🔗 Share this article

Around the globe, states are investing enormous sums into what's termed “sovereign AI” – building domestic artificial intelligence systems. Starting with the city-state of Singapore to the nation of Malaysia and Switzerland, states are racing to build AI that understands regional dialects and cultural specifics.

The International AI Arms Race

This initiative is part of a larger international contest led by large firms from the United States and China. Whereas organizations like a leading AI firm and Meta pour massive funds, developing countries are also making sovereign investments in the AI field.

Yet with such huge investments at stake, is it possible for smaller states achieve significant advantages? As stated by a analyst from a well-known policy organization, “Unless you’re a rich government or a major firm, it’s quite a burden to create an LLM from the ground up.”

Defence Concerns

Many nations are unwilling to depend on external AI systems. Throughout the Indian subcontinent, for example, American-made AI solutions have occasionally been insufficient. One example saw an AI tool deployed to teach learners in a isolated community – it interacted in English with a pronounced American accent that was hard to understand for regional students.

Additionally there’s the national security factor. For the Indian defence ministry, using particular external models is seen as inadmissible. As one entrepreneur explained, “It could have some random learning material that could claim that, for example, a certain region is separate from India … Using that particular model in a military context is a major risk.”

He added, “I have spoken to individuals who are in the military. They aim to use AI, but, forget about particular tools, they don’t even want to rely on US systems because information could travel abroad, and that is absolutely not OK with them.”

National Efforts

In response, a number of nations are backing national ventures. A particular such a initiative is being developed in the Indian market, in which a company is working to develop a sovereign LLM with public backing. This initiative has dedicated approximately 1.25 billion dollars to artificial intelligence advancement.

The expert envisions a system that is more compact than top-tier models from Western and Eastern corporations. He explains that the nation will have to make up for the financial disparity with expertise. “Being in India, we do not possess the luxury of investing billions of dollars into it,” he says. “How do we vie versus say the hundreds of billions that the America is devoting? I think that is the point at which the core expertise and the intellectual challenge plays a role.”

Regional Focus

In Singapore, a public project is funding language models developed in south-east Asia’s local dialects. These dialects – including the Malay language, the Thai language, Lao, Indonesian, Khmer and more – are often underrepresented in US and Chinese LLMs.

It is my desire that the experts who are creating these sovereign AI tools were informed of just how far and just how fast the leading edge is progressing.

An executive participating in the initiative says that these systems are designed to complement larger systems, as opposed to replacing them. Systems such as a popular AI tool and Gemini, he says, often find it challenging to handle local dialects and cultural aspects – communicating in stilted Khmer, for example, or proposing non-vegetarian meals to Malaysian consumers.

Building native-tongue LLMs allows local governments to code in cultural sensitivity – and at least be “informed users” of a sophisticated tool developed overseas.

He adds, “I’m very careful with the term national. I think what we’re attempting to express is we want to be better represented and we wish to comprehend the abilities” of AI platforms.

Cross-Border Partnership

Regarding states trying to establish a position in an intensifying worldwide landscape, there’s an alternative: join forces. Experts associated with a prominent university put forward a government-backed AI initiative allocated across a consortium of middle-income states.

They refer to the proposal “an AI equivalent of Airbus”, modeled after Europe’s successful initiative to develop a rival to a major aerospace firm in the mid-20th century. This idea would involve the creation of a public AI company that would pool the resources of different countries’ AI projects – such as the UK, the Kingdom of Spain, Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, France, the Swiss Confederation and the Kingdom of Sweden – to develop a viable alternative to the US and Chinese leaders.

The primary researcher of a study describing the initiative says that the idea has gained the attention of AI officials of at least three states up to now, along with a number of sovereign AI organizations. While it is now targeting “mid-sized nations”, developing countries – Mongolia and the Republic of Rwanda among them – have also shown curiosity.

He elaborates, In today’s climate, I think it’s just a fact there’s reduced confidence in the assurances of this current White House. People are asking like, should we trust these technologies? What if they decide to