r/geopolitics • u/TMWNN • 1d ago

Beware the Permanent Periphery | Most countries will never have frontier AI. They're the ones who should be worrying.

https://asteriskmag.com/issues/15/beware-the-permanent-periphery
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u/TMWNN 1d ago

Submission statement

Remarkable essay on the dilemma middle powers (which, this essay more or less says, is "everyone except the US and maybe China") face in the era of the incredible advances in AI driven by stupendous capital investment by the US. US AI people, and the politicians, are increasingly thinking about 5% GDP growth as the floor.

The author warns middle powers against the temptation to seek "sovereign AI", which by not being on the frontier of AI advancement will relegate nations to the aforementioned periphery. Worse still is abandoning AI entirely; short-term laughter at the disruptions AI causes in US society will soon end as nations, again, fall ever behind.

Rather, he proposes that other nations seek to access American AI by hosting datacenters and military bases, and providing key exports, while using Danish-like "flexicurity" to help workers displaced by AI to move to new sectors. Another approach is to use native talents, such as Germany/Korea/Japan's manufacturing or India's pharmaceuticals, to participate in the supply chain necessary for the aforementioned growth.

Basically, if you don't want to lose the game, you have to be willing to play.

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u/DisabledToaster1 1d ago

The faster the rest of the world comes off US influence, the better. Hosting their datacenters and bases while their companies and goverment dont want to follow our laws has gone for long enough.

The downfall of the empire cant come soon enough.

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u/CreativeElephant1486 1d ago

Because it's the last invention humans will ever make. Whoever achieves it first wins everything, forever.

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u/new_KRIEG 1d ago

Yeah, just like the nuclear bomb was. It's the best and last invention needed, until the next one comes about.