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  1. Image for The AI Plot Thickens Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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    The AI Plot Thickens

    PS Commentators

    When it comes to AI, it is difficult to know what to believe. Are the CEOs, researchers, and investors who tout the technology’s seemingly unlimited capabilities more credible, because they work directly with it, or less credible, because they stand to profit handsomely from further investment? While misplaced optimism could fuel a financial bubble, we have seen in recent months that underestimating the risks posed by AI could also carry other, even existential, costs.

    assess claims about the risks the technology poses and consider what responses are warranted.

    Further reading

  2. Image for Superintelligent Democracy Cheng Chia Huang via Getty Images
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    Superintelligent Democracy

    Audrey Tang

    Rather than framing the pursuit of AI capabilities as a race, we should turn the process into a democratic mission, with milestones set by the people, rather than on their behalf. Taiwan's own demonstration of mission-led governance, along with insights from the open-web community, show what is possible.

    offers a framework to ensure that AI serves the public good before it escapes public control altogether.

    Further reading

  9. Oil tanker unloading crude in China's Shandong Province. Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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    Trump’s Iran Sanctions Have a China Problem

    Zongyuan Zoe Liu

    Iran has spent years developing ways to sell its oil and move the proceeds through opaque financial networks outside the dollar-based system. That leaves the Trump administration increasingly reliant on Chinese banks with little incentive to uncover the Iranian transactions its sanctions aim to stop.

    explains why the latest US attempt to squeeze the Islamic Republic may end up increasing Chinese leverage.

    Further reading

  10. Image for Secure your copy of <em>PS Quarterly: Slopocalypse Now</em>

    Secure your copy of PS Quarterly: Slopocalypse Now

    AI-generated content already accounts for half the articles published online, and not even digital forensics experts can tell what’s real anymore. Can those still offering a humanistic vision of online life make themselves heard over the din?

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  1. The AI Productivity Delusion

    Yanis Varoufakis sees the technology converting markets into fiefs and profits into rents, ending capitalism as we know it.

  2. Preventing an AI World War

    S. Alex Yang & Angela Huyue Zhang say that any US–China deal on the technology must be able to distinguish accidents from deliberate attacks.

  3. Post-Liberal Europe?

    Zaki Laïdi fears that upcoming elections in major countries could become referenda on liberal democracy itself.

  4. Is Germany’s Firewall Collapsing?

    Jan-Werner Mueller explains how—and how not—to interpret the far right’s recent victories in state elections.

PS Quarterly

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Latest

  1. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz walks past an exit sign at CDU headquarters in Berlin. Jens Schlueter/AFP via Getty Images

    The Return of the German Question

    Sep 24, 2026 Joschka Fischer fears that the victory of the far-right AfD in Saxony-Anhalt could augur a nightmare scenario for Europe.

  2. UN peacekeepers stand beside an armored vehicle during a patrol in southern Lebanon. Silvia Casadei/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

    UN Peacekeeping in Crisis

    Sep 24, 2026 Adekeye Adebajo thinks a recent report by the secretary-general points more to burden-shedding than to burden-sharing.

  3. Donald Trump gestures while speaking during an executive order signing event in the Oval Office of the White House. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

    Lies, Election Lies, and Trump’s Statisticians

    Sep 24, 2026 Michael R. Strain explains why a shoddy, politically motivated Census Bureau report should concern all Americans.

  4. People walking in Buenos Aires financial district. Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images

    The Return of the IMF to Latin America

    Sep 24, 2026 Martín Abeles warns that financial dependence and geopolitical alignment could become intertwined in the region.

  5. Image for The AI Plot Thickens Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

    The AI Plot Thickens

    Sep 24, 2026 PS Commentators assess claims about the risks the technology poses and consider what responses are warranted.

Trending

  1. Are Mexicans Really Better Off Under Claudia Sheinbaum?

    Sep 17, 2026 Guillermo Ortiz suggests that improved poverty figures are being offset by a broader deterioration in socioeconomic conditions.

  2. Does Claude Have Rights?

    Sep 18, 2026 Mustafa Suleyman worries that Anthropic is training a simulation of a moral subject that could demand freedom.

  3. Why India Wants Peace in Ukraine—and China Doesn’t

    Sep 15, 2026 Nina L. Khrushcheva observes that the longer the war drags on, the weaker and more dependant Russia becomes.

  4. When AI Stops Asking Permission

    Sep 17, 2026 Tariq Malik pushes back against US Senator Bernie Sanders’ call for a ban on artificial superintelligence.

  5. Hedging the AI Doomsday Risk

    Sep 16, 2026 Dambisa Moyo outlines steps that policymakers and businesses can take to limit the fallout from a potential AI catastrophe.

OnPoint is our suite of subscriber-exclusive content. Get long-read commentaries, thematic deep dives, interviews with world leaders, and much more. Learn more.  

  1. Claude by Anthropic app logo displayed on a smartphone screen. Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images
    Free to read
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    Does Claude Have Rights?

    Mustafa Suleyman

    Unlike living beings, AIs are not moral subjects, and that is how they must remain. But a growing chorus of people argue that AIs could now be, or may soon become, conscious, and that, like other conscious beings, they may deserve rights and protections.

    worries that Anthropic is training a simulation of a moral subject that could demand freedom.
  2. Oil tanker unloading crude in China's Shandong Province. Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
    0

    Trump’s Iran Sanctions Have a China Problem

    Zongyuan Zoe Liu

    Iran has spent years developing ways to sell its oil and move the proceeds through opaque financial networks outside the dollar-based system. That leaves the Trump administration increasingly reliant on Chinese banks with little incentive to uncover the Iranian transactions its sanctions aim to stop.

    explains why the latest US attempt to squeeze the Islamic Republic may end up increasing Chinese leverage.
  3. Dark smoke billows over destroyed vehicles near a fire following an overnight airstrike on the Shahran oil refinery in northwestern Tehran. AFP/Getty Images
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    War and Climate

    Robert Muggah, et al.

    The war in Iran has underscored the dangers of relying on oil and gas imports. While it may revive demand for dirty fuels in the short term, over time it could also strengthen the case for clean-energy sources that reduce countries’ exposure to regional conflicts and maritime chokepoints.

    show why sacrificing rainforests and climate goals to strengthen energy security is no solution.
  4. Aerial view of the Stargate Oracle AI data center under construction in Abilene, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
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    Is AI Crowding Out Other Investment?

    Dambisa Moyo

    The AI investment boom has unleashed a wave of demand for capital just as savings are declining and interest rates remain high. As competition for financing intensifies, rising borrowing costs could squeeze non-AI firms looking to finance new factories, equipment, and projects.

    assesses evidence that the AI buildout is consuming funding and resources needed elsewhere.
  5. Dollar bills. Matias Baglietto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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    Is Monetarism Making a Comeback?

    Tim Congdon thinks the post-pandemic inflation shock should have been viewed as a watershed moment in monetary policy.
  6. North Korean soldiers march past a flag of Kim Il-sung. KCNA/AFP via Getty Images
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    The Gospel of the Great Leader

    Yoon Young-kwan traces the Christian roots of an atheist state that demands near-religious devotion to its ruling family.

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.

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Opinion that Moves

  1. Martín Abeles The Return of the IMF to Latin America
  2. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg Europe’s Third Way on China
  3. Anne O. Krueger Trump’s 21st-Century Mercantilism
  4. Yanis Varoufakis The AI Productivity Delusion

  1. Joschka Fischer The Return of the German Question
  2. Adekeye Adebajo UN Peacekeeping in Crisis
  3. Michael R. Strain Lies, Election Lies, and Trump’s Statisticians
  4. Carl Bildt Alarm Bells in the Balkans

  1. Gordon Whitman Global Development’s Missing Ingredient
  2. Danielle Keats Citron, et al. The Digital Wellness Industry Is Hijacking Women’s Health
  3. Takunda Chirau, et al. How Developing Countries Can Do More With Less
  4. Amar Bhidé AI Addicts Won’t Make Better Workers

  1. Bård Harstad How Trade Deals Can Save Nature
  2. Nicholas Stern What It Means for Global Warming to Exceed 1.5°C
  3. Simon Zadek, et al. Can Adaptation Accelerate Climate Action?
  4. Jayati Ghosh, et al. A Workable Social Contract for the Climate Transition

  1. Lee Jong-Wha Will AI Take Asian Young People’s Jobs?
  2. Mark-Alexandre Doumba Technological Leapfrogging in the AI Age
  3. Yemi Osinbajo, et al. Africa’s AI Opportunity
  4. Tariq Malik When AI Stops Asking Permission

  1. Kailash Satyarthi The World Needs Compassionate AI
  2. Rohan Sandhu India’s Exam Worriers Become Democracy Warriors
  3. Michael R. Strain Just Say No to Remote Work
  4. Ian Buruma The World Cup as It Should Be

Africa’s economic rise is a world-changing development, but the sources of its emerging strength – and lingering weaknesses – are little understood. W…

  1. Mark-Alexandre Doumba Technological Leapfrogging in the AI Age
  2. Yemi Osinbajo, et al. Africa’s AI Opportunity
  3. Takunda Chirau, et al. How Developing Countries Can Do More With Less

Today’s media landscape is littered with landmines: open hostility from illiberal and autocratic regimes, mounting censorship in countries such as Hungary, Turkey,…

  1. Kelly Stonelake Social-Media Age Bans Won’t Make Children Safer—But This Will
  2. Amy Brouillette Media Capture Failed in Hungary-and America Could Be Next
  3. Frederik Obermaier, et al. The Deafening Silence on Offshore Wealth

A selection of insightful commentaries written by female contributors on issues affecting women and girls.

  1. Shishir Gupta, et al. Why Do So Few Women Work in India?
  2. Danielle Keats Citron, et al. The Digital Wellness Industry Is Hijacking Women’s Health
  3. Ruth Khasaya Oniang'o, et al. Taking Women Farmers Seriously