Opinion | Open AI access will make a once-exclusive tool empowering for all

Shift from high-cost exclusivity makes AI potentially a catalyst for global innovation, economic growth and problem-solving

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DeepSeek leads the list of most downloaded free applications in several countries. DeepSeek is considered ChatGPT’s main rival. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 8:30pm, 18 Mar 2025Updated: 10:03pm, 18 Mar 2025

Artificial intelligence (AI) has made quite the splash this year. Despite the many benefits its advancement can bring, a world where AI remains in the hands of a few elite corporations and nations will pose significant risks.

Without democratisation, only a limited number of players will be able to afford AI-driven solutions. This could lead to increased economic inequality, with wealthy organisations gaining disproportionate advantages in productivity and efficiency while smaller businesses and underprivileged communities fall further behind.

In such a world, AI’s potential to address global challenges, such as climate change, healthcare and education, would also be severely constrained, with solutions driven primarily by profit rather than societal good.

A centralised AI landscape could also exacerbate ethical concerns, with unchecked monopolies controlling vast amounts of data and decision-making power.

Ensuring AI’s accessibility is not just an economic necessity but a safeguard against deepening technological divides and global inequalities. Thus, that AI development is increasingly affordable and accessible represents a pivotal shift. With significantly reduced costs, AI is no longer an exclusive tool of major corporations but potentially a catalyst for global innovation, economic growth and problem-solving.

One of the most striking recent developments in AI democratisation is DeepSeek’s open-source R1 large-language model. While companies like OpenAI reportedly spent between US$80 million and US$100 million training their advanced GPT-4 model, DeepSeek managed to achieve impressive results with just US$6 million and 2,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs).