Adam Winchester, a self-described artificial intelligence visionary from Australia, put up a post a few days ago on LinkedIn where he discussed the concept of sovereign artificial intelligence.
Mr. Winchester warns his LinkedIn readers that if they don’t have operational advantage over a subscription model where they can change its pricing, ethical guardrails, or availability overnight, the subscriber does not have an AI strategy. They have dependence.
Sovereign AI, according to Mr. Winchester, is the shift from renting AI to owning AI within your own perimeter. Data gravity and privacy are enhanced when the reasoning engine is kept next to the data. Intelligence goes from a variable cost to a fixed asset when you run a smaller model on your own controlled infrastructure. And if you want true ownership of intellectual property infrastructure, your model becomes an asset on your balance sheet.
I found Mr. Winchester’s arguments compelling because lately I have given more thought to where we humans are going in terms of artificial intelligence. Specifically, as the larger players in the AI space are announcing the need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next five to ten years, I have to wonder how much of that spending is designed to help you and I, the generators of intelligence.
I can understand that the collection of consumer data could be expensive, especially where the consumer acts like a renter of her data versus a provider of her data. To get the consumer to turn over her data, you have to convince her that there will be a fair and equitable exchange of her data for something she values. I personally see that as a limited exchange. Some people may have more to offer a provider in terms of personality or money in exchange for the access to other services that provider makes available. For most of us, however, we may have slightly more personality than we do money.
Rather than staying hooked up to the machine like “Neo” was in the beginning of “The Matrix”, why shouldn’t we “free our minds” by selling our data rather than renting it?
I see one problem with owning our information versus renting it. We may find that we become very predictable in terms of our needs, wants, and habits. Most of us do not like nor do we offer surprises. Some of us may have good or great incomes, but our actions sooner or later become predictable. We notice this predictability when it comes to our day-to-day data. In my opinion, there is not that much of it.
That is not to say that we personally lessen our data. We may not be Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, but what we have is ours and we should be willing to put a price on our data while maintaining ownership of our data. I have been seeing too many of us settle for renting our data or worse, giving up our data. I am glad that Mr. Winchester and millions of Americans are pushing back against giving up our data ownership.
People like Mr. Winchester are letting us know that the artificial intelligence universe is shrinking or can be shrunk. The shrinkage is not in terms of the amount of information available, but in terms of one person being able to control their data and able to license their data to the highest bidder. I believe that is the type of world we should be moving to.
Alton Drew
16 December 2025
Lawyers Write the Bets. Bankers Sell the Bets. 