From the editors at Observer:
They write the script that the rest of us follow.
Any honest survey of power in A.I. confronts an awkward truth: influence often sits with those whose choices carry the greatest potential for harm. This reality is hardly unique to A.I. but, unlike traditional industries where effects might unfold over months or years, A.I.'s impact penetrates more sectors, into further pockets of humanity, in real time, creating a concentration of power that is both more immediate and more pervasive than any prior technological force. Yet the same influence that amplifies bias and threatens civil liberties also enables unprecedented breakthroughs—accelerating drug discovery, democratizing education and tackling challenges from climate change to accessibility that have long seemed intractable. This duality creates the central paradox of mapping power in A.I. Leave them out, and the picture is incomplete. Include them, and you risk lending credence to models developed through murky data rights and ethically ambiguous sourcing. The task is to chronicle power without mistaking it for virtue.
To evaluate power in A.I. requires an intensely contemporary lens, complicated by the fact that this is now a geopolitical competition as much as a technological one. The rapid succession of model releases, regulatory shifts and market disruptions creates constant upheaval. Previously unknown players can capture outsized influence through a single, strategic move. Countries from Saudi Arabia to Canada treat A.I. development as technological sovereignty, while export restrictions and trillion-dollar infrastructure investments reshape global power relationships at record speed. The result is a landscape where enduring power becomes all the more significant precisely because it is so difficult to maintain. Amid relentless competitive upheaval and billion-dollar talent wars where entire teams become acquisition targets, only a handful ride out the chaos. Their staying power is what makes them remarkable.
Power in A.I. manifests in two forms, each capable of profoundly reshaping the industry. Increasingly, these forces reflect a fundamental tension between moving fast and moving responsibly. Capital dictates which projects live or die, where markets move and how whole industries pivot. Equally significant is the power of ideas—the research that establishes new paradigms, the frameworks that guide responsible development and the thought leadership that shapes collective understanding of what A.I. should become. Financial resources elevate certain voices and ideas, and intellectual contributions unlock access to capital and institutional support. Each feeds the other. Together, they write the script that the rest of us follow.....
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