If oil was the fuel that powered the world’s energy, then AI models could become the fuel that powers the world’s productivity.
And that made me wonder:
Will countries that want to monopolize oil supply also allow countries like India to develop their own AI models and sell them to the rest of the world?
Or will AI become another strategic resource controlled by a handful of nations and corporations - where anyone trying to compete gets sanctioned, tariffed, or restricted?
Its a free world, and such metaphor keeps changing, so don’t worry too much about it.
We have hardly any oil, still we have so much refining capacity that we export refined products to world.
Similarly if we have no AI models, we will figure how to get work done with those models and service the world with that expertise.
Built on and limited by access to Compute and Data.
Regarding Compute
Bottlenecked/Limited by energy for the near foreseeable future.
Mostly powered by petrochemicals.
Regarding Data
Access to data is mostly controlled by IP laws.
Which in turn are determined by a sovereign’s influence over global commerce and military prowess,
both of which are dominated by petrochemicals
for energy and raw-materials (for industry and agriculture).
All things considered, in such a tightly-knit interconnected system,
I think it will happen only after international financial media starts running headlines like: “Indian IT companies cut workforce to offset increasing AI expenditure.”
