One of the most fascinating dimensions of my travels over the last few months has been the incredible opportunity to meet representatives from so many national governments across the world to explore their perspectives on the future of AI, especially around governance and the public-private role in its development.

Here in Washington and in many European capitals, I hear endless variants of the tired tropes of the US and EU emphasizing leadership by focusing on regulating AI juxta positioned against the image of China as deploying AI strictly for state surveillance and merely copying American innovation. Conversations inevitably fixate on those two polar images, with the rest of the world reduced merely to bystander status.

This misses the vast globalized AI ecosystem. Far from the DC trope of merely cloning Western AI developments for state surveillance, China has a vast and incredibly innovative AI ecosystem that exceeds that of the West in the way in which it considers AI not merely as a shiny toy but rather as a toy to advance industry. One has to look no further than TikTok: a social media platform that took the world by storm based solely on one innovation that bested every Western company: how it used AI recommendation algorithms. It didn’t clone an existing Western company, it created an entirely new kind of social platform by thinking about AI as a tool rather than a toy.

India is producing a rapidly growing ecosystem of models that emphasize its incredible linguistic diversity. Countries like Saudi Arabia are investing heavily in seeding domestic AI industries.

At TRT World Forum 2023 in Istanbul earlier this month, my own AI-centered panel was merely the technology’s most overt appearance: in fact it was a nearly ubiquitous presence from the exhibit hall to mentions in speeches, panels and side conversations throughout the two days. I was especially fascinated to hear just some of the exciting ways Türkiye is embracing AI.

Today's Western-created and Western-governed AI models largely either label the region and Islam as a prohibited topic or present a Western caricature, from resurrecting racist tropes to existentially offensive portrayals. Countries across the world cannot rely on Western companies to develop AI models that reflect their own cultures – such idealistic goals will always collide head-on with Western imperialism and the belief in technological determinism and the power of AI to remake the world in Silicon Valley's image, from their cultures and beliefs to the languages they speak.

Asked to create an inspiring image or representation of an Arab state that represents its culture, no AI system in 2023 should present a half-naked harem woman cosplaying as a terrorist in a hijab, present obscene images of herders and camels, conflate the Arabic language with terrorism or illiteracy, or describe those who practice Islam or even entire nations as evil, unintelligent, non-human animals, nor should they label entire cultures as prohibited topics that violate human norms. Despite an endless stream of public statements about vast investments in debiasing, “red teaming” and globalization initiatives, behind closed doors there seems little urgency in addressing these issues, with little improvement over the past year.

There is an urgent need for countries across the world to develop their own domestic AI ecosystems that reflect their own values, cultures, beliefs, and languages. In my travels over the last few months, it has been incredible to hear how a number of countries across the world are approaching AI: voices that simply aren't being heard in the US or in European capitals.

I look forward to continuing these conversations in the new year and would love to hear from more national and state governments about the ways in which they are embracing AI and the ways in which their respective governments are viewing issues like AI governance, public-private partnerships, state funding and support initiatives and the unique ways both industry and government in their country are adopting AI that may be very different from how it is being embraced in the US and EU.