Anchoring the AI revolution: From vyashti to samashti

We often marvel at the recent spectacular AI breakthroughs and the prospect of AGI being realised sooner than later. Also, it is customary to view the unfolding AI scenario through the prisms of power, control, and market supremacy, primarily involving AI companies and labs in the US and China along with their respective governments. To be sure, the US remains at the helm of the frontier AI ecosystem—on computer, models, and strategic direction. It is the undisputed leader across the globe in the global market for electronic chips which power the servers installed in the massive data centers for AI development. The US commercial interests too view US’s supremacy in AI chips industry as a bargaining tool to be leveraged by the US government in leading AI diplomacy across the world. China, a close second, has been intensifying its AI race as well. Going by the outputs of its AI ecosystem like DeepSeek’s various LLMs, China seems to have successfully worked around AI chip export controls applied by the US in recent years. Its current capabilities in frontier AI development as well as future plans and prognosis are not far behind those of the US.