From using AI to owning it: the Global South's shift

A World Economic Forum survey traces how initiatives across the Global South are moving from a consumer posture to a builder posture: local models, local data governance, and local talent pipelines. The framing matters. The question is no longer whether these societies will use AI — they already do — but whether they will own any of the means of producing it. This is the 'knowledge that benefits' thesis observed in the wild, and it maps directly onto QeRN's emphasis on self-reliance and durable institutions. Ownership of computation is fast becoming the twenty-first-century version of owning the printing press.

This is a QeRN summary by Ahmed Qerni. Read the original at World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/02/how-the-global-south-is-reimagining-the-future-of-ai/.