AI equity should mean ownership, not just access — and that’s exactly the argument I made when I pitched my idea to present at the United Nations Summit on AI next month in Geneva. I’m sharing that pitch with you today, because this conversation matters for every public sector communicator working with AI.
A Handful of Labs, Eight Billion People
I’m a member of an organisation called AI for Developing Countries (AIFOD), and last week I joined 16 other professionals from around the world to pitch our ideas for presentation at the United Nations next month. So I’m bringing that pitch here to you first.
Next month, over 500 leaders — academics, policymakers, industry leaders and development organisations — will gather in Geneva for the UN Summit on AI, titled Small Takes The Lead. Members from over 150 countries will discuss advancing AI sovereignty for the global south.
The Problem With How We Talk About AI Equity
Right now, a handful of labs dominate the frontier of AI and they serve eight billion people. That’s not equity. That’s concentration and control. The most powerful technology in human history is built in a handful of countries and performs well in only a small set of highly resourced languages.
The rest of the world is effectively renting those frontier models. And renting means handing over your language, your culture, your human agency. That is digital inequity on a scale we’ve never seen before.
Why Open-Weight Models Change Everything
Here’s what gives me hope: frontier models are not the only game in town. Open-weight models — whose weights are published so anyone can download, run and keep them — have real capability, especially when adapted to specific domains.
Europe is already proving it can be done. Twenty European institutions, running on four public supercomputers, are building fully open models for every official EU language. And we are governance first.
What Europe Should Offer the World
My pitch is this: Europe should offer the base layer — open weights, public compute and a rulebook. A partnership with developing countries, not a dependency on them.
Because a base model on its own has limited value. It’s what the human brings to it. Combine an open model with real domain expertise — your language, your laws, your community — and you get something the frontier labs were never going to build. It was never going to be profitable for them.
Small AI With Big Impact
The example I love most is Te Hiku Media in New Zealand — a Māori organisation that built speech technology for te reo Māori, a language the global tech giants were never going to prioritise. They built it for themselves and kept it under community control, instead of trading it to big tech for a service.
That is small AI with big impact, serving the cultures and communities the frontier will never reach.
Redefining What Success Looks Like
We need to stop measuring AI success by access to someone else’s model. Instead, let’s measure AI literacy, competency and fluency by ownership. And let’s count open models and public compute as digital public infrastructure.
- Small, domain-expert, locally owned AI is achievable
- The base is shared — each community adds only its own knowledge and culture
- AI equity is ownership, not access
I’ve got my accreditation for the Summit and I cannot wait to bring you insights from Geneva. I’ll also let you know how the pitch went!
If you want to build your AI literacy and skills, I can help
Grab AI Playbook on Amazon, the perfect podcast companion.
Subscribe to Human in the Loop, my LinkedIn Newsletter
Take the CPD Accredited AI Playbook Diploma
Book a call at digitaltraining.ie
Sources
AI for Developing Countries (AIFOD): Organisation advancing AI development and equity for developing nations. https://af.net/
Key Statistics
– Over 500 leaders will gather in Geneva for the UN Summit on AI titled Small Takes The Lead.
– Members from over 150 countries will attend to discuss AI sovereignty for the Global South.
– A handful of labs currently serve eight billion people with frontier AI models.
– 20 European institutions are building fully open AI models across four public supercomputers.
– Joanne has spent 15 years training public sector communicators, including inside the European Commission.
About the Podcast Host
AI and Communications Specialist | Author | Podcaster | International Speaker
Joanne Sweeney is a recognised leader in digital marketing and digital transformation, specialising in the practical application of AI to enhance communication strategies. The founder of Digital Training Institute, Joanne, empowers leaders and communications professionals to leverage AI responsibly and effectively, ensuring transparency, trust, and tangible results.
She completed the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Programme in AI and Public Policy this summer before launching her fourth book AI Playbook, in September. Joanne has also published two editions of Public Sector Marketing Pro, which were preceded by her first title, Social Media Under Investigation: Law Enforcement and the Social Web.
Her books have become go-to resources for governments, public sector and policing agencies, as well as marketing and communications professionals, all navigating the challenges of the changing Internet.
Joanne is the host of the AI SIX Podcast, a daily six-minute podcast that provides actionable insights, expert interviews, and practical advice to help professionals navigate the new world of work.
