UN Agency Explores Alternatives to Major Cloud Providers

A United Nations agency is working with a Switzerland-based technology organization to help governments develop AI-powered applications while reducing their dependence on U.S.-based cloud providers.

Why it matters: Governments are increasingly concerned about how much control they maintain over sensitive public data when that information is stored or processed through infrastructure owned by foreign technology companies.

Driving the news: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the DFINITY Foundation are launching a pilot initiative aimed at helping governments test AI-powered services while retaining greater control over the location of their data and computing infrastructure.

UNDP is expected to choose five countries for the first phase of the initiative within about a month. Each pilot will focus on a specific challenge identified by the participating government.

The initiative also builds on DFINITY’s existing collaboration with Pakistan, where the government has begun integrating the organization’s technology into its national digital infrastructure. Several applications using DFINITY’s tools are already operational, according to Sohail Munir, chair of the Pakistan Digital Authority.

The big picture: As governments accelerate their adoption of artificial intelligence, some are looking for alternatives that allow them to build AI-enabled public services without becoming overly reliant on the world’s largest cloud computing providers.

Dependence on hyperscale cloud companies based in the United States or China may create concerns around data sovereignty, particularly when those companies are subject to the laws, data-access requirements and surveillance frameworks of their home countries.

Zoom in: Once the participating countries are selected, each government will work with UNDP and DFINITY to identify a specific public-sector challenge and develop a project that can be built and tested using DFINITY’s technology, according to Robert Pasicko, who leads UNDP’s Alternative Finance Lab.

Pasicko expects the five countries to be drawn from Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Zoom out: Interest in the initiative grew as more UN member states raised concerns about where the data used by AI applications is stored and how dependent their digital systems have become on major U.S. technology companies.

One potential application could involve using AI to analyze medical scans from approximately 200,000 patients while ensuring that sensitive health information remains under government control.

For some governments, the central challenge is increasingly how to benefit from artificial intelligence without giving up control over confidential state and citizen data.

Between the lines: Dominic Williams, DFINITY’s founder and chief scientist, said the rapid expansion of AI is making technological dependence a more serious strategic issue for countries that rely heavily on foreign providers for critical digital infrastructure.

“If someone could flick a kill switch and knock out your cloud and your AI, your country is going to grind to a halt,” Williams said.

What’s next: UNDP plans to assess the pilot projects based on several factors, including cost, usability and whether participating governments believe the technology is practical enough to expand.

The broader goal is to determine where decentralized cloud and AI infrastructure can provide meaningful advantages for governments — and where traditional technology models may remain the better option.