Key terms

What is sovereign AI?

Sovereign AI is the ability of a country or organization to develop, run and govern AI using infrastructure, data, models and talent it controls. It is about control, not intelligence, and it is a spectrum: hosting data locally is not the same as owning the models.

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The full answer

Sovereign AI is the ability of a country or organization to independently develop, deploy, operate and govern artificial intelligence using infrastructure, data, models, talent and operating systems that it can control.

It is about more than where data is stored. A country may keep its data within its borders while relying on foreign-owned models, cloud infrastructure and software, which gives data residency without full AI sovereignty. Sovereignty exists on a spectrum, not as a yes-or-no condition.

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