Latest Interviews

Why China and America see AI differently | The Economist

Corbin, Sarah, Archie, Zannie

While over 80% of the Chinese public maintains an optimistic view of AI driven by decades of technological progress, significant structural anxieties persist among tech workers facing age discrimination and mass layoffs. In response, authorities have launched a five-year monitoring strategy utilizing real-time data on power usage and payment flows to detect early signs of workforce disruption and preemptively stabilize the labor market. Despite these proactive government interventions aimed at balancing innovation with social stability, experts remain skeptical about whether retraining programs can match the rapid scale of AI-driven economic shifts without triggering explosive instability.

Who’s really running Iran? | The Economist

David Rennie, Dr Sanam Vakil, Sir Simon Gass

Following a decapitation campaign by U.S. and Israeli forces that eliminated Iran's supreme leader and three layers of military command, the regime is navigating an existential survival war under the succession of the ailing Mojtaba Khamenei. Despite the loss of key figures like Ali Larijani, a consensus-based vote by 12 of 13 Supreme National Security Council members in June confirmed a unified commitment to signing a new MOU driven by rational forward defense rather than irrational hatred. Although the IRGC currently holds increased influence, the system faces critical uncertainty regarding Mojtaba's ability to replicate his predecessor's patronage network while managing severe health issues and a shifting political balance.

Is billionaire wealth becoming more legitimate? | The Economist

Callum Williams, Rosie Blau

Recent research distinguishes between "competitive wealth" derived from creating goods and services and "uncompetitive wealth" from natural resources or political favors, finding the former is expanding while the latter declines. This shift is driven by rapid consumer growth in China, strong market returns, and the mobile-first internet era, which has fueled self-made billionaires in sectors like entertainment and retail rather than just technology. Consequently, data indicates that effective tax rates for the wealthiest Americans are high and that aggressive wealth taxes on competitive entrepreneurs may incur greater economic costs than the benefits of curbing inequality.

Elon Musk on Europe, the far right and civil war in Britain | The Economist

Elon Musk, Zanny Minton Beddoes

Elon Musk and an interviewer clashed over the classification of his political views and his claims that civil war in Britain is inevitable due to demographic shifts. While Musk defended his promotion of a film depicting vigilante violence and rejected accusations of racism by citing his personal relationships, the interviewer challenged his assertions with crime statistics and labeled his influence on UK politics as irresponsible and based on a distorted American perception. Despite Musk's dismissal of his critics as a minority, the discussion highlighted a fundamental disagreement over his role in shaping public discourse and the validity of his warnings regarding Western safety and immigration.

The art of deception in modern war | The Economist

Jack Watling, Shashank Joshi

The event analyzes how modern deception strategies now target an adversary's intent rather than mere presence to neutralize overwhelming surveillance, drawing on historical precedents like D-Day alongside recent intelligence failures in Ukraine, Israel, and Russia. It further details how transparent battlespaces compel forces to deploy resource-intensive drone operations that paradoxically increase human density and logistical footprints, requiring teams of five and nearly two tons of equipment per unit. By forcing enemies to waste munitions on decoys, these tactics aim to degrade capabilities, though the summary notes their inherent vulnerability and limited operational endurance of roughly three days.

Why Le Pen is keeping Trump at a distance | The Economist

Le Pen, Trump, Edward Carr, Adam Roberts, Sophie Pedder

France currently stands as Europe's only power combining significant military spending with the operational will to deploy forces globally, fostering a strong strategic partnership between President Macron and Prime Minister Starmer. Conversely, the rise of the far-right National Rally under Marine Le Pen threatens to fracture the EU's core France-Germany axis by prioritizing national sovereignty over integration, potentially clashing with Berlin on Ukraine policy and demanding fiscal concessions. While Le Pen's administration seeks to reduce EU contributions and rollback regulations, the French public's reluctance toward total withdrawal may force the party to adopt a more restrained, albeit disruptive, approach to European reform.

Has the AI boom entered a manic new phase? | The Economist

Henry Curr, Mike Bird, Josh Roberts

US equity markets have reached near-record capitalization levels driven primarily by massive AI-focused "giga IPOs" like SpaceX and anticipated offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI. This concentration, now comprising nearly 40% of the S&P 500, coincides with unusual retail participation and inverted options pricing that signal a shift toward speculative mania. Simultaneously, major technology firms have redirected capital expenditure toward infrastructure, causing a collapse in free cash flow and transforming the sector into a dominant force in global corporate debt markets.

