The rapid expansion of AI-based remote services has intensified debates about the long-term implications of growing structural concentration in infrastructure and expertise. As AI capabilities become increasingly intertwined with geopolitical interests, the availability and reliability of foundational AI services can no longer be taken for granted. This issue is particularly pressing for AI-enabled public services for citizens, as governments and public agencies are progressively adopting 24/7 AI-driven support systems typically operated through commercial offerings from a small oligopoly of global technology providers. This paper challenges the prevailing assumption that general-purpose architectures, offered by these providers, are the optimal choice for all application contexts. Through practical experimentation, we demonstrate that viable and cost-effective alternatives exist. Alternatives that align with principles of digital and cultural sovereignty. Our findings provide an empirical illustration that sovereign AI-based public services are both technically feasible and economically sustainable, capable of operating effectively on premises with modest computational and financial resources while maintaining cultural and digital autonomy. The technical insights and deployment lessons reported here are intended to inform the adoption of similar sovereign AI public services by national agencies and governments worldwide.

翻译：基于AI的远程服务迅速扩张，加剧了关于基础设施与专业知识领域结构性集中度日益增长所带来长期影响的争论。随着AI能力与地缘政治利益日益交织，基础AI服务的可用性与可靠性已不能再被视为理所当然。这一问题对于面向公民的AI赋能公共服务尤为紧迫，因为各国政府和公共机构正越来越多地采用全天候AI驱动的支持系统，而这些系统通常由少数全球技术提供商组成的寡头垄断企业通过商业服务运营。本文挑战了当前普遍存在的假设，即认为这些提供商提供的通用架构是所有应用场景下的最优选择。通过实际实验，我们证明了存在可行且具有成本效益的替代方案——符合数字与文化主权原则的替代方案。我们的研究结果提供了实证说明：基于主权AI的公共服务在技术上可行且经济上可持续，能够在适度的计算与财务资源条件下于本地有效运行，同时保持文化与数字自主性。本文报告的技术见解与部署经验，旨在为全球各国机构与政府采用类似的主权AI公共服务提供参考。