Project Syndicate

Whereas the internet buried us in information, AI enables us to outsource analysis altogether. But when it comes to grappling with humanity’s most important questions, we must resist the temptation and recognize that we all have a duty—to each other and to ourselves—to keep “showing up.”

Kemi Badenoch’s keynote address at the British Conservative Party conference last month outlined her plan for a pro-growth future that respects fiscal discipline and human dignity. As American conservatives look beyond Donald Trump and to the 2028 primary campaign, they should embrace a similar agenda.

The removal of Bogdan Święczkowski as president of the Constitutional Tribunal has triggered a physical confrontation at the court and a political standoff between Donald Tusk’s government and the far-right Law and Justice (PiS) party. But Święczkowski was not so much removed as barred, because he held the position illegally.

Since a society that is reluctant to deploy a technology will not capture its gains, it is worth understanding why the AI revolution is being welcomed in some places and resisted in others. The explanation is not as simple as headline poll data and much media coverage suggest.

The exponential trajectory of the latest Ebola outbreak is an urgent reminder that infectious diseases do not wait for ideal geopolitical alignments or balanced budgets. Global leaders must fund the Africa-led regional response today, or risk paying an immeasurably higher price in human lives and economic devastation tomorrow.

With major governments showing open hostility toward climate solutions or focusing on other needs, one might think that progress toward decarbonization is in jeopardy. Yet across the global industrial sector, many companies are increasing productivity, boosting revenue growth, and reducing emissions all at once.

Speculative bubbles often leave behind valuable infrastructure while bankrupting the investors who financed them. AI could follow the same path, but the industry’s growing reliance on borrowed money raises the risk of a major financial crisis long before its world-beating applications emerge.

The recent electoral defeat of far-right forces in Brazil and Serbia offers important lessons for pro-democracy forces around the world as they confront nationalist and illiberal movements. But no single election can guarantee democracy’s resilience, and the challenges these countries’ new governments face remain formidable.

While the US and China want their critical-mineral investments to deliver the biggest returns possible, governments in resource-rich countries must balance external pressures with internal demands. Mining firms must also win local communities’ trust, as host countries will be quick to throw them under the bus if public opinion sours.

With interest rates on government debt having gone from near zero to much higher levels in recent years, rising short- and long-term bond yields have cast doubt on the sustainability of some debts and led many to wonder if a crisis might be looming. While some countries are more protected than others, none is immune.

Before approving a one-time tax on the wealth of billionaires who lived in the state at a certain point in time, Californians should consider what such a policy will do to future tax revenues. Since wealth is mobile, those who stand to lose the most will simply leave, taking their future income-tax payments with them.

The current generation of young Europeans possesses freedoms, material resources, opportunities to travel, and technological capabilities beyond anything previous generations could have imagined. Their demands, however, are strikingly simple: decent schools, secure jobs, affordable homes, and the possibility of raising a family.

China’s economy is deeply unbalanced, with a battered real-estate sector, weak consumption, and stark regional disparities coexisting with dynamic tech and export sectors. But provided that political stability is maintained, China could continue to be a global powerhouse even as hundreds of millions of its citizens remain poor.

Delegates at the Bund Summit in Shanghai largely agreed that the US-China relationship could be entering a new, less contentious chapter, although many were more interested in what the post-Trump era will mean for Sino-American ties. But perhaps the most heartening sign for the future was the honest exchange of views.

Although it is true that European integration has always been forged through crisis, the continent’s postwar story was largely one of incremental responses to relatively manageable challenges. Today, the European Union is facing multiple, interrelated problems that challenge its very raison d’être.

Following the ouster of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power earlier this year, the world has once again witnessed the merits of “old-school” campaigning. In toppling their own country's strongman, Serbia's new student-led opposition offers important lessons for those defending democracy elsewhere.

Addressing AI safety risks depends on close collaboration between the two leading AI powers, and the establishment of an incident-reporting channel is just a small step in this direction. But success will require that the US and Chinese governments actually understand what is happening under their own noses.

Around the world, governments are increasingly deciding who gets privacy and who is denied it, a double standard that turns a fundamental democratic right into a privilege. US President Donald Trump’s administration is a prime example, shielding ICE agents from scrutiny while expanding surveillance of immigrants and protesters.

Brazil’s renewed democratic confidence must now be matched by institutional and structural reforms and a willingness to build coalitions beyond the left. Recent democratic outcomes in Hungary and Serbia offer useful lessons.