Why America is stepping away from the institutions it built | The Economist

John, Ed, Charlotte

U.S. foreign policy is undergoing a structural shift from values-based engagement to a transactional approach, driven by a bipartisan consensus that the post-World War II order has failed to deliver sufficient economic returns or strategic advantages. Former President Trump's 2015 platform catalyzed this pivot by framing the abandonment of multilateral institutions as a correction to decades of free-riding, leading to increased reliance on tariffs and coercive trade rather than traditional alliances. Experts project three potential futures for this realignment: a renegotiated U.S. hegemony, a fragmented status quo, or a chaotic descent into systemic collapse triggered by unchecked military coercion.

Should Latin America replicate El Salvador’s President Bukele’s crackdown on gangs? | The Economist

Bukele, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Edward Carr

El Salvador has dramatically reduced its murder rate to levels comparable to Canada by imprisoning 2% of its adult population while systematically dismantling democratic institutions, including the legislature and judiciary, to consolidate power under President Nayib Bukele. This authoritarian security model exploits the distinct economics of extortion, which relies on civilian reporting, unlike drug trafficking operations where high profits from prohibition incentivize continued cultivation and recruitment. While experts debate the exportability of Bukele's tactics, the consensus identifies the legalization of cocaine and the shift from military eradication to financial investigation as the only viable long-term strategies to dismantle illicit trade networks.

Germany’s army chief on AI, drones and the future of the tank | The Economist

Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, Shashank Joshi

German land forces are prioritizing five critical capability gaps, including indirect fires, electronic warfare, and AI-enabled command and control, to support a future where tanks serve as manned "motherships" for unmanned systems. Concurrently, military strategists are treating data as a vital ammunition reserve that requires automated exploitation to overcome human processing limits on the modern battlefield. This transition faces significant NATO-wide debate regarding the optimal balance between emerging technologies and legacy platforms, a tension recently highlighted by high-profile resignations in the UK defense ministry over innovation concerns.

Can Donald Trump secure a deal with Cuba? | The Economist

Donald Trump, Dr Christopher Sabatini, David Rennie, Sarah Birke, Christopher

A proposed transactional framework seeks to secure Cuban economic relief, including lifting the oil embargo, in exchange for a credible multi-party election plan. Key figures like Marco Rubio and Donald Trump aim to satisfy the Cuban-American voting bloc by offering a political roadmap that prioritizes economic liberalization over immediate regime change. Despite skepticism regarding the administration's long-term commitment, proponents argue that even a flawed agreement could dismantle the current stagnant leadership structure.

Is global culture dead? | The Economist

Tom Wainwright, Adam Roberts

Contrary to the expectation of cultural convergence, streaming data from 2019 to 2025 reveals a sharp global rise in local artist representation as audiences prioritize national identity over global homogeneity. This shift has compelled major platforms like Netflix to abandon failed "global first" productions in favor of domestic-focused strategies, while democratized technology and user-driven algorithms have further suppressed elite curation in favor of hyper-local viral trends. Consequently, charts in nations from Brazil to Mexico now show dominant local shares, with only specific language-sharing or Anglophone outliers remaining significantly influenced by foreign content.

Why are Gen-Z socialists obsessed with taxing billionaires? | The Economist

Generational shifts are driving a move from traditional progressive taxation toward novel levies on immovable wealth, exemplified by New York's new pied-à-terre tax on non-resident luxury properties. While economists debate whether targeting static assets like real estate avoids the innovation-killing pitfalls of direct billionaire wealth taxes, the discourse is increasingly expanding to include inheritance reform and one-off proposals in states like California. As AI-driven IPOs generate new ultra-high-net-worth individuals, this debate is poised to redefine fiscal policy beyond the narrow "billionaire" label in both the US and UK.

Do plants feel pain? | The Economist

Michael Pollan, Alok Jha

Biologists Michael Levin and other experts presented evidence that non-neural mechanisms like bioelectric fields enable information processing in organisms without centralized brains, as demonstrated by planaria worm regeneration and conditioned *Mimosa pudica* responses. The event detailed documented plant capabilities including visual mimicry, auditory toxin release, and the distinction between environmental sentience and human-style consciousness. While debate persists regarding whether immobile flora can perceive pain, the consensus among interviewed scientists suggests that plant intelligence is fundamentally an adaptive problem-solving tool rather than a basis for moral objection to consumption.

Are AI models running out of power? | The Economist

Shailesh Chitnis, Rosie Blau

Facing severe hardware shortages and monopoly choke points where Nvidia and TSMC dominate supply, major AI developers like OpenAI and Anthropic are throttling services and redirecting resources to manage capacity. In response to these constraints, five cloud providers plan a $700 billion infrastructure build-out while companies grapple with three-to-five-year lead times for essential components and aging chip inventories. This fundamental mismatch between rapid software cycles and slow physical production is projected to reverse declining inference costs, potentially raising prices and slowing overall industry adoption.