Governments Worldwide Express Concern Over U.S. AI Access Cutoff Risk

At the G7 summit, French President Macron and Indian Prime Minister Modi raised identical concerns. The issue was that the United States could unilaterally block access to its AI services overnight. While governments and companies worldwide deepen their reliance on American AI, the structure allowing the U.S. to freely control the supply of these services has emerged as a potential diplomatic flashpoint.

The concern became reality through a service blackout by AI startup Anthropic. Anthropic suddenly halted AI access for certain users or regions. Although the specific targets and reasons were not disclosed, this "blackout" incident concretely substantiated the anxieties that governments had harbored.

The crux of the issue lies in "sovereignty" rather than technological performance. No matter how advanced an AI system is, if there is a risk that other nations' companies or governments can render it unusable through a single decision, integrating such AI into a nation's critical infrastructure or decision-making processes becomes problematic. Particularly in sectors requiring continuity, such as security and administrative services, this dependence could become a fundamental vulnerability.

Conversely, the reason each country seeks American-made AI is equally clear. AI systems from U.S. companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are currently regarded as among the world's best in both performance and reliability. Nations face a contradictory situation: "wanting to use it but not wanting to depend on it." This explains the impetus behind each country's rush to develop its own independent AI.

The fact that "AI access cutoff risks" reached the agenda at the heads-of-state level within the G7 indicates that international discussions surrounding AI technology are transitioning from mere development competition to a struggle over "technological sovereignty." Going forward, discussions on AI access guarantees and governance frameworks are expected to increasingly occupy seats at international diplomatic negotiating tables.