AI Power, Access and the New Competitive Divide

The rapid advancement of AI is creating a dangerous new competitive divide, not just between companies but between nations and systems. Suresh Srinivasan, Group Head of Cybersecurity and Data Privacy at Asiata, warns that AI is no longer just a tool for efficiency—it's being weaponized at machine speed, with models like Anthropic's Mythos capable of discovering zero-day vulnerabilities faster than humans can respond. This imbalance creates an 'unfair battlefield' where attacks are automated and remediation remains painfully slow. While companies like Meta are embedding AI into existing ecosystems rather than selling it as a standalone product, the real threat lies in what's still hidden: the true scale, speed, and cost of AI execution. Srinivasan emphasizes that people are underestimating both AI’s capacity for large-scale autonomous action and the massive financial burden of running it—challenges that will limit true democratization and deepen inequality in access and power. The episode reveals a critical shift: AI’s most dangerous phase isn’t its intelligence, but its ability to act at scale without human oversight. As governments and corporations race to control access to advanced models, the real risk isn’t just malicious use—it’s systemic fragility. The cost of AI infrastructure, energy consumption, and token processing will become a major bottleneck, making widespread adoption economically unsustainable for most.