The future of AI is here, and while it feels surprising it isn’t exactly unexpected. From the emerging ability to understand missions and act independently to accomplish them to actively creating new AI agents to carry out those missions, the rapidity of innovation is surprising—even if the developments themselves seem logical in retrospect. Anticipation of such a leap forward has been rife for years, which is why over that time experts (including many of ours) have spoken about standard setting and best practice norms, if not outright regulatory guardrails for AI.
That is a task which looks more complex than ever, because we have at least three unique and increasingly divergent approaches to AI. China is leaning into state control of AI as a strategic asset. The EU is bolstering regulatory guidelines that are meant to be flexible and resilient but which critics say will stifle innovation. Meanwhile, the U.S. is taking a very light touch on regulation to encourage rapid innovation to stay ahead of its competitors in the AI race. Taken together, many are concerned about what this divergent approach means for the digital future of society.
Truly global standards are likely beyond us for the foreseeable future. As a society, or as a set of various global societies, we’ve understood for some time that with exponential technologies, we have for some time been at an inflection point. Having not managed to agree on standards for AI development, we are now entering a period of AI uncertainty we foresaw but could not prevent.
What will this mean for our shared digital future? Regardless of what you may have read or heard, that’s unclear. To gain some insights into what scenarios we might see play out, or what we can do to steer toward scenarios we may prefer, Diplomatic Courier asked its expert community for their analysis. The response was exactly what we expected—overwhelming in volume and representative of a wide sampling of perspectives.
We hope this digital compilation of commentaries gives you some insight into what the future of AI could be, what you would like it to be, and what you might be able to do to help that future come into being.
