The global competition for AI supremacy is evolving rapidly, shifting from a focus on chip manufacturing to a broader battle for cloud and data center dominance.

This development has far-reaching implications for the future of AI innovation, global politics, and the very fabric of our technological infrastructure.

Chris Miller, author of the influential book Chip War, recently highlighted this shift, drawing parallels between today’s AI infrastructure and the tightly controlled supercomputers of the Cold War era. 

But what does this mean for the future of AI, and why should businesses pay attention?

I got the scoop from Marketing AI Institute founder and CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 108 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.

The new battleground: Cloud and data centers

As AI systems become increasingly vital to the global economy, countries worldwide are viewing data centers and AI infrastructure as strategic resources. Miller’s analysis reveals:

• Many nations are investing heavily in building their own AI infrastructure
• Countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia are pouring resources into data center capacity
• U.S. cloud companies see lucrative opportunities in this trend, arguing that if they don’t take contracts from foreign governments, competitors like China will

OK, so that’s some heavy geopolitics…

Which isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea. But this matters to every marketer and business leader trying to plan for the future.

“What this indicates is that the big tech companies and leading governments are preparing for an intelligence explosion,” Roetzer explains. 

“Whether economists are telling us this or not, whether the latest research report is telling us this or not, whether the stock market’s movements are telling us this or not, when you look out over a 3-10 year horizon, everyone is preparing for a world where intelligence is omnipresent.”

The shift from training to inference

This is going to create an even bigger boom in AI infrastructure, says Roetzer.

“Right now, what we’ve had is all of this demand for Nvidia’s chips to build these data centers, to train these very large models,” he says. “Now we’re trying to find the applications for those models and infuse them into businesses.”

But it’s still so early. Intelligence hasn’t truly diffused throughout society yet. 

“We’ve been using the data and the computing power to build the models. But, in the future, the need is going to flip.”

We’re going to go from using all this infrastructure on training and start using it on inference, or the process of using trained models to make predictions or decisions. 

As intelligence gets infused into everything we use, our phones, glasses, computers, appliances, cars, and more, expect the demand for inference computing power to skyrocket—along with infrastructure to meet that demand.

The coming intelligence explosion

Roetzer highlights several indicators of this coming “intelligence explosion.” You might expect in the relatively near future:

• Increased CapEx spending on data centers by major tech companies
• Development of more advanced AI assistants, like OpenAI’s new voice feature
• Progress in humanoid robotics, with companies like Figure preparing to launch advanced models

“The thing we have to keep in mind is we’re looking at the near term future as business leaders, as practitioners, as knowledge workers,” says Roetzer. 

“We’re just trying to figure out how to use ChatGPT and find use cases, but you have to understand that governments and tech leaders are looking way beyond that.”

Implications for businesses and professionals

This rapid advancement in AI infrastructure and capabilities has significant implications if you work for or run a business. Firms need to be thinking about three key areas, says Roetzer.

1. Strategic planning: Businesses need to look 12-18 months ahead and plan for potential AI breakthroughs.
2. Competitive advantage: Companies that anticipate and prepare for the “intelligence explosion” will likely outpace their competitors.
3. Career development: Professionals who understand and can work with advanced AI systems will become increasingly valuable.

“The best businesses, the companies that truly differentiate themselves in the next five to 10 years, the leaders who become so valuable, the practitioners become extremely valuable in their careers. They’re going to look 12 to 18 months out,” Roetzer advises.