{"product_id":"9789815361964","title":"[eBook]Southeast Asia in the AI Race: Access, Affordability and Resilience","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"z-publication-description\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eGreat power competition over artificial intelligence is often framed as a race to build the most capable frontier model. For Southeast Asia, the central question is whether governments, firms and citizens can access AI that is affordable, reliable, locally relevant and politically accessible.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe region’s dependence extends across the AI stack, including chips, cloud platforms, data centres, energy systems, foundation models and development tools. This dependence becomes a vulnerability when suppliers cannot be replaced quickly, affordably and without serious disruption.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe United States and China are pursuing frontier AI under different constraints. The key contrast is not “large US models” versus “small Chinese models”; it is compute-abundant scaling versus compute-constrained adaptation. US labs benefit from advanced chips, hyperscale cloud infrastructure and deep capital markets, while Chinese firms face tighter hardware constraints and therefore stronger incentives to improve efficiency, reduce prices, adapt models to domestic chips and release open-weight systems. These contrasting pathways offer users in Southeast Asia different mixes of capability, cost, openness and political risks.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStakeholders in Southeast Asia are responding through mixed AI stacks rather than aligning exclusively with either ecosystem. Initiatives such as Singapore’s SEA-LION and MERaLiON, Indonesia’s Sahabat-AI, Thailand’s Typhoon models and Vietnam’s AI Factory combine foreign technologies with local language data, evaluation capacity and locally developed applications.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe policy goal should not be AI self-sufficiency, which is unrealistic for most states. It should be AI resilience: ensuring that essential AI systems remain affordable, locally effective, continuously available, and replaceable when suppliers, prices, access rules or physical infrastructure change.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBuilding this resilience will require governments to preserve switching capacity, invest in local language data and independent evaluation, strengthen cloud and infrastructure continuity, and cooperate regionally on procurement, interoperability and testing standards.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThis book is on the press and will be available for purchase from 17 September 2026.\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"z-format\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat: \u003c\/b\u003eEbook\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"z-number-of-pages\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eNumber of Pages: \u003c\/b\u003e32\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"z-publication-date\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublication Date: \u003c\/b\u003e13\/09\/2026\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"z-imprint\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eImprint: \u003c\/b\u003eISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"z-supported-app\"\u003eRefer to this link for list of supported app: Click \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/retail.alkemlibrary.com\/alkemdocs\/Recommended%20Reading%20Apps.pdf\"\u003ehere!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"z-access-code\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis is an ebook that is fulfilled via Access Code. The Access Code for redemption will be emailed within 2 working days after payment verification\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n","brand":"Zenobia Chan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67583633424562,"sku":"9789815361964","price":9.81,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/5382\/4178\/files\/9789815361964.jpg?v=1790513385","url":"https:\/\/readabook.store\/products\/9789815361964","provider":"READABOOK BY ALKEM","version":"1.0","type":"link"}