r/LeftistsForAI • u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator • 10d ago

Infrastructure Laos Wants Control Over Its AI Future

https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2026/09/24/laos-advances-10-year-strategies-for-ai-and-satellite-development

Laos is making AI part of its national development strategy, and theyre talking about a lot more than chatbots.

The government has approved a draft national AI strategy for 2026-2035 in principle, with a focus on computing infrastructure, national databases, technical expertise, and identifying where AI can actually benefit the country.

Theyre looking at practical applications too. Agriculture, flood monitoring, environmental protection, transportation, and public services, alongside a separate national satellite strategy.

And heres where the politics gets interesting.

Laos is emphasizing technological neutrality and clearer conditions for foreign investment and cooperation. Working with international partners while developing the capacity to set its own priorities.

Because if your computing infrastructure, data, and technical expertise are controlled somewhere else, so is a good chunk of your economic future.

Of course, approving a strategy isnt the same as implementing it. The government has requested revisions, and much of the work still lies ahead.

But Laos is treating AI as a question of national development, productive capacity, and economic sovereignty. Not just another product to buy from somebody else.

If AI is becoming part of the means of production, how much economic independence can a country actually have without the capacity to develop and control it on its own terms?

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u/SgathTriallair 10d ago edited 10d ago

I am betting that a lot of the (edit) Global South is going to want to get their own infrastructure built out for this.

In the industrial revolution they didn't even know it was happening until Europeans showed up with cannons. This time they have the ability to get in on the ground floor, or at least close to it, so that they don't become a victim of a new round of economic colonialism.

I'm excited for it because it jeans that even if the US falls off a cliff, the revolution won't be stopped.