The initiative converts selected laws and regulations into machine-readable formats, enabling faster, traceable compliance assessments while keeping government officials accountable for decisions.
Abu Dhabi Government and OpenAI have launched Machine-Readable Government (MRG), an initiative designed to make selected government laws, policies and regulations accessible to AI-powered systems. The programme aims to accelerate routine regulatory assessments, improve consistency in public service delivery and support the emirate’s ambition to become the world’s first AI-native government by 2027.
Led by the Department of Government Enablement – Abu Dhabi (DGE), MRG translates written policies into structured, machine-readable formats. AI systems can then assess applications against the relevant rules, generate outcomes and link each decision to the specific regulatory clause that informed it.
The approach targets routine processes such as permits, certificates, licensing and compliance assessments. Cases that previously required days of manual review could be processed in minutes, with routine assessments potentially operating around the clock. Importantly, the initiative initially changes how existing rules are applied rather than rewriting the underlying legislation.
Human oversight remains central to the framework. Government officials establish standards, review complex cases and retain accountability for final decisions. The system is not intended to make autonomous determinations in high-stakes matters that materially affect individual rights, eligibility or access to essential services.
“Making AI accessible for everyone requires transforming public sector delivery, helping it become faster, more responsive and more effective. 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.”
— Sam Altman, Chief Executive Officer, OpenAI
His Excellency Ahmed Tamim Hisham Al Kuttab, Chairman of DGE, described MRG as the link between Abu Dhabi’s AI ambitions and the practical delivery of public services. He said making policy itself intelligent would help transform how permits are approved, tenders are evaluated and services reach citizens and businesses.
The first production use case is already operational with the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), focusing on food imports, in collaboration with Inception42, a G42 company. The pilot validated a reusable Policy Adoption Engine that converts narrative regulations into automated compliance checks, with decisions traceable to the precise rules applied.
Further applications are planned across construction permitting, business and freelance licensing, data access governance, human resources compliance and procurement.
Beyond faster processing, MRG could also help policymakers identify overlapping or conflicting regulations across government departments. By structuring policies in a common format, officials can assess the potential impact of proposed changes across related rules before implementation.
Security and data sovereignty are key elements of the deployment. AI inference takes place on GPU infrastructure within UAE data centres under OpenAI’s UAE inference residency arrangement. The system operates under a fail-closed security architecture governed by UAE cybersecurity standards and Abu Dhabi law. The government retains ownership of data generated through MRG, which is not used to train AI models, with defined controls governing its storage, use and deletion.
The initiative forms part of Abu Dhabi’s AED 13 billion Government Digital Strategy 2025–2027. It is also expected to integrate with TAMM, the emirate’s unified government services platform, which brings together more than 1,200 public and private services.
The broader significance of MRG lies in moving government AI beyond chatbots and administrative automation towards the underlying regulatory infrastructure. If successfully scaled, it could offer a model for making public administration faster, more consistent and more transparent without removing human responsibility from governance.