Why the World Needs an International GenAI Fund

It’s about moving from wow to how – we will see large end-to-end transformation projects that bolster efficiency and service quality and enable new business models.

But there is also a dark side of GenAI. We will experience the first big cyberattacks with potentially severe consequences; and we will certainly see harmful election interference, especially in the US.

In fact, we have already seen it in Argentina and Slovakia. We may also see the value of a company deep-dive due to a CEO deepfake video.

A Double-Edged Sword

This technology’s ambiguity is unavoidable and inherent – and it is not new. GenAI is truly a double-edged sword, comparable to the use of nuclear energy. What does that mean for business leaders and decision-makers? Any technology has to be deployed and used responsibly, and regarding the exponential speed and surge of GenAI, this approach is without alternative.

It’s the hour of cooperation. Action is required, we need a new and bold multilateral process to fully take advantage of the overall benefits of AI by mitigating risks and potential dangers for democracy and humankind. We need to manage this challenge in a global, cross-functional, and interdisciplinary new process for (Gen)AI.

There are some role models regarding multinational cooperation and regulation:

► The Manhattan Project to create the world’s first atomic weapons while, at the same time, learning to assess, regulate, and finally control the destructive power of this technology.

► The Paris Agreement and the ongoing fight against the climate crisis and for a green energy transition, fading out fossil fuels.

► The 17 UN Development goals as a universal call to action, ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

We need this kind of organisational model again for GenAI, because:

► the technology is too significant and too high risk to be left to a few companies and countries alone;

► GenAI in its ambiguity cannot be debated and assessed in siloes. Right now, we discuss this topic either in business siloes amongst researchers, and large companies, e.g. in the Frontier Model Forum by OpenAI, Google and others, in the open source community led by Meta and Hugging Face, or we discuss the implications in policymaker siloes, e.g. some UN body or G7 forums or governmental initiatives like Rishi Sunaks AI summit end of last year in the UK.

Call for Action Boosting GenAI Infrastructure

Access to compute power and data must become a common good. Currently, the biggest orders for NVIDIA’s H100 Chips, the lifelines of AI compute powers, come from private companies. This concentration of compute power prevents the technology from scaling, and startups, SMEs, and research institutes from using it widely. GenAI infrastructure must become a critical infrastructure like electricity or medical supply – financed by an International GenAI fund and available to all.

Europe Has to Speed Up

Europe in particular is lagging here – the largest single order of those chips from Europe is around 10,000 units, compared to 150,000-unit orders from Microsoft and Meta alone. The EU Commission needs to step up and spend at least EUR 10 billion on GPUs that enable GenAI adoption and boost competitiveness. But that is not enough – to ensure the technology is adopted globally, we need an International GenAI fund.

Data is the other raw material of GenAI. As with the climate data initiative by President Macron, we need to see International Data Cooperation for the most impactful GenAI use cases in healthcare, climate change mitigation, and other critical areas. So that LLMs can be trained on critical data safely to fully leverage the potential of GenAI.

Regulation Is Key

We have learnt in the past decade how to tame the destructive power of platforms without curbing their benefits and opportunities. The EU AI Act is an approach to do the same for GenAI; the US is obviously going in the same direction. Horizontal international rules are difficult to agree upon, but hard-enforced responsibilities and regulations in certain areas must be mandatory.

Walk the Talk

To deploy, reshape, and invent, business leaders and policy leaders alike must be more familiar with the GenAI technology. The Manhattan Project demonstrated how we can quickly upskill and bring the most brilliant minds together. GenAI touches everyone and will disrupt the way we work and live in a very short time. That is why we can’t wait – the time to act is now. ©Ⓟ