The race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominance is reshaping the global digital order, with major players advancing rapidly while many in the Global South struggle to keep up. Recent developments highlight this widening gap—Yandex has unveiled YandexGPT, Alibaba has launched Qwen-2.5-Max, and DeepSeek, an ambitious newcomer, is disrupting the landscape with cutting-edge models. While Yandex and Alibaba build on strong infrastructure, DeepSeek is exploring new frontiers in AI reasoning and generative capabilities. However, these breakthroughs raise critical concerns about access, control, and the exclusion of emerging economies from this AI-driven transformation.
AI is not just a tool but a power structure transforming industries from finance to health care. YandexGPT represents Russia’s push into AI supremacy, while Alibaba’s Qwen-2.5-Max underscores China’s ambition to compete with United States (US) giants like OpenAI and Google DeepMind. DeepSeek, backed by $600 million from global investors, is rapidly emerging as a game-changer in generative AI.
On January 20, the Hangzhou-based company released DeepSeek-R1, a partly open-source reasoning model capable of solving scientific problems at a level comparable to OpenAI’s most advanced LLM, o1. Shortly after, it launched Janus-Pro-7B, a model capable of generating images from text prompts, rivalling OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion. By using tools like Ollama and Chatbox AI, users can even run DeepSeek 1.5B locally on their machines without requiring an internet connection. Yet, while these advances drive private interests, governments in the Global South struggle to keep pace.
The disparity in AI investment is stark. Global AI spending is expected to surpass $250 billion in 2025, with the US and China accounting for nearly 70% of this expenditure. Meanwhile, many Global South nations lack the necessary economic and technological infrastructure to participate meaningfully in AI development. The digital divide further compounds the issue—while over 90% of developed nations enjoy stable internet access, only 35% of low-income countries are connected, according to a 2024 UN report. Without robust digital infrastructure, these nations remain sidelined from AI’s transformative potential.
Regulatory frameworks are another area of concern. While the US and the European Union (EU) are actively developing AI governance structures, many Global South governments lack even basic regulatory mechanisms, allowing multinational corporations to expand unchecked. This regulatory vacuum heightens the risk of exploitation and deepens technological dependence. According to the Stanford AI Index Report 2024, over 80% of AI policy initiatives originate in North America and Europe, leaving the Global South lagging in governance and enforcement. Additionally, as cloud computing—the delivery of computing services like storage and processing power over the internet—becomes a core component of AI’s infrastructure, the absence of specific cloud computing laws in many Global South countries exacerbates the challenges. These gaps in cloud data regulation and jurisdictional laws create hurdles for equitable AI access and raise concerns over data privacy and sovereignty.
Despite these challenges, some countries are making notable strides. India’s National AI Strategy, launched in 2018, has fostered public-private partnerships to support startups and AI literacy. Recent initiatives, such as the IndiaAI Mission launched in April 2024, with an allocation of over ₹10,300 crore, aim to enhance AI computing infrastructure, promote innovation, and fund AI-driven startups, further strengthening the country's position in the global AI race.
Kenya and Nigeria are pioneering open-source AI applications for agriculture and health care, while Brazil has leveraged its AI Innovation Strategy to advance industrial automation. These initiatives demonstrate that the Global South does not need to replicate Silicon Valley but can chart its own path toward AI development. By focusing on localised needs and solutions, these countries are creating sustainable, context-driven AI systems that can drive social and economic progress across the region.
Closing the AI gap requires a concerted global effort. Programmes like Alibaba Cloud’s AI training partnerships in Southeast Asia offer some hope, but such efforts must go beyond symbolic gestures. True inclusion means ensuring the Global South has a seat at the table in shaping AI’s future. The rise of AI giants like DeepSeek, ChatGPT-4, and Qwen-2.5-Max underscores the deepening divide in AI access and control. Without proactive intervention, AI could reinforce global inequalities rather than reduce them.
The Global South cannot afford to be a passive observer in this AI revolution. Advocating for equitable investment, infrastructure development, and ethical AI governance is essential to prevent a future where technological power remains concentrated in a few regions. With AI now poised to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, it is clear that its impact will be profound. AI is defining the new world order, and if its benefits are to be truly global, the Global South must play an active role in shaping its trajectory.
This article is authored by Hriday Sarma, senior fellow, South Asia Democratic Forum, Brussels.