation.Wrapping it all upThe new GPT-5.6 model is smart. It comes in three flavors: Luna, Terra, and Sol, with Sol being the most capable variant, Luna the most affordable one, and Terra somewhere in the middle. You can currently only get them on paid tiers, unless you’re using ChatGPT Work on desktop. And ChatGPT Voice has also gotten smarter with GPT-Live underneath, a model that can listen and speak at the same time.

                    
                                            
                            
    
        Topics
                    Artificial Intelligence
                    OpenAI
            

                        
                                    #GPT5.6 #Sol #Terra #Luna

Fable – apparently too powerful to just launch; but now, after some tinkering, they’re available to you, dear customer.

In practice, it simply means that the new GPT-5.6 models are very powerful and smarter than before. In its introductory post, OpenAI shared a bunch of graphs showing just how much better GPT-5.6 is than the competition, whilst using fewer tokens and generally costing less.

OK, great. But GPT-5.6 is not just one model; it comes in three distinct flavors: Sol, Terra, and Luna. So what do different kinds of users get, what should they pay for, and which models should they (mostly) use? Let’s dive in.

Free users get (almost) nothing

Sorry; if you’re not a paying customer, you’ll have to make do with OpenAI’s previous flagship model, GPT-5.5. Any sort of access to GPT-5.6 models requires a subscription of some sort. Fortunately, GPT-5.5 is still quite capable at most tasks, but if you want the best of the best, you’ll have to cough up the dough.

There’s an exception to this: Free and Go users can access GPT-5.6 through ChatGPT Work. More on that below.

If you’re a Plus or Business user, you can only get Sol (the most powerful model) at medium and higher effort settings. There’s another, higher level of performance called Sol Pro, but that’s only available for Pro and Enterprise users.

In terms of availability per one million tokens, the prices are: $5 input and $30 output for Sol. $2.5 input and $15 output for Terra, and $1 input and $6 output for Luna.

Sol, Terra, or Luna?

Why are there three models in the first place? Well, OpenAI always had a multi-tier model; for example, previously users were able to choose a “mini” version of the main model to get results done cheaper. Now, the model has been split into three tiers.

If you’re a paying customer, you’re free to use all three. But you know how it is in the world of LLMs: If you pick the smartest one, your usage limits will get hit faster (yes, there are always usage limits, even if you throw a ton of money at OpenAI).

In the simplest sense, GPT-5.6 Sol is the smartest model, Terra is in between (with roughly GPT-5.5 level of performance), and Luna is the cheapest, fastest, but also least capable of the bunch.

The breakdown is as follows: Terra is a “balanced” model for everyday work. That’s the one you should be asking most of your questions. Don’t underestimate it, though, as OpenAI claims it performs better than Anthropic’s Fable 5 in some cases.

Luna is cost-efficient, and should be used for easy, non crucial everyday tasks; think recipes and movie recommendations. Again, OpenAI says it outperforms Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 in some cases, so it’s not a slouch, either.

Sol should be reserved for coding, deep research, planning, and cybersecurity: The most demanding tasks. Of course it comes at a (literal) cost: While OpenAI claims it spends less tokens than Anthropic’s Fable 5, Sol will still hit usage limits a lot faster than the other variants.

Fun fact: If you ask GPT-5.5 about any of this, right now, it’ll give you completely wrong answers. Hopefully OpenAI will fix this soon.

Wait, what’s this ChatGPT Work thing, then?

Oh yeah, OpenAI also launched ChatGPT Work, which is a new agent in ChatGPT that can access and take actions on your apps and files, and work in the background until a task is finished. It’s powered by Codex (OpenAI’s software engineering agent) and GPT-5.6. Think about it as your buddy that will go through your emails and files, browse the web, fetch the relevant data, and create that presentation your boss wants before the day is done.

ChatGPT Work is rolling out to Pro, Enterprise and Edu users first on web and mobile; this will be expanded to Plus and Business users “over the next few days.”

On the desktop, Work is available for everyone, including Free users.

Oh, and one more thing: The fact that ChatGPT Work has a built-in browser also means that OpenAI is sunsetting its standalone web browser, Atlas. Sorry.

How about GPT Live?

GPT Live is a new version of ChatGPT Voice and it will show up when you start talking to ChatGPT.

We’ve covered this in more depth here, but the bottom line is that GPT Live can listen and speak at the same time, allowing it to keep up a more realistic conversation.

Wrapping it all up

The new GPT-5.6 model is smart. It comes in three flavors: Luna, Terra, and Sol, with Sol being the most capable variant, Luna the most affordable one, and Terra somewhere in the middle. You can currently only get them on paid tiers, unless you’re using ChatGPT Work on desktop. And ChatGPT Voice has also gotten smarter with GPT-Live underneath, a model that can listen and speak at the same time.

