Artificial Intelligence Doesn't Have to Come from the US or China? These Countries Face a Difficult Choice

• According to the ERIA Institute (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia), South Asia will become a new front for AI development.
• China's artificial intelligence development strategy is consistently based on five pillars: human resources, computing power, models, data and energy infrastructure.
• In February, the Australian government announced a ban on the use of the Chinese-developed artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek.

The Asia-Pacific region does not want to lag behind the United States when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and educational offers for young talent. According to a report by ESCAP (the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), more than 60 percent of the world's youth population (people aged 15-24) live in the Asia-Pacific region.

Demographic conditions mean that policymakers see AI development as an opportunity for young people. In turn, technology companies are increasingly interested in this region as a source of specialized workers.

ASEAN and South Asia: A Recipe for Attracting Talent

Southeast Asia continues to push for foreign investment in AI infrastructure. According to the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), South Asia will become a new frontier for AI development. In the first half of 2024, the region attracted $30 billion in investment, according to the 2024 e-Conomy SEA Report.

During the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Science, Technology and Innovation (AMMSTI), it was emphasized that artificial intelligence can significantly impact the region's economy - according to the cited Kearney report, by 2030 AI could be responsible for an additional GDP revenue of the region's countries worth $1 trillion .

The ERIA Institute mentions the need for long-term support for education in ASEAN through investment at both the nation-state and private sector levels. Singapore is at the forefront , also achieving excellent results in PISA tests. However, the community is concerned that the rest of ASEAN countries are lagging far behind in education rankings. For this reason, broader actions are planned to support education.

The cure is also supposed to be vocational training in IT, which is supposed to improve practical skills. Another action is to prioritize talent mobility, including granting visas for "digital nomads", promoting global exchange of knowledge and professional opportunities. These actions are intended to internationalize the region and the flow of competences. In the ASEAN community countries, there are global players who focus on the potential of the region, including, apart from Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. ERIA points here to initiatives organized by SEA Bridge and Amazon Web Services, for example. In addition, programs such as AI-Ready ASEAN, run with Google, are emerging, which aims to strengthen competences in the field of AI in the region.

China is expanding its power

It is not easy to find information about China in the media debate that would be presented in a positive light. Chinese achievements are usually interpreted as a potential threat, and their failures are often interpreted as confirmation of the superiority of Western systems. However, such a strongly normative view may obscure important processes in the Middle Kingdom. It is worth noting that China is consistently building its position as a global power in the field of artificial intelligence , gradually expanding its influence on world markets.

Technology development goes hand in hand with investment in talent education: China is actively expanding AI education programs at university level to increase the number of AI graduates, and the Chinese government is supporting the development of open AI platforms such as DeepSeek, which not only enable software development but also serve as educational tools for young talent.

China's artificial intelligence development strategy is consistently based on five pillars:

• human resources,
• computing power,
• models,
• data,
• energy infrastructure.

And it is precisely in these areas, apart from access to cutting-edge chips, that Beijing is making impressive progress . During the technology summit in Washington on April 30, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did not mince his words. When asked how far China lags behind the US in artificial intelligence, he reportedly replied: "China is not behind... it is right behind us. We are very close."

China’s strengths include its energy infrastructure and the stable power supply for energy-hungry data centers and AI systems . All of this makes China one of the biggest powers in this field, with one of the largest pools of skilled workers. After testing infrastructure projects like bridges, roads, and tunnels at home, China turned to foreign markets to export its skills and workers. A similar pattern can be seen in AI today.

An example is the already mentioned Chinese platform DeepSeek, based on open source code, which promotes universal access to its technology. This is not only about its practical application in creating software today, but also about enabling young talents to develop their own competences thanks to the functions provided. This is an important tool for the export of the Chinese education model and building digital competences.

Australia's Tough Choice

According to an analysis published in the East Asia Forum, Australia faces a difficult challenge in developing artificial intelligence in the context of technological rivalry between the United States and China. On the one hand, Australia has built strong economic ties with China over the past decades, but on the other, political alliances with the US have put pressure on caution in cooperation with Beijing, especially in sensitive areas such as data processing and artificial intelligence.

The analysis suggests that Washington is pressuring Australia to curtail research collaboration with China. The paper, authored mostly by Chinese-Americans, suggests that such US restrictions could challenge academic freedom and stifle valuable research partnerships for AI advancement.

For Australians, for whom China is geographically closer than the US, although further away in terms of political worldview, this situation is quite difficult. Like the countries of the European Union, Australia is behind the US and China in terms of technological development, and developing artificial intelligence must take place through international cooperation, which de facto always involves losing some technological independence.

To effectively develop AI talent, a strong technological base is essential. In Australia, the lack of extensive domestic GPU clusters forces researchers to use offshore cloud services, which generates high costs and increases data security risks. While the National Computing Infrastructure and the Australian Intelligence Platform provide partial support, funding for the sector remains fragmented and largely focused on short-term pilot projects at the expense of longer-term and fundamental research.

The authors emphasize that solutions such as China’s DeepSeek, based on open source code, can contribute to the popularization of advanced AI technologies. Differences in worldviews and political risks mean that Australians remain closed to this solution. For example, in February 2025, the Australian government announced a ban on the use of the Chinese-developed DeepSeek AI platform in all government systems and devices due to national security concerns.