Artificial intelligence continues to dominate the headlines, almost three years after ChatGPT exploded on to the tech scene, stoking interest in the technology. But while there has been much talk about the possibilities that the next generation of AI can bring, it has not been without controversy.

Fears over the impact of jobs, the limitations of the technology and the concerns over data use have become topics for debate as the tech industry and wider society gets to grip with how AI could possibly change our society.

While tech executives such as Mark Zuckerberg have emphasised the importance of tapping the data of European online users to train models and make them more relevant, there is another movement gathering pace: sovereign AI.

Sovereign AI has one overarching theme: control. Specifically, building a system that is under the control of the state rather than farming it out to a private third party that may have its own priorities.

Countries such as Sweden and France have already made moves on sovereign AI. The big question is whether Ireland should follow.

“Sovereign AI in its most simple form is countries and regions having the ability to manage AI with their own proprietary data in their own environment and borders,” says Dell Technologies’ Jason Ward.

That means using storage, servers and networking in a data centre controlled within the region and borders of Ireland.

Control over data seems to be the overriding benefit to sovereign AI. That could be data from Revenue, healthcare records, public sector information or social welfare information.