Nations Are Investing Huge Amounts on National Independent AI Technologies – Might This Be a Big Waste of Funds?

Worldwide, governments are investing hundreds of billions into what is known as “sovereign AI” – building national artificial intelligence technologies. From Singapore to Malaysia and the Swiss Confederation, states are racing to develop AI that comprehends local languages and cultural specifics.

The Global AI Competition

This trend is a component of a wider international competition led by major corporations from the US and China. Whereas companies like OpenAI and Meta invest massive funds, developing countries are additionally making their own investments in the AI landscape.

Yet given such huge sums in play, can smaller states secure meaningful benefits? As stated by an expert from a prominent policy organization, “Unless you’re a rich nation or a large corporation, it’s quite a hardship to build an LLM from scratch.”

Defence Considerations

A lot of countries are unwilling to depend on external AI models. Throughout the Indian subcontinent, for instance, Western-developed AI solutions have at times proven inadequate. An illustrative example saw an AI tool employed to instruct pupils in a isolated community – it interacted in English with a thick Western inflection that was difficult to follow for regional users.

Furthermore there’s the defence dimension. In the Indian security agencies, employing particular external systems is seen as unacceptable. As one founder explained, “It could have some arbitrary data source that could claim that, for example, Ladakh is not part of India … Utilizing that specific system in a security environment is a serious concern.”

He added, “I have spoken to experts who are in the military. They aim to use AI, but, disregarding particular tools, they are reluctant to rely on Western systems because information might go outside the country, and that is totally inappropriate with them.”

Homegrown Initiatives

Consequently, a number of states are backing national initiatives. An example this initiative is being developed in the Indian market, in which a firm is attempting to build a domestic LLM with public support. This initiative has committed about 1.25 billion dollars to machine learning progress.

The expert imagines a model that is more compact than leading models from Western and Eastern firms. He states that India will have to make up for the financial disparity with talent. Located in India, we lack the advantage of allocating billions of dollars into it,” he says. “How do we contend with for example the enormous investments that the America is pumping in? I think that is where the core expertise and the brain game plays a role.”

Local Focus

Throughout the city-state, a state-backed program is supporting language models developed in south-east Asia’s regional languages. These languages – for example Malay, the Thai language, Lao, Bahasa Indonesia, Khmer and additional ones – are commonly underrepresented in Western-developed LLMs.

It is my desire that the people who are developing these sovereign AI models were informed of how rapidly and how quickly the cutting edge is moving.

A leader involved in the project explains that these tools are designed to complement more extensive AI, as opposed to displacing them. Systems such as ChatGPT and another major AI system, he states, often have difficulty with native tongues and culture – interacting in unnatural Khmer, for instance, or suggesting meat-containing recipes to Malay users.

Building local-language LLMs allows national authorities to include cultural sensitivity – and at least be “knowledgeable adopters” of a powerful tool built elsewhere.

He further explains, I am cautious with the term sovereign. I think what we’re attempting to express is we want to be more accurately reflected and we want to comprehend the capabilities” of AI technologies.

International Cooperation

Regarding states seeking to carve out a role in an growing worldwide landscape, there’s an alternative: collaborate. Researchers associated with a respected policy school have suggested a public AI company allocated across a group of developing nations.

They refer to the proposal “Airbus for AI”, in reference to the European productive strategy to build a rival to a major aerospace firm in the mid-20th century. The plan would entail the creation of a state-backed AI entity that would merge the assets of different countries’ AI programs – including the United Kingdom, Spain, the Canadian government, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Singapore, the Republic of Korea, France, Switzerland and Sweden – to create a competitive rival to the US and Chinese major players.

The lead author of a report setting out the concept states that the proposal has drawn the attention of AI ministers of at least three states so far, in addition to multiple sovereign AI organizations. While it is now centered on “developing countries”, emerging economies – Mongolia and the Republic of Rwanda for example – have additionally indicated willingness.

He comments, In today’s climate, I think it’s an accepted truth there’s reduced confidence in the commitments of the present American government. People are asking like, can I still depend on these technologies? What if they opt to