An internet populated and run by AI agents will need not just reliable data but also a broader information ecology capable of questioning its own inputs and transmitting corrections where they are needed if information changes. But whether this will serve private interests or the public good remains to be seen.
offers a preview of an internet fully populated by private, public, and personal AI agents.
Extreme weather and climate-related events caused €822 billion in economic losses across the European Union between 1980 and 2024, with a quarter of the losses occurring just in the last five years. The consequences for Europe’s competitiveness and economic security are clear—and so is the appropriate response.
touts the cost savings and economic opportunities implied by a new approach to infrastructure investment.
Uganda has embraced digital-surveillance tools in the name of improving public safety and combating terrorism, a pattern that is repeating itself across several African countries. But governments are increasingly using these technologies for political control, rather than for national security.
highlights the problem of “function creep” in African governments’ use of foreign surveillance tech.
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Oct 23, 2026 Navneeraj Sharma & Arvind Subramanian identify political, economic, and fiscal weaknesses that could turn into a perfect storm.
Oct 23, 2026 PS editors When we talk about "reinvention" we often overlook what works, noted WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in her closing keynote. This is true of the global trading system, which has proven surprisingly resilient in recent years, and of the European economy, which might not have a tech giant to rival those in the US or China, but remains a global trade powerhouse and a leader in science and research.
Oct 23, 2026 Janet Zhou proposes funding civil-society overseers through stolen-asset recovery and sovereign-debt treatments.
Oct 23, 2026 Keun Lee argues that reducing geographical inequality requires targeted investment in large peripheral cities.
Oct 23, 2026 Shuwei Fang offers a preview of an internet fully populated by private, public, and personal AI agents.
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An internet populated and run by AI agents will need not just reliable data but also a broader information ecology capable of questioning its own inputs and transmitting corrections where they are needed if information changes. But whether this will serve private interests or the public good remains to be seen.
offers a preview of an internet fully populated by private, public, and personal AI agents.
Uganda has embraced digital-surveillance tools in the name of improving public safety and combating terrorism, a pattern that is repeating itself across several African countries. But governments are increasingly using these technologies for political control, rather than for national security.
highlights the problem of “function creep” in African governments’ use of foreign surveillance tech.
For generations, countries have escaped poverty by putting millions of people to work in factories and service industries. But as robots replace factory workers and AI takes over service jobs, the growth engines that have powered economic development across much of the world will be rendered obsolete.
warns that the race for technological supremacy is fracturing societies and rules out international cooperation.
Advocates of liberal democracy like Francis Fukuyama assumed that capitalism could harness private ambition by subordinating it to democratic politics. Peter Thiel has upended that premise, using wealth and technology to weaken state power and increasingly turning the West against liberal democracy.
examines why tech moguls like Peter Thiel have turned decisively against liberal democracy.
Governments have abandoned many of the economic ideas blamed for the populist backlash, yet support for populist parties continues to grow. This puzzle lies at the heart of two new books, both of which suggest that liberalism’s decline may outlast the economic forces that set it in motion.
Driven by the same incentives that brought us social media and its many social and political ills, the tech industry’s pivot to generative AI has cast further doubts on the potential for online life to serve positive human ends. The question now is whether those still offering a humanistic vision of online life can make themselves heard over the din.
