The Big Word
Everyone in AI is suddenly worried about humanity. There are summits, statements and promises of “global guardrails”, and it sounds like a shared rulebook is on the way. It isn’t. Look closer and you’ll find a tug-of-war, with the US pulling one way and China the other, both shouting “humanity” like it’s the flag that makes the pulling okay.
Washington’s Version
The US AI Action Plan wants American AI systems, hardware and standards spread across the world, sold as full-stack packages, while export controls keep advanced technology away from adversaries, mainly China. So protecting the world means the world buys American, and exactly one country goes without. Convenient generosity, since the rule only binds the rival.
Beijing’s Version
China’s answer is WAICO, the World AI Cooperation Organization, pitched as a public good for the Global South. Openness and capacity-building are the gift. They’re also the strategy China is already winning with. The founding list leans Global South plus Russia, and the US and EU are nowhere on it. Again, the “sacrifice” costs the giver nothing.
Europe, Holding Its Own Rulebook
The EU wrote the world’s first comprehensive AI law, the AI Act, built around risk and rights. Yet it barely features in this tug-of-war. Washington is busy loosening rules, Beijing is building its own club, and Europe’s careful rulebook gets a polite nod from the sidelines. Rules without leverage are easy to admire and easy to ignore.
The Missing Guests
And the rest of us? A UN advisory report found that only seven of 193 countries are part of seven major AI governance efforts, while 118, mostly in the Global South, are in none. It warned that AI’s impacts risk being imposed on most people without them having any say. Its proposed fix was modest: a shared scientific panel and a standards exchange.
But these countries aren’t just waiting. Many are pushing for capacity building and a real voice in the rules, even with far fewer chips, funds and people. Humanity gets talked about constantly. It just never gets invited.
No Villains Here
The joke isn’t that anyone is lying. Both sides probably mean every word. It’s that the biggest, most selfless-sounding words are doing the heaviest lifting for a very self-interested pull. The rope doesn’t care what’s printed on the flag. Neither should we.
So, whose world are we saving? For now, it seems only the worlds of those already holding the rope.
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Edited by Damini Agrawal
