Cloud deployment can be a blessing because it can remove all the heavy lifting that goes into setup, but it comes with strings attached. For SMEs under strict data protection regulations (like HIPAA, GDPR, or the EU AI Act), cloud deployment can become a compliance risk. Additionally, cloud costs can become unpredictable and balloon into large costs due to unexpected spikes in traffic and misconfigurations with storage or compute. Vendor lock-in is also another concern with cloud computing, where SMEs can become trapped with a service provider. In the worst-case scenario, a service provider could sell user data or even use this data to train AI models. This might be explicitly allowed in the terms of use, quietly added in an update to the terms, or still occur despite not being allowed based on the terms.
AI in air-gapped …