The framing of AI as an “arms race” between the US and China is not just wrong, it’s dangerous. My new anthology, "Reimagining the AI Arms Race" features contributions from a range of expert leaders all interrogating the accuracy and relevance of that framing. Here’s a preview of 5 of them:

The framing of AI as an “arms race” between the US and China is not just wrong, it’s dangerous. My new anthology, "Reimagining the AI Arms Race" features contributions from a range of expert leaders all interrogating the accuracy and relevance of that framing. Here’s a preview of 5 of them:

🚨New publication 🚨 Today my group at Cambridge, the AI & Geopolitics Project, launches our first anthology. It’s a bold new collection of essays bringing together 10 thought-leaders to challenge the dominant narrative that AI is an existential, zero-sum battle between the US and China (1/3)

🚨New publication 🚨 Today my group at Cambridge, the AI & Geopolitics Project, launches our first anthology. It’s a bold new collection of essays bringing together 10 thought-leaders to challenge the dominant narrative that AI is an existential, zero-sum battle between the US and China (1/3)

If you want to understand what happened with Anthropic, Mythos and the US government this weekend, you need to understand the politics of AI in D.C. right now. My latest post is live:

What’s going on in D.C.?

Inside the civil wars reshaping US AI policy

open.substack.com

If you want to understand what happened with Anthropic, Mythos and the US government this weekend, you need to understand the politics of AI in D.C. right now. My latest post is live:

What’s going on in D.C.?

Inside the civil wars reshaping US AI policy

open.substack.com

AI is now so unpopular amongst Democrat core voters that in the LA mayoral race Karen Bass clearly feels “his campaign uses AI” is an effective enough attack line—even in such a short rebuttal as this (from the @nytimes.com)

AI is now so unpopular amongst Democrat core voters that in the LA mayoral race Karen Bass clearly feels “his campaign uses AI” is an effective enough attack line—even in such a short rebuttal as this (from the @nytimes.com)

For a while it looked like a truce, but Republicans’ AI fault lines have reemerged. Last week conservative influencers including Bannon urged Trump to make pre-deployment testing of frontier models mandatory. Days later, Trump shelved an executive order on AI safety after industry lobbying (1/2)

AI companies are writing their own constitutions. Meanwhile, a shared vocabulary for contesting algorithmic power has been traveling across red and blue states, from legislatures to civil society. New from me in @science.org: "A Civic Grammar for AI Rights" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵

A civic grammar for AI rights

Earlier this year, the artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic, developer of the large language model Claude, published a document it calls “Claude’s Constitution,” described by the company as ...

science.org

An interesting dynamic in the AI jobs apocalypse discourse is how everyone thinks that their area of expertise is safe, but that areas they don’t know much about are at risk. Eg writers being able to recognise AI writing as turgid and unoriginal; SWEs seeing vibe coding as buggy and unsafe… (1/3)

Read my last two posts to understand (some of) what’s going on here: open.substack.com/pub/verityha... open.substack.com/pub/verityha...

Does AI have a 'cool' problem?

For young people and artists, AI and its architects are the object of derision. Does it matter?

open.substack.com

404 Media@404media.co · 3mo ago

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed throughout this commencement speech at the University of Arizona for his praise of AI. This comes just a week after another commencement speaker who mentioned AI was booed at a school in Florida. Read more: www.404media.co/ucf-ai-comme...

Anna Wintour taken aback by the backlash to the Bezos Met Gala sponsorship. A commencement speaker in Florida shocked by the students booing her every mention of AI. Old people do not understand what’s happening with AI and the young. Here’s what’s going on, why it’s happening, and what it means:

Does AI have a 'cool' problem?

For young people and artists, AI and its architects are the object of derision. Does it matter?

open.substack.com

Anna Wintour taken aback by the backlash to the Bezos Met Gala sponsorship. A commencement speaker in Florida shocked by the students booing her every mention of AI. Old people do not understand what’s happening with AI and the young. Here’s what’s going on, why it’s happening, and what it means:

Does AI have a 'cool' problem?

For young people and artists, AI and its architects are the object of derision. Does it matter?

open.substack.com

Among Gen Z AI’s net favourability is now minus 44, driven by fears about jobs, the environment, creativity. But there’s another trend that many have missed: AI just isn’t very cool. My latest post explores the trend, the reasons behind it, and the consequences for the OpenAI/Anthropic rivalry:

Does AI have a 'cool' problem?

For young people and artists, AI and its architects are the object of derision. Does it matter?

open.substack.com

Among Gen Z AI’s net favourability is now minus 44, driven by fears about jobs, the environment, creativity. But there’s another trend that many have missed: AI just isn’t very cool. My latest post explores the trend, the reasons behind it, and the consequences for the OpenAI/Anthropic rivalry:

Does AI have a 'cool' problem?

