The global AI divide

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The US and China dominate the field of artificial intelligence - between them they’re responsible for 90% of the world’s AI infrastructure. Where does this leave the rest of the world?

We speak to an AI business in Kenya, a country that doesn’t benefit from lots of investment in the sector.

We discuss the difficulties of trying to innovate in Argentina.

And we explore the divide between regions seeing a lot of investment in the industry compared to those that aren’t, and what this could mean for the future.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, you can email us at [email protected]

Presented and produced by Hannah Mullane

(Picture: Computer science professor Nicolas Wolovick, in Argentina, next to a supercomputer. Credit: Nicolas Wolovick)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:09.5	Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.
0:13.7	I'm Hannah Malame.
0:15.3	Today, in the second part in our series looking at how artificial intelligence or AI is changing the business world,
0:22.7	we're looking at the growing AI divide.
0:25.5	Well, a big AI announcement at the White House.
0:27.6	We're talking about Oracle, SoftBank and Open AI investing at least $500 billion in artificial
0:33.0	intelligence.
0:33.8	Apple has committed to spending $500 billion in the United States over the next four years.
0:39.4	Just a snapshot of the huge amount of investment happening in the US in the race to build the infrastructure needed for AI.
0:46.5	It may be unsurprising that two countries, the US and China, dominate in this field.
0:51.7	Between them, they're responsible for 90% of the world's artificial
0:55.1	intelligence infrastructure. But what does that mean for everyone else? What we do see is a gap
1:01.1	between some countries on this planet versus other countries and regions. Europe and other parts
1:06.8	of the world definitely have to step up their game. And it's not easy because it requires
1:11.7	a lot of capital expenditure. We'll hear about the impact of this growing AI gap and how some
1:18.1	businesses are coming up with innovative solutions to try and keep up, including working when
1:23.4	everyone else is asleep. You have to find time when not everybody is hogging the resources.
1:29.1	Like 4 a.m. 5 a.m.
1:30.6	Because then Kenya has not working up, Europe has not working up.
1:33.8	The US is sleeping.
1:35.2	So the only person in your company where this China and India.
	...

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