Writer and activist Cory Doctorow has dismissed the idea that countries need "sovereign AI" capabilities to protect themselves from US technological dominance, calling the concept "nonsense." His comments came in response to Australian economist John Quiggin, who had argued that Donald Trump's dismantling of American institutional norms makes other nations' reliance on US-controlled AI a significant strategic risk, comparable to threats posed by unpredictable American diplomatic, military and financial power.

Doctorow countered that AI itself is largely irrelevant to this risk calculus, describing it as "the money-losingest technology in human history" that has underperformed its promoters' claims. He argued that if Trump were to cut off access to AI chatbots, the economic damage to other countries would be minimal, whereas disabling something like Microsoft Office 365 or bricking John Deere tractors would cause immediate harm. Instead of chasing sovereign AI, Doctorow said, countries should focus on building their own apps and datacentres for everyday administrative, telecoms and e-commerce needs, and migrating critical data onto those independent platforms.