By Phil Spalding

cambolc.co.uk,  LinkedIn, BlueSky, Facebook

The winter solstice is upon us in the northern hemisphere. The traditional turning point in the agricultural calendar where farmers previously would decide when they would start planting new crops. For 2025 we are in the position of looking forward to sowing the seeds for growth in AI.

AI is still in it’s infancy. The most recognisable AI by the general public is OpenAI’s ChatGPT. We are starting to see the categorisation of AI with different classes of AI being recognised beyond just generative (this is what Open AI falls into) and predictive. I discussed one class Agentic AI in a previous blog, that is set to change traditional work roles. Today we are having a look at a new term that is going to be big for 2025 and beyond: Sovereign AI.

Sovereign AI is potentially going to disrupt the colonial model of trade that we still have operating to a larger extent. By that I mean developed countries taking raw materials and then processing them into something that they then sell back to the developing countries in the form of goods essential to be considered a developed country. We have seen it in the Industrial Revolution where the UK took raw materials from the empire processed them in the UK and then exported them back to where they came from, Jute being a good example that fuelled the prosperity of Dundee. The american tech companies are essentially following the same thing in semiconductors and software at the present time by controlling the means of production through semiconductor and software development. Sovereign AI seems to be a means by which the globalisation of development and ownership of growth potential becomes under the control of countries again. Data is driving the Silicon Age.

Thailand and Vietnam according to NVidia’s newsletter (see further reading) are two countries that are making the move to developing AI for their own economies. The movement of skilled talent from least developed to developed countries may be starting to wane. Sovereign AI has the potential for buy local solutions to be the norm rather than the global brand offering. The economic benefits would stay inside the country. However, we must be aware that this might not be the only driving force for Sovereign AI in certain countries that use technology to maintain their perception of what is a well ordered society.

So 2025 could be the start of the rapid narrowing of the gap between developed and least developed countries. Ideas and skills are often difficult to monetise. Providing the infrastructure for countries to exploit Sovereign AI will still unfortunately be driven by the institutions and countries that have the capital to lend. Energy supply will be limiting factor along with cost of computing power. A good year for Raspberry Pi computers?

Further Reading:

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/thailand-vietnam-sovereign-ai/?linkId=100000318095275&linkId=100000320838743