#GPT5.6 #Sol #Terra #Luna">GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna are here. See which one’s best for you.

These days, new versions of AI chatbots don’t just launch; they’re unshackled and released to the public following government scrutiny. OpenAI’s new GPT-5.6 models were – like Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and Fable – apparently too powerful to just launch; but now, after some tinkering, they’re available to you, dear customer.

In practice, it simply means that the new GPT-5.6 models are very powerful and smarter than before. In its introductory post, OpenAI shared a bunch of graphs showing just how much better GPT-5.6 is than the competition, whilst using fewer tokens and generally costing less.

OK, great. But GPT-5.6 is not just one model; it comes in three distinct flavors: Sol, Terra, and Luna. So what do different kinds of users get, what should they pay for, and which models should they (mostly) use? Let’s dive in.

Free users get (almost) nothing

Sorry; if you’re not a paying customer, you’ll have to make do with OpenAI’s previous flagship model, GPT-5.5. Any sort of access to GPT-5.6 models requires a subscription of some sort. Fortunately, GPT-5.5 is still quite capable at most tasks, but if you want the best of the best, you’ll have to cough up the dough.

There’s an exception to this: Free and Go users can access GPT-5.6 through ChatGPT Work. More on that below.

If you’re a Plus or Business user, you can only get Sol (the most powerful model) at medium and higher effort settings. There’s another, higher level of performance called Sol Pro, but that’s only available for Pro and Enterprise users.

In terms of availability per one million tokens, the prices are: $5 input and $30 output for Sol. $2.5 input and $15 output for Terra, and $1 input and $6 output for Luna.

Sol, Terra, or Luna?

Why are there three models in the first place? Well, OpenAI always had a multi-tier model; for example, previously users were able to choose a “mini” version of the main model to get results done cheaper. Now, the model has been split into three tiers.

If you’re a paying customer, you’re free to use all three. But you know how it is in the world of LLMs: If you pick the smartest one, your usage limits will get hit faster (yes, there are always usage limits, even if you throw a ton of money at OpenAI).

In the simplest sense, GPT-5.6 Sol is the smartest model, Terra is in between (with roughly GPT-5.5 level of performance), and Luna is the cheapest, fastest, but also least capable of the bunch.

The breakdown is as follows: Terra is a “balanced” model for everyday work. That’s the one you should be asking most of your questions. Don’t underestimate it, though, as OpenAI claims it performs better than Anthropic’s Fable 5 in some cases.

Luna is cost-efficient, and should be used for easy, non crucial everyday tasks; think recipes and movie recommendations. Again, OpenAI says it outperforms Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 in some cases, so it’s not a slouch, either.

Sol should be reserved for coding, deep research, planning, and cybersecurity: The most demanding tasks. Of course it comes at a (literal) cost: While OpenAI claims it spends less tokens than Anthropic’s Fable 5, Sol will still hit usage limits a lot faster than the other variants.

Fun fact: If you ask GPT-5.5 about any of this, right now, it’ll give you completely wrong answers. Hopefully OpenAI will fix this soon.

Wait, what’s this ChatGPT Work thing, then?

Oh yeah, OpenAI also launched ChatGPT Work, which is a new agent in ChatGPT that can access and take actions on your apps and files, and work in the background until a task is finished. It’s powered by Codex (OpenAI’s software engineering agent) and GPT-5.6. Think about it as your buddy that will go through your emails and files, browse the web, fetch the relevant data, and create that presentation your boss wants before the day is done.

ChatGPT Work is rolling out to Pro, Enterprise and Edu users first on web and mobile; this will be expanded to Plus and Business users “over the next few days.”

On the desktop, Work is available for everyone, including Free users.

Oh, and one more thing: The fact that ChatGPT Work has a built-in browser also means that OpenAI is sunsetting its standalone web browser, Atlas. Sorry.

How about GPT Live?

GPT Live is a new version of ChatGPT Voice and it will show up when you start talking to ChatGPT.

We’ve covered this in more depth here, but the bottom line is that GPT Live can listen and speak at the same time, allowing it to keep up a more realistic conversation.

Wrapping it all up

The new GPT-5.6 model is smart. It comes in three flavors: Luna, Terra, and Sol, with Sol being the most capable variant, Luna the most affordable one, and Terra somewhere in the middle. You can currently only get them on paid tiers, unless you’re using ChatGPT Work on desktop. And ChatGPT Voice has also gotten smarter with GPT-Live underneath, a model that can listen and speak at the same time.

#GPT5.6 #Sol #Terra #Luna

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