The debate surrounding AI sovereignty may be unfolding at the governmental, boardroom and national media level, but these discussions are taking place at a distance from the people who use and rely on AI in the day-to-day.

Governments debate regulation, while technology companies consider where to build and host their models. Founders and investors assess geopolitical risk, infrastructure and access to computing power, while regulators consider how AI systems should be developed and deployed. For people who use AI every day, like students, changes in AI sovereignty and regulation can affect whether the tools they rely on remain available.

Today’s students can be dependent on AI while having little visibility into the infrastructure and policy decisions that determine whether they can continue using it. The digital sovereignty debate has the potential to become an undeniable accessibility barrier for students.

Digital sovereignty casts a shadow over students’ access to AI tools

The European Union has a history of depending on technology and infrastructure from outside the economic and political bloc. More than 80% of the technology used in Europe and around 70% of its cloud computing comes from non-EU countries. AI adoption has increased Europe’s dependence on other countries, with the United States and China accounting for the overwhelming majority of global AI computing infrastructure.