{"id":88811,"date":"2024-09-05T13:28:25","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T03:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=88811"},"modified":"2024-09-06T09:51:17","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T23:51:17","slug":"authoritarian-countries-ai-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/authoritarian-countries-ai-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Authoritarian countries\u2019 AI advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Last year, the United Arab Emirates made global headlines with the release of Falcon, its open-source large language model (LLM). Remarkably, by several key metrics, Falcon managed to outperform<\/a> or measure up against the LLMs of tech giants like Meta and Alphabet.<\/p>\n

Since then, the UAE has positioned itself as a frontrunner in the global artificial-intelligence race by consistently releasing<\/a> updates to its powerful model. These efforts have not gone unnoticed: in April, Microsoft acquired<\/a> a $1.5 billion minority stake in G42, the UAE\u2019s flagship AI company, underscoring the country\u2019s growing influence.<\/p>\n

Analysts often attribute the UAE\u2019s emergence as an AI powerhouse<\/a> to several factors, including robust state support, abundant capital and low-cost electricity, all of which are necessary for training LLMs. But another important\u2013and often overlooked\u2013factor is the country\u2019s authoritarian governance model<\/a>, which enables the government to leverage state power to drive technological innovation.<\/p>\n

The UAE is not alone. Authoritarian countries such as China have a built-in competitive advantage when it comes to AI development, largely owing to their reliance on domestic surveillance, which fuels demand. Facial-recognition technologies, for example, are used by these regimes not just to enhance public safety but also as powerful tools for monitoring their populations and suppressing dissent.<\/p>\n

By contrast, facial recognition has become a source of enormous controversy in the west. The European Union\u2019s AI Act<\/a>, which entered into force<\/a> on 1 August, has effectively banned its use in public spaces, with only a few narrowly defined exceptions.<\/p>\n

This provides AI firms in China and the UAE with a massive advantage over their western counterparts. Research by David Yang<\/a> and co-authors shows<\/a> that Chinese AI firms with government contracts tend to be more innovative and commercially successful, owing to procurement practices that provide them with access to vast troves<\/a> of public and private data for training and refining their models. Similarly, UAE firms have been allowed to train their models on anonymised health-care data<\/a> from hospitals and state-backed industries.<\/p>\n

AI firms seeking access to such data in western countries would face numerous legal hurdles. While European and American companies grapple with strict compliance requirements and a surge in copyright-infringement lawsuits, firms in China and the UAE operate in a far more lenient regulatory environment.<\/p>\n

This is not to suggest that authoritarian countries do not have laws protecting data privacy or intellectual property. But the national goal of promoting AI development often takes precedence, resulting in lax enforcement.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, consumers in authoritarian countries tend to be more supportive of AI. An Ipsos survey conducted in 2022, for example, ranked<\/a> China and Saudi Arabia\u2013another authoritarian Gulf state with technological ambitions\u2013as the world\u2019s most AI-optimistic countries. These regimes\u2019 widespread use of surveillance tools seems to have accelerated the commercial adoption of emerging technologies, possibly increasing public trust in the companies deploying them.<\/p>\n

Moreover, authoritarian governments benefit from the ability to coordinate and direct resources toward innovation, especially through state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds. Both the UAE and China have implemented<\/a> top-down national strategies aimed at positioning themselves as global AI leaders. As I explained in a recent paper<\/a>, the Chinese government is not just a policymaker but also a supplier, customer, and investor in this sector.<\/p>\n

The UAE has adopted a similar approach. In 2017, it became the first country<\/a> to appoint a minister of state for AI, whose primary mission is to facilitate public-private partnerships and provide firms with convenient access to valuable training data. Notably, the Falcon AI model was developed<\/a> by the Technology Innovation Institute, a state-funded research centre. G42, which is backed<\/a> by the UAE\u2019s sovereign wealth fund and chaired by the government\u2019s national security adviser, collaborates<\/a> with various state agencies.<\/p>\n

Recognising the vital role of academic research in driving technological progress, the UAE also established the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the world\u2019s first university dedicated exclusively to AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the many similarities between the AI strategies of the UAE and China, one crucial difference stands out: whereas China\u2019s progress in advanced technologies could be impeded by Western restrictions on chip and equipment exports, the UAE enjoys unrestricted access to these essential resources. In 2023, G42 signed a $100 million deal<\/a> with the California-based startup Cerebras to build the world\u2019s largest supercomputer for AI training. And earlier this year, the company reportedly<\/a> engaged in talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about a potential investment in an ambitious semiconductor venture that could challenge Nvidia\u2019s dominance in the industry.<\/p>\n

But the reasons for the UAE\u2019s success are still widely misunderstood. Tellingly, Altman recently suggested<\/a> that the country could \u2018lead the discussion\u2019 on AI policy, acting as a \u2018regulatory sandbox\u2019 for the rest of the world. In praising the UAE\u2019s approach, Altman obscures a fundamental point: it cannot be replicated in a democratic environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, the United Arab Emirates made global headlines with the release of Falcon, its open-source large language model (LLM). Remarkably, by several key metrics, Falcon managed to outperform or measure up against the LLMs …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1823,"featured_media":88817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1291,1858,52,2850],"class_list":["post-88811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-authoritarianism","tag-china","tag-uae"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAuthoritarian countries\u2019 AI advantage | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/authoritarian-countries-ai-advantage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Authoritarian countries\u2019 AI advantage | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last year, the United Arab Emirates made global headlines with the release of Falcon, its open-source large language model (LLM). 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