An arms race — Artificial Intelligence is redefining geopolitics

It is time for European governments to reinvent their strategies. Power will shift to the nations that can best build, attract and tax the profits of Artificial Intelligence. Elon Musk tweets that the AI arms race might cause WW3, China is set on world domination, and European governments’ main response is to pledge more money.

Developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not easy, nor does it follow a straight line. Do not expect the opportunities to be evenly distributed across our globe. It will unfortunately take at least a decade before we know for certain that success is a result of first mover advantages. It is widely accepted that with intelligent algorithms, automation and robotics, most sectors can increase productivity with lower labor costs: jobless growth. AI is changing all facets of society and sometimes at exponential speed. The impact on who works and how will be significant and many predict that we’ll need a new definition of ‘work’. A question that has been less thoroughly explored is where we will find AI hubs and which countries, companies or individuals will dominate the new world order.

AI is the defining geopolitical factor of our time. AI is changing the game in terms of security, intelligence, pro- duction, healthcare, transport and media. It is an arms race and the resources required to develop sophisticated AI are capital, talent and most importantly, data.

Capital – Investing in AI technology seems like a no-brainer (pun intended) and is in line with how nations traditionally act. Strategies are ceremoniously declared, and budgets allocated to funds or technology companies with a vague but ambitious objective to support future AI companies. The topic is clearly hot in the corridors of power and over the last few years several countries have declared their focus on and ambitions in technology. President Macron launched a fund of €10 billion for AI investments, while the British Chancellor’s budget included a significant commitment to investing in technologies such as AI.

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Aurore Belfrage is a tech entrepreneur, political advisor and investor. She’s an Industrial Advisor to Europe’s leading PE house EQT, a columnist with Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) and a contributor to Politico.

Top image: by Calvin Hanson on Unsplash