Challenges Facing AI Momentum

Millions across the globe are now are waking up to AI, with companies spending billions to develop it and attain global supremacy. Nevertheless, there are indications that this may begin to stall as worries regarding sustainability, profitability, and enormous costs of development start to dwell on the minds of those involved in this sector.

A primary concern is the cost of developing these systems that are reported to have reached hundreds of millions of dollars in computation power and data. US investors are looking to get their money back from the huge investment they made and are reluctant to continue investing into a technology that has no clear path to profitability.

Another issue is the environmental impact of the development of these complex systems and the resulting increase of CO2 emissions. We cannot continue developing bigger systems without any consideration for the environment. Chinese AI systems like DeepSeek and Qwen prove that it is possible to get cheaper performance, with lower resource consumption, offering a way of alternative method of developing AI technologies.

Furthermore, there has been a hype associated with these AI systems as the ultimate technology solution. Such expectations are misguided and made worse by overzealous sales and marketing people, which are increasingly difficult to realize. When the reality fails to meet the projections, skepticism takes hold and investors begin to wonder where their money should go. Should confidence decline, then the flow of capital required to sustain research and deployment will follow suit, effectively slowing innovation across this sector. An example of this is the launch of DeepSeek that prompted a huge US stock sell off, showing that investors are very wary of what they are investing in.

It is evident that China is moving rapidly in this dynamic sector and has focused on developing efficient algorithms despite US technology sanctions on it, focusing on producing on-par systems with the US at a much lower cost with greater optimization and scalability. Maybe US firms need to rethink their current course of AI development and take a leaf out of the Chinese AI development strategy.

It is evident that there are numerous challenges that could slow down the momentum of AI development including spiraling costs, energy issues, investor concerns and geopolitical risks. I believe that there should be greater international cooperation between technologists, governments and companies in this sector, as there are shared concerns and risks that that would be better mitigated through collaboration rather than isolated efforts.

Having served as the Chairman of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development in the United Nations, I understand the importance of a healthy AI sector and I avail all the resources in TAG.Global for this purpose. This is probably the most important innovation in modern time, requiring a spirit of working for the greater good for all of humanity, rather than sole corporate profit.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh