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Agentic AI: How it could reshape identity and politics
As AI begins to understand us better than we understand ourselves, who will decide how it shapes our world?
Ian Bremmer cautions, "The winner or the winners are going to determine in large part what society looks like, what the motivating ideologies are." He stresses that AI’s direction is driven not by technology alone, but by the humans who design and program these systems.
"That's kind of why you need the UN and you need responsible AI governance as part of the conversation," Bremmer adds.
Ian spoke at the 2025 Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit panel “Bringing AI Technology, Trust, and Talent to the World,” part of GZERO Media’s Global Stage series in partnership with Microsoft. The Global Stage series convenes global leaders for critical discussions on the geopolitical and technological trends shaping our world.
Global Stage: Bringing AI tech, trust, and talent to the world
AI is the fastest-growing general-purpose technology in history but its benefits are uneven. Half the world lacks the combined foundations of electricity, internet access, and digital skills needed to use AI at all.
In this Global Stage panel, Becky Anderson (CNN) leads a candid discussion on how to close that gap with Brad Smith (Vice Chair & President, Microsoft), Peng Xiao (CEO, G42), Ian Bremmer (President & Founder, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media), and Baroness Joanna Shields (Executive Chair, Responsible AI Future Foundation).
What does “AI diffusion” actually require? Power first, then connectivity, then skills. As Brad Smith explains, “You can’t build AI in the sky, it needs a foundation: electricity, internet, and digital skills.” The panel explores the hard realities of energy capacity, data-center diplomacy, and why grid investment will determine which nations can compete in the next phase of AI development.
Building on that theme, Peng Xiao underscores the centrality of energy to progress: “The cost of intelligence will become the cost of energy.” His company, G42, is expanding AI infrastructure from the Gulf to Africa and Southeast Asia, leveraging regional power resources to unlock broader access.
From AI fluency to AI engineering and organizational change, the conversation also breaks down the capabilities countries need and how local ecosystems can create jobs rather than replace them. Ian Bremmer reminds the audience that geopolitics and skilling are linked: “AI is geopolitical by design. The winners who shape the algorithms will shape society.”
As AI races ahead of some societies’ ability to adapt, the panel highlights the UAE’s investment in national AI education, from early-age programs to university-level innovation, as a model for inclusive growth.
How do we embed responsibility into models, content, and agentic workflows? Baroness Joanna Shields calls this a defining moment: “This is a civilization-uplift moment we can’t afford to miss.” She stresses that responsible AI means empowering everyone equally, ensuring that local cultures, values, and languages shape the systems built for them.
The discussion explores emerging tools like watermarking and auditable agent interactions, alongside the global governance efforts led by the UN and multistakeholder coalitions, to balance innovation and accountability across regions.
The Global Stage series, presented by GZERO Media in partnership with Microsoft, convenes leaders from government, business, and civil society at major international forums to examine the critical issues at the intersection of technology, politics, and society, and to explore how global cooperation can deliver solutions in an era of accelerating change.
Live premiere today at 11 AM ET: Global Stage at the Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit
LIVE PREMIERE TODAY AT 11 AM ET: What does it take to build AI economies? Our global experts explore this question, touching on data infrastructure, skilling, and governance, in a conversation at the inaugural Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit.
Watch our live premiere of "Global Stage: Bringing AI Technology, Trust, and Talent to the World" today at 11:00 AM ET at gzeromedia.com/globalstage. The panel was recorded live in front of an audience of global leaders, investors, and technologists attending the Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit, presented by G42, Microsoft, the Responsible AI Future Foundation (RAIFF) AI Future Foundation (RAIFF), and Eurasia Group. The event was held on November 2-3 at the Abu Dhabi Energy Center.
The discussion is moderated by CNN anchor Becky Anderson, and will feature a distinguished panel including Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media; Baroness Joanna Shields, Executive Chair, Responsible AI Future Foundation; Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft; and Peng Xiao, Group CEO, G42.
This livestream is the latest in the award-winning Global Stage series, a partnership between GZERO and Microsoft that examines critical issues at the intersection of technology, politics, and society.
Join us on Monday, November 3, 2025 at 11:00 AM ET at gzeromedia.com/globalstage to watch the live premiere.
Live Premiere from the Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit | Global Stage: Bringing AI Technology, Trust, and Talent to the World
Is Abu Dhabi becoming the global capital of AI development?
Ian Bremmer shares an update from Abu Dhabi, a place he calls “the global capital for AI development.”
With affordable energy, huge data centers, and one of the highest AI adoption rates in the world (59% of the population already uses AI), the UAE is powering full speed into the AI future.
But to use artificial intelligence, reliable power grids are needed.
Ian warns, “Many nations are doing a poor job building out their electricity grids … that’s going to mean inflation … and competition between using power for AI or for your people. That’s already starting to happen in the United States.”
As AI adoption grows, the next big challenge won’t be innovation, it’ll be energy. Countries that can’t meet surging electricity demand risk political backlash and slower growth, while those investing now, like the UAE, will have a powerful advantage in the new global economy.
China isn't racing to AGI, why is the US?
US tech firms are focused on beating China in the AI race, but on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology argues the two countries have fundamentally different visions for AI's future. While US companies are racing toward developing powerful general intelligence (what he calls “god in a box"), China is deploying AI directly to factories, medicine and industrial production to boost its economic output. Tech firms in the US are driven by venture capital and being the first to reach advanced frontier models, prioritizing speed and scale over solving real-world challenges.
This approach isn’t just misaligned—it’s dangerous. Harris says that we need to change the way we think about AI competition with China on a longer timeline. Deploying more and more advanced AI tools to consumers en masse without safeguards and in ways that degrade mental health and critical thinking, he warns, will ultimately weaken the US. Rather than framing AI competition with China as a race to sheer technological supremacy, he says we should be racing to better deploy AI technology in a way that strengthens our society.
“We beat China to social media. Did that make us stronger or did that make us weaker?” Harris says, “It made us radically weaker. So we're not in a race for technology. We're in a race for who's better at applying and governing it."
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔). GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
The dangers of unchecked AI
Companies should be designing their products to maximize productivity, economic output, and military superiority, but instead are racing for market dominance and completely ignoring mental health and other risks, like psychosis and loss of critical thinking. Harris says that ethics around AI get thrown out the window relative to the incentive. And for big tech firms, the ultimate prize is achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), so they need to hook as many users as they can as quickly as possible.
“AI is the most powerful, inscrutable and uncontrollable technology we've ever invented,” Harris warns, “Why are we recklessly racing this out to society psychologically in ways that we definitely don't know what we're doing? This is just stupidity.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube.Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔). GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
The risks of reckless AI rollout with Tristan Harris
Can we align AI with society’s best interests? Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World Podcast to discuss the risks to humanity and society as tech firms ignore safety and prioritize speed in the race to build more and more powerful AI models. AI is the most powerful technology humanity has ever built. It can cure disease, reinvent education, unlock scientific discovery. But there is a danger to rolling out new technologies en masse to society without understanding the possible risks. What if the way we deploy artificial intelligence, Harris argues, isn’t inevitable, but a choice?
The tradeoff between AI’s risks and potential rewards is similar to deployment of social media. It began as a tool to connect people and, in many ways, it did. But it also become an engine for polarization, disinformation, and mass surveillance. That wasn’t inevitable. It was the product of choices—choices made by a small handful of companies moving fast and breaking things. Will AI follow the same path? Is there a path forward where innovation aligns with humanity?
“If we deploy AI recklessly in a way that causes AI psychosis or kids' suicides or degrades mental health or causes every kid to outsource their homework,” Harris warns, “it's very obvious the long-term trajectory of we are going to have a weaker civilization.”
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published
Is the future of AI physical?
Whoever dominates, the payoff will be huge. Autonomous machines will transform industries like transportation, healthcare, and logistics. They can offset labor shortages in aging societies like Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Morgan Stanley estimates humanoid robots could be a $5 trillion industry by 2050. But at least right now, physical AI is still awkward. Robots stumble and all down. Programming dexterity and intuition is a lot more challenging than text prediction. But given how fast the field is accelerating, soon, the challenge won’t be whether AI becomes part of our world but how we choose to live with it.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔). GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.