The Commodification of AI Sovereignty: Lessons from the Fight for Sovereign Oil

TL;DR

This paper examines how the concept of sovereignty in AI is being commodified by private companies, drawing parallels with oil to analyze the implications of commercializing a contested national value.

Contribution

It disentangles different facets of sovereignty in AI and uses oil industry analogies to explore the consequences of its commercialization.

Findings

Sovereignty is increasingly treated as a commercial commodity in AI.

Private firms define sovereignty through market offerings like AI clouds and models.

Analogies with oil industry reveal risks and opportunities in AI sovereignty commodification.

Abstract

"Sovereignty" is increasingly a part of national AI policies and strategies. At the same time that "sovereignty" is invoked as a priority for global AI policy, it is also being commodified along the AI stack. Companies now sell "sovereign" AI factories, clouds, and language models to governments, enterprises, and communities -- turning a contested value into a commercial commodity. This shift risks allowing private technology providers to define sovereignty on their own terms. By analyzing the history of sovereignty and parallels in global oil production, this paper aims to open avenues to interrogate the implications of this value's commercialization. The contributions of this paper lie in a disentangling of the facets of sovereignty being appealed to through the AI stack and a case for how analogizing oil and AI can be generative in thinking through what is achieved and what can be achieved through the commodification of AI sovereignty.