"AI is expensive. Processors are expensive, data centers are expensive, power and water are expensive, data acquisition is expensive. Giants like the U.S. and China can bear these costs. But can other smaller regions-like Southeast Asia, home to the largest group of unconnected people in the world outside of Sub-Saharan Africa-keep up?"
""There's an opportunity to really leverage what has come to be known as 'small AI,' which is much more targeted, potentially suitable for offline use, and doesn't necessarily compete with some of the large innovations we're seeing [come] out of larger countries," Mahesh Uttamchandani, regional practice director for digital for East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific at the World Bank, said."
""We just need more data centers. We need to build more in Southeast Asia," Lionel Yeo, Southeast Asia CEO for ST Telemedia Global Data Centers, said. He admitted that a growing data center sector also needs electrical power to keep it running. "How do we secure the power all the way from upstream to downstream?," he asked. "We have to look at collaboration across the supply chain," he suggested, and work with "regulators to solve for power grids [and] solve for transmission and distribution.""
AI development requires costly processors, data centers, power, water, and data acquisition, creating barriers for smaller regions. Targeted 'small AI' can offer offline-suitable, focused applications that avoid direct competition with large-scale models. Some countries are building domestic AI capabilities through local model development, infrastructure investment, and data sovereignty measures. Major gaps remain in physical infrastructure, especially insufficient data center capacity and constrained electrical supply. Closing those gaps requires coordinated supply-chain collaboration, regulatory action, and investment in transmission and distribution to secure reliable power for data center expansion.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]