Countries Are Investing Vast Sums on Domestic ‘Sovereign’ AI Technologies – Is It a Significant Drain of Money?

Around the globe, states are investing enormous sums into what is known as “sovereign AI” – developing their own machine learning technologies. Starting with the city-state of Singapore to Malaysia and Switzerland, states are vying to create AI that understands native tongues and cultural nuances.

The Global AI Battle

This trend is part of a wider global competition spearheaded by tech giants from the America and the People's Republic of China. Whereas organizations like a leading AI firm and a social media giant pour massive resources, developing countries are also placing independent gambles in the AI landscape.

However amid such huge amounts at stake, is it possible for smaller states attain meaningful benefits? As stated by an expert from a prominent thinktank, If not you’re a wealthy state or a major firm, it’s a significant challenge to build an LLM from nothing.”

National Security Concerns

A lot of countries are unwilling to use foreign AI systems. Throughout the Indian subcontinent, for instance, Western-developed AI solutions have occasionally proven inadequate. An illustrative example involved an AI assistant used to instruct pupils in a isolated area – it interacted in English with a pronounced US accent that was difficult to follow for native students.

Then there’s the national security dimension. In the Indian military authorities, employing specific external AI tools is viewed inadmissible. As one entrepreneur commented, It's possible it contains some random training dataset that might say that, such as, Ladakh is not part of India … Employing that specific system in a defence setup is a big no-no.”

He added, I’ve discussed with people who are in the military. They aim to use AI, but, setting aside particular tools, they don’t even want to rely on Western technologies because details could travel overseas, and that is totally inappropriate with them.”

National Initiatives

In response, several countries are backing national initiatives. One this effort is in progress in India, where a company is striving to create a sovereign LLM with state support. This effort has dedicated about a substantial sum to artificial intelligence advancement.

The expert imagines a AI that is more compact than premier models from US and Chinese firms. He notes that the country will have to compensate for the financial disparity with expertise. Based in India, we lack the luxury of allocating huge sums into it,” he says. “How do we vie with for example the hundreds of billions that the America is devoting? I think that is the point at which the core expertise and the strategic thinking comes in.”

Native Priority

Throughout the city-state, a public project is backing AI systems trained in the region's local dialects. These particular tongues – for example the Malay language, the Thai language, the Lao language, Bahasa Indonesia, Khmer and others – are often inadequately covered in Western-developed LLMs.

I wish the individuals who are creating these sovereign AI models were conscious of the extent to which and how quickly the leading edge is moving.

An executive engaged in the program explains that these systems are created to complement bigger AI, rather than substituting them. Systems such as a popular AI tool and Gemini, he states, commonly struggle with regional languages and cultural aspects – communicating in stilted Khmer, for example, or suggesting non-vegetarian meals to Malaysian users.

Developing local-language LLMs allows state agencies to incorporate local context – and at least be “knowledgeable adopters” of a sophisticated tool developed overseas.

He continues, “I’m very careful with the term independent. I think what we’re aiming to convey is we wish to be more adequately included and we aim to grasp the features” of AI systems.

International Collaboration

For countries trying to find their place in an growing worldwide landscape, there’s a different approach: join forces. Experts associated with a respected institution have suggested a public AI company shared among a alliance of emerging states.

They refer to the initiative “Airbus for AI”, drawing inspiration from the European successful play to create a competitor to a major aerospace firm in the mid-20th century. The plan would entail the establishment of a public AI company that would merge the resources of different states’ AI programs – such as the UK, Spain, the Canadian government, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Singapore, South Korea, the French Republic, Switzerland and the Kingdom of Sweden – to create a strong competitor to the American and Asian major players.

The primary researcher of a report setting out the proposal notes that the idea has drawn the consideration of AI ministers of at least several nations so far, along with multiple state AI organizations. Although it is currently targeting “mid-sized nations”, emerging economies – Mongolia and the Republic of Rwanda among them – have also expressed interest.

He explains, In today’s climate, I think it’s just a fact there’s reduced confidence in the promises of the present American government. People are asking such as, can I still depend on these technologies? Suppose they opt to