For young people and artists, AI and its architects are the object of derision. Does it matter?

open.substack.com

The space race shows is that competition and collaboration needn't be mutually exclusive. I'd be amazed if, in 2026, a longer-term dialogue on safety wasn't be part of the agenda this week. Any hint of recognition that AI isn't just a race to be won would be a huge step in the right direction

In 1967 the UN agreed a treaty which proclaimed space as "the province of all mankind" and prohibited weapons of mass destruction from orbit and celestial bodies. It meant that, in 1969, "We Came in Peace for All Mankind" was not just a slogan but a statement underpinned by international law.

In 1967 the UN agreed a treaty which proclaimed space as "the province of all mankind" and prohibited weapons of mass destruction from orbit and celestial bodies. It meant that, in 1969, "We Came in Peace for All Mankind" was not just a slogan but a statement underpinned by international law.

Two years ago I wrote about what a missed opportunity the Biden-Xi Summit was for progress on AI cooperation. If only some foundations had been laid then, we would be in a lot better position today. All the same lessons from then still apply today:

What the cold war space race can teach us on AI

International agreement could curb the fight for supremacy in today’s most ambitious technology

ft.com

Two years ago I wrote about what a missed opportunity the Biden-Xi Summit was for progress on AI cooperation. If only some foundations had been laid then, we would be in a lot better position today. All the same lessons from then still apply today:

What the cold war space race can teach us on AI

International agreement could curb the fight for supremacy in today’s most ambitious technology

ft.com

At the Truth Tellers Summit today hosted by the indomitable @tinabrownlm.bsky.social Much discussion already of the challenges facing journalism in a world of unreality. Read our latest post on how Iran is serving as a “toxic laboratory” for the future of epistemic collapse

Deepfakes and the battle for reality in Iran

The country “has become a laboratory for some of the most toxic excesses” of disinformation, says Mahsa Alimardani, but there is a way forward.

open.substack.com

In this piece Mahsa talks clearly about the current information ecosystem in Iran. A lot of the lessons are equally applicable to misinformation in times of crisis as we’re seeing with the conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt. Recommend this interview to understand what’s happening.

Verity Harding@verityharding.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I highly recommend this excellent interview between my colleague Catherine Westall and the world leading expert on deepfake and Iran. This week’s edition of AI Needs You:

In this piece Mahsa talks clearly about the current information ecosystem in Iran. A lot of the lessons are equally applicable to misinformation in times of crisis as we’re seeing with the conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt. Recommend this interview to understand what’s happening.

Verity Harding@verityharding.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I highly recommend this excellent interview between my colleague Catherine Westall and the world leading expert on deepfake and Iran. This week’s edition of AI Needs You:

I highly recommend this excellent interview between my colleague Catherine Westall and the world leading expert on deepfake and Iran. This week’s edition of AI Needs You:

Deepfakes and the battle for reality in Iran

The country “has become a laboratory for some of the most toxic excesses” of disinformation, says Mahsa Alimardani, but there is a way forward.

open.substack.com

I highly recommend this excellent interview between my colleague Catherine Westall and the world leading expert on deepfake and Iran. This week’s edition of AI Needs You:

Deepfakes and the battle for reality in Iran

The country “has become a laboratory for some of the most toxic excesses” of disinformation, says Mahsa Alimardani, but there is a way forward.

open.substack.com

The headline of a recent NBC poll was that AI is now even less popular than ICE in the US. But even more interesting was the finding on how hugely unpopular it is with Gen Z. AI's young people problem is one of the reasons I wrote this post recently about why AI in recruitment is a huge risk:

AI hiring is a small problem with a big signal

Using AI to dehumanise basic interactions is an avoidable own goal

verityharding.substack.com

Everyone wants to talk about AI replacing jobs, but what about AI replacing the hiring process itself? In my new post I argue that it’s the more immediately important issue — because of its effect on young people, who are already on the sharp end of AI’s impact.

AI hiring is a small problem with a big signal

Using AI to dehumanise basic interactions is an avoidable own goal

open.substack.com

NEW POST! On why we should all care about young people being examined, interviewed and rejected by AI:

AI hiring is a small problem with a big signal

Using AI to dehumanise basic interactions is an avoidable own goal

open.substack.com

NEW POST! On why we should all care about young people being examined, interviewed and rejected by AI:

AI hiring is a small problem with a big signal

Using AI to dehumanise basic interactions is an avoidable own goal

open.substack.com