Pulitzer prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum says the process of the world restructuring itself around America has begun.
Everyone’s hedging – why the world is working around the US
A leading expert on autocracy says New Zealand must make sure that big tech companies respect our sovereignty and our laws in order to guard against democratic decline.
Artificial intelligence pioneers like Anthropic and OpenAI have joined existing giants like Facebook and Google in reshaping how the world gets information – and disinformation.
That is causing concern from Southland to Arizona – and everywhere in between.
Anne Applebaum, the Pulitzer-prize winning historian whose most recent book is Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, has advice for New Zealand.
“It is really important to make sure that information technology and AI technology respects your laws, whatever they are, whatever your libel laws are, whatever your environmental laws,” she tells The Detail.
“Make sure that these companies are respectful of your sovereignty and if they’re not, you know, kick them out,” she says.
Some countries are already taking measures to try to regulate how AI companies operate. Australia will introduce legislation to Parliament early next year to create a regulatory framework for AI, which will contain national AI standards and copyright protections, and establish an Office of AI within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Applebaum says it is important for democracies to determine how they want AI companies to operate within their borders.
“These are companies that are now larger than most governments, and they have more money than most governments,” she says.
“Now, with the power of the US behind them, they have a kind of arrogance that they’re allowed to rule the world and tell other people what to do.
“If you want to maintain your ability to make decisions for yourself, [if] you’re a democracy and you want your citizens to be able to determine their futures, then you need to make sure you can control them.”
New Zealand also needs to work with like-minded friends in the world – like Australia, Japan, Europe, she says. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has become a leading proponent of “middle powers” working together for their own interests.
“If there were a group of countries who wanted to stop the flow of laundered money into their economies, and wanted to devise a set of rules and laws that would prevent that, they could get together and do it, and that would have a significant effect on others,” she says.
She described how countries are forming and strengthening relationships – like the EU-South America trade deal.
“That wasn’t anybody’s priority before,” she says. “You’re beginning to see everyone hedging. You’re beginning to see some security hedging as well.”
She cited the case of Ukraine, where Starlink – owned by Elon Musk – cut off crucial service to the Ukrainian military after President Volodomyr Zelensky criticised President Donald Trump’s diesel deal with Russia and lifting of sanctions.
“If you have a Starlink system as part of your defence technology, then maybe you need to rethink that because Elon Musk or someone can turn it off at any minute,” Applebaum says. “It’s going to take time, but I think the process of the world restructuring itself around America has begun.”
If you want to watch the video of this interview, you can see it on YouTube.
This Saturday episode of The Detail is made with funding from the Peter M. Acland Foundation
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