Small economies here is a reference to countries with limited general economic power, not necessarily(or only) population.
The world wants to converge. This is probably what powerful governments have been trying to do, bringing governance to a central point where one body of government controls all other global governments.
This is not the kind of convergence I speak of. I think that systems is what will converge and by this I mean obstacles that have made each nation's economy alien to others in most cases, will be removed.
Crypto and blockchain tech enthusiasts have been preaching this for years. I happen to agree because it makes sense that when the financial layer of all economies is a distributed ledger with no single authority, everything else comes under that system, converging, but not being centralized.
But why am I talking about systems?
Artificial intelligence will have a significant impact on systems, trade systems, governance systems, defense systems, financial systems, it will all be connected to this technology and the potential effects is that most else could suffer if adjustments and adaptation is rejected.
If economies refuse AI, the could suffer. The concept of independence of economy is what every nation thinks they can build, but the truth is that regardless of how advanced or productive an economy is, it will always rely on some external economies for certain demands.
The biggest of economies are leading in AI developments. The two names most often talked of is the United States and China.
Everyone kind of knows how well these economies will perform. Not about the specifics, in numbers, but that growth is expected, value generation is expected, new wealth generation is expected.
But what about the smaller economies? How will they, or can they compete?
Historically, nations that controlled things, whether that was resources, trade routes, technologies or institutions, controlled the world, and in the age of AI, there's significant evidence what those things might be.
I think personally, chips and energy, are at the top of the list.
China is leading the United States in energy generation.
When it comes to chips, according to reports, the US leads in design and R&D, and is a top producer by sales value, but has less manufacturing capacity compared to Asia, China leads in total manufacturing capacity by volume.
Again, this is added prove of who the leading economies will be in the age of AI. Very few economies globally can afford pouring trillions into AI, even just billions.
As a result, small economies may not be able compete to build trillion-dollar AI models. But the good news however, is that they will be able to capitalize on what the major economies develop.
There's no reason to try to reinvent a wheel when one can just leverage what has already been made. Small economies will have to play in the minor leagues of generating as much value through the use of advanced AI systems and solutions avaliable.
We can expect that some will bleed initially, pain will come before abundance as every major change tends to cause. Adjustments don't come easy, especially in developing and underdeveloped economies.