Power in Purposeful AI: You Don’t Need a Foundation Model to Lead in AI

As AI reshapes global power, prosperity, and public trust, I’ve been testing a theory. What if leadership in the AI era isn’t about size, but clarity? What if the countries best positioned to benefit aren’t those with the most compute, but those with the sharpest sense of purpose?

That theory gained strength at the 2024 Global Action Forum, where I engaged with leaders from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The conversations were clear: the appetite to lead is there. The question is how.

The dominant narrative in AI policy still insists that to lead, you must build. Build compute infrastructure. Build large models. Build scale. But that assumption is not just outdated—it’s exclusionary. It limits the definition of AI power to those with billions in capital and access to cutting-edge chips. Everyone else is told to consume, comply, or compete at a disadvantage.

This model of AI supremacy is starting to crack. There’s room now to think differently and more strategically.

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