Explore The Race
Posts examining how artificial intelligence is changing the distribution of power.
Public models and public compute are only the beginning. AI becomes public infrastructure when governments and civic institutions can use, adapt, govern, and sustain it without becoming permanently dependent on a single vendor.
AI assistants may begin as convenient doorways into information and services, then become the operating layer that shapes what users see, choose, and do. The challenge is to preserve that convenience while keeping the path open, portable, and contestable.
AI may be overhyped in the short run and underestimated in the long run. The lag before its benefits spread is also a concentration window, when infrastructure, defaults, and dependencies may harden around a few powerful actors.