Thailand's TH-AI Passport, Explained, and How It Compares with National AI Programmes Worldwide

Five million Thais, twelve months of free premium AI, and 1,621 million baht drawn from a fund that sits outside the annual budget. Thailand's TH-AI Passport is the government's flagship AI initiative and its most contested. MCG read the full tender document, the e-bidding announcement and the 33-page terms of reference, then set the programme against the national AI initiatives of Malta, Singapore, the UAE, Estonia, Vietnam, India and Sweden, to ask the question that will actually decide whether the money is well spent. Not who won the tender, but whether access converts into capability.