Sovereign remedies: Between AI autonomy and control
Sovereign AI is making its presence known in various global capitals. The article "Sovereign remedies: Between AI autonomy and control" was featured on the Atlantic Council website. It discusses the balance between AI autonomy and control. The topic of AI sovereignty is gaining attention and interest worldwide. The article sheds light on the implications of this trend.
Introduction
Sovereign AI has gained a foothold in several capitals around the world. As Michael Kratisios, the Trump administration’s acting director of science and technology policy, stated in 2024, “Each country wants to have some sort of control over our [sic] own destiny on AI.” Analysts have mapped the modes and methods to achieve sovereign AI, and the interplay with antecedents like data sovereignty. However, there remains a critical gap: analysis of stated goals for these initiatives and what the core pillars of sovereign AI are, distinct from related concepts.
Stated Goals of Sovereign AI
The goals outlined by governments are varied and wide-reaching: some center on preserving values or culture; others focus on the privacy and protection of citizens’ data; some initiatives center on economic growth and others on national security; and finally, there is a set of concerns around the current global governance vacuum, where in the absence of global frameworks, AI companies must be held accountable through physical presence. Each of these stated goals requires differing levels of indigenized capability and control and will have varied consequences as a result.
Defining Sovereign AI
Sovereignty is defined as supreme authority within one’s territory, including a Westphalian state system. Most components of this definition are, however, malleable. In the context of the recent artificial intelligence boom, sovereignty has taken on new modes and methods. Sovereign AI has been defined variously as “a nation’s capabilities to produce artificial intelligence using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks”; “countries harnessing and processing their own data to build artificial intelligence domestically, rather than relying on external entities to do so”; and as a concept “asserting that the development, deployment, and regulation of AI technologies should align with national laws and priorities.”
Industry Buy-In and Sovereign AI
Nvidia reflects a broader trend in an industry which has supposedly embraced a rhetoric of digital sovereignty, in part attributable to regulatory pressures such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and now the EU AI Act. Major AI players embracing sovereign AI include G42, an Emirati AI company, which boasts partnerships with Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, Oracle, IBM, and Mistral, among others.
Mapping Sovereign AI Initiatives
Below is an illustrative list of sovereign AI initiatives.
HONESTAI ANALYSIS
Sovereign AI as a phenomenon is going to gain momentum, as national governments find “wholesale” AI offerings unsuited to their needs. An optimal blend of localization of AI inputs and regulation of outputs for each country could help each one to realize its outlined goals for sovereign AI.