> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://wiki.jamesvarga.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Chris Herd — maker or taker in the AI race

> Chris Herd on Scotland's choice between building AI capability or buying it, energy as strategic advantage, and the case for an AI-first country.

## Who

Chris Herd speaks from a perspective rooted in Aberdeen and Scotland's manufacturing legacy. He brings a direct, high-conviction view on AI and robotics as civilisation-level forces and what that means for national strategy.

## What is the core argument?

AI and robotics are so consequential that every country has to choose: build real capability or buy it from elsewhere. Scotland has energy as a strategic advantage. The nations that choose to be "makers" will set the rules, capture the margin, and compound advantages. Scotland needs to decide now.

## What are the key themes?

**AI and robotics are the defining forces of the next 30 to 50 years.** This is not a sector trend. It is the organising context for the economy. Small, incremental positioning is not a strategy at this scale.

**Every nation must choose maker or taker.** Neutrality is not stable. You either build core capability or become dependent on those who do. The framing shifts the debate from support programmes to industrial intent and sovereignty.

**Scotland's energy is a differentiator.** Power supply becomes a strategic input when computing and robotics are energy-hungry. Scotland's renewable energy surplus is not an infrastructure footnote — it is a competitive advantage at global scale.

**Industrial depth still exists.** Aberdeen's oil and gas legacy represents manufacturing capability, not just history. Scotland has been close to advanced manufacturing including semiconductors. Other parts of Scotland have manufacturing capacity too.

**Advanced manufacturing needs honest assessment.** Whether Scotland could manufacture semiconductors is a legitimate question, but it needs a hard-eyed assessment rather than assumption. The important behaviour is willingness to test difficult industrial options against reality.

**The mission: the world's first AI-first country.** Build compute infrastructure underneath it and make Scotland the best place for AI startups to build. This is a capability build with physical infrastructure, not a branding exercise.

## What ideas were discussed?

* Make a deliberate national choice to be a builder, not a consumer, in AI and robotics.
* Start from real constraints and assets: energy, factories, existing industrial expertise.
* Treat ambition as delivery: compute and manufacturing capability first, narrative second.
* Optimise for founder outcomes so Scotland becomes the default place to build an AI company.
* Test hard options in public, including what is feasible and what is not.

## Published content

* [Article on Substack](https://buildingscotland.substack.com/p/scotland-has-power-whats-missing)

## Related pages

* [Building Scotland: Conversations](/projects/building-scotland-conversations) — the project producing this series
* [Ecosystem building in Scotland](/knowledge/ecosystem/index) — primary knowledge area
* [Building green AI compute in Scotland](/content/papers/green-ai-compute-scotland) — article on the compute opportunity
* [Scotland in the AI age](/content/papers/scotland-ai-age) — policy whitepaper
* [Navigating the Tech Industry's Path to Net-Zero](/content/papers/tech-net-zero) — energy and data centres