Damascus, February 17 (SANA) – In an era dominated by Western technology giants that profit from surveillance, data exploitation, and complicity in oppression, a groundbreaking initiative emerges from the heart of resilience and innovation. Founded by two Syrian brothers currently based in Germany, Thaura AI stands as a beacon of ethical artificial intelligence that challenges the monopoly of Big Tech while upholding the principles of privacy, truth, and solidarity with the oppressed.
The name Thaura, which means “revolution” in Arabic, encapsulates the platform’s mission. To provide AI tools to resist digital colonialism and amplify marginalized voices without compromising human dignity. Founded in late 2025 under the Tech for Palestine ecosystem, Thaura AI rejects the exploitative models of companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, and rejects military contracts, surveillance partnerships, and venture capital that could dilute its ethical core.
A Founder’s Journey: From Syria to Ethical Innovation
Hani and Saeed Chihabi, self-taught Syrian engineers who fled their homeland before the revolution, built Taura based on their personal beliefs. After witnessing how Big Tech enables oppression through data misuse and biased algorithms, the brothers decided to leave their corporate roles in Germany’s pharmaceutical sector and create an alternative. “We weren’t interested in technology at all… We were interested in technology because we live in a digital age and we knew we could make an impact with technology,” Hani Chihabi explained in an interview.
Their background as refugees influences Tawra’s ethos, which emphasizes solidarity with Palestine and other marginalized communities. As Hani stated, “Palestine has tragically been a testing ground for military and surveillance technologies…Tawra exists as a direct resistance.” This effort will ensure that AI does not sanitize the truth on sensitive topics such as humanitarian crises or political injustice.
Fundamental Principles: Privacy, Sustainability, Justice
Thaura AI prioritizes privacy as an “absolute right” at its foundation, does not train or track user data, and employs military-grade AES-256 encryption for all interactions. Unlike mainstream platforms that monetize user information, Thaura collects minimal metadata solely for the purpose of providing its services and prohibits collaboration with governments involved in human rights abuses.
Sustainability is another pillar to address the negative environmental impacts of AI. Powered by the open-source GLM-4.5 Air model (an expert mixing system with 100 billion parameters and activating only 12 billion per query), Thaura is 93% more energy efficient than gigantic models with trillions of parameters like GPT-5. This efficiency reduces carbon emissions and is consistent with the platform’s view that the climate crisis is an issue of justice.
Thaura’s independence is maintained through bootstrapping, which intentionally avoids venture capital to protect its mission. “We intentionally deny opportunities to investors because we refuse to allow shareholders to influence our mission,” the team said. Its infrastructure runs on GDPR-compliant servers via DigitalOcean and TogetherAI, avoiding big tech clouds like AWS and Azure.
Features: Versatile tool for everyday use and activists
Thaura offers a comprehensive suite of features that rival mainstream AI, including text conversation, web search, image and vision analysis, document upload, voice mode in over 20 languages, and interactive code visualization. It supports daily tasks such as composing emails and research while remembering conversations so that they can be continued.
For developers, full API access through compatibility with the OpenAI SDK allows for seamless integration into tools like VS Code and Cursor. Ethical guardrails from our partnership with the Pro-Palestinian Data Project ensure truthful answers without censorship.
Solidarity with Palestine: A means to liberation
Thaura, who has deep roots in the Tech for Palestine incubator, sees AI not as a neutral tool, but as a potential weapon against oppression, and explicitly expresses solidarity with Palestine. It amplifies the voices of trade unions, student movements and solidarity networks and rejects the realization of technologies that contribute to the occupation. As the founders emphasize, “AI is not neutral. AI is either a tool of liberation or a weapon of oppression.”
Since its launch in December 2025, Thaura has attracted hundreds of users and its infrastructure is scalable to 100,000. We have over 300,000 monthly visitors, reflecting the growing demand for ethical alternatives.
A new era of AI: empowerment, not exploitation
Thaura AI represents more than just a technological advancement. It is a call to reclaim digital space from corporate hegemony. By centering justice, sustainability, and truth, this Syrian-led platform offers hope for a world where AI serves humanity, rather than exploiting it. As global scrutiny of Big Tech increases, efforts like Thaura’s are paving the way for a truly revolutionary future.
