Compute North vs. Compute South: the uneven possibilities of compute-based AI governance around the globe

Conference item

Governments have begun to view AI compute infrastructures, including advanced AI chips, as a geostrategic resource. This is partly because “compute governance” is believed to be emerging as an important tool for governing AI systems. In this governance model, states that host AI compute capacity within their territorial jurisdictions are likely to be better placed to impose their rules on AI systems than states that do not. In this study, we provide the first attempt at mapping the global geography of public cloud GPU compute, one particularly important category of AI compute infrastructure. Using a census of hyperscale cloud providers’ cloud regions, we observe that the world is divided into “Compute North” countries that host AI compute relevant for AI development (ie. training), “Compute South” countries whose AI compute is more relevant for AI deployment (ie. running inferencing), and “Compute Desert” countries that host no public cloud AI compute at all. We generate potential explanations for the results using expert interviews, discuss the implications to AI governance and technology geopolitics, and consider possible future trajectories.

Authors: Lehdonvirta, V; Wú, B; Hawkins, Z

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: AAAI Press
• Journal: Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society
• Volume: 7
• Pages: 828-838
• Publication date: 2024-10-16
• Acceptance date: 2024-07-16
• Event title: 7th AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society
• Event location: San Jose, CA, USA
• Event website: https://www.aies-conference.com/2024/
• Event start date: 2024-10-21
• Event end date: 2024-10-23
• DOI: 10.1609/aies.v7i1.31683
• ISBN-10: 1577358929
• ISBN-13: 9781577358923
• Language: English