Sheniza, 12, wakes up all excited. Today she and her classmates will be embarking on a school trip to Kampong Glam (Singapore), as part of Hari Raya festivities. As a girl whose ancestry includes Malay, German, Chinese and Laotian, she has always been curious about her Malay heritage. She puts on her augmented reality glasses and selects “Family – Maternal” mode. “Grandpa”, Sheniza calls out in Bahasa Melayu to a hologram projection of Datuk Ariffin in the living room, “I hope to make those layang-layang (kite) you’ve been telling me about!” The “Datuk” looks up from his newspaper and beams.

In the kitchen, her parents were tending to the indoor vegetable garden – rows and rows of herbs, beans, vegetables and fruit of both local and imported varieties (like saffron) were stacked up high. Her mom checks the computer interface that monitors each plant’s pH, water and light levels. “Vegetable curry for dinner tonight!” said her dad, “and our neighbours will be coming over too.” Sheniza grabbed her breakfast bag, took a bite of the humongous ripe tomato in her mom’s hand, and kissed her parents goodbye. Already, two of her best friends, Mai and Aliza, were at her front door. “Let’s go, Sheniza!” They hop on the autonomous (driverless) school bus.

“Hey Mai, there’s something different about you today, but I can’t quite figure what that is?”

“It’s my new uniform, perhaps?” Mai shows it off proudly. “It’s modelled after the Vietnamese ao dai. I designed it myself using the Fash-dash app and 3D-printed it at my relatives’ over the weekend. Pants are so comfortable!”

“Oh la la, and is our school OK with you adapting it like this?” asked Aliza. “Yup, we just have to use the school colours and fabric. They’re pretty flexible.” Mai answered.  

Sheniza makes a mental note to do the same, for she has never been a fan of wearing skirts.

“What have you been up to, Sheniza?”

“Oh I was at the Rainforest World Music Festival with my cousins last weekend at Sarawak (Malaysia). I mean, we were there by hologram, of course.”

“Exciting, how was it?”

“Phenomenal. So I’ve already been playing the gambus (Malay lute) for a year now. I joined a masterclass there, and the ten or so professional musicians there actually managed to coach three hundred of us online. They were using this technology to observe our playing techniques and coached us individually. And at the end we played a piece together and then jammed for a while. We’re actually going to jam on Thursday after school, you both should come.”

“Super, I’m definitely in,” cooed Aliza, while Mai flicked a thumbs up.

They soon arrived at Kampong Glam. Traffic was seamless. “What year is it this time, 1920?” one classmate exclaimed. “1892, to be exact,” said his friend, glancing up from his device.

Hundreds of layang-layang of different colours were in the air – dipping, hovering and turning – like the dance of migratory starlings. My grandfather would love this, thought Sheniza. In the backdrop were kampong houses, longhouses on the river (artificially created to manage the rise in sea levels) amidst transplanted mangroves. Street vendors were making traditional kuehs (cakes) and putu piring, musicians were playing the angklung and artisans were making pottery and craft. The village was in celebration and rows of round tables were decked out for a feast.

It turned out that the street vendors and artisans were everyday citizens who came to pitch in for the day’s celebration, under the tutelage of the Malay community.

“Oh, there are overseas students here too!”

Aliza could be spotted some distance away, chatting to a Turkish boy and a Mexican girl, who have joined by hologram. Sheniza in the meantime was enthralled by the performance of a musician storyteller, who sang verses of Malay poetry. She and the listeners put on their VR goggles and were treated to images of the past curated by the storyteller. As she interacted with the story, it evolved – and she could see how other participants interacted too.

Finally, it was time for lunch. Sheniza and her classmates went to help set the tables and serve lunch. As everyone settles down at the table, Mai whips out her phone. “Just going to check that there’s no dairy in this. Ah, it’s all good.”

After lunch, the students gathered to head to school for a couple of hours. “Görüşürüz! (See you later!)” Aliza waved to the Turkish boy as his hologram disappeared.

AI in Community

On the journey back to school, Sheniza reflects that to date, her interests have mainly been in music, and that although she loved listening to stories, and had a great appreciation of history, culture and poetry, it had always been difficult for her to read. She would also love to be as multilingual as her friend Aliza and many others are, who spoke at least seven languages. Was there perhaps something not too right with her or her education? Although exams were now optional, she still hopes to obtain a certification and one day become a musician-storyteller-historian.

Back in the classroom, she told her teacher about this. “Oh Sheniza, yes we’ve noticed that you might have a reading disability. We will be switching you to a more auditory and interactive-based curriculum, although it’s still relatively new.” Still a little worried, Sheniza told Mai and Aliza about this.

“Oh, we should link you up with the student societies at the InterNetional Initiative!” said Mai. “And I’ve heard that auditory-based learning style is quite common in Finland, perhaps you could also try going on hologram student exchange there for a while?”

For the remaining hour in the classroom, as suggested by her teacher, Sheniza tries the interactive “Living history” class, which featured a debate-style format, and realises that she was absorbing the content much better. Further, an AI transcription tool helped take notes that fitted her learning preferences. Sheniza realises that she had many options and that her future was bright.

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Answers to prompts

Q. AGI has existed for at least five years but the world is not dystopian and humans are still alive! Given the risks of very high-powered AI systems, how has your world ensured that AGI has at least so far remained safe and controlled?

A. To counter nationalistic approaches working against a cohesive and global AI regulatory agenda, the launch of the “AI in Community” movement has seen greater public scrutiny over the transparency and accountability of private-and-public bodies responsible for AI safety in community spaces. More civil society groups and nominated community leaders are also invited to steer the early design, deployment, and annual reviews to monitor the continual social impacts of AI tools. Widespread adoption of participatory design and governance methods by start-ups has received overwhelmingly positive community response, prompting the whole industry to leverage community engagement in the early formulations of their design causes. The shift from tokenistic participation calls for greater collaboration between practitioners in industry, academia, and government to safeguard the interests of historically marginalised people when defining AI risk.
One such grassroot network is the “InterNetional” initiative which, over the years, has facilitated regional forums and international dialogues on adopting AI macrostrategy to identify risks in the development timeline of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). A positive result is the establishment of a large scale AI safety funding in conjunction with hard law instruments prohibiting the use of AGI for malicious purposes, alongside participatory certification and audit mechanisms to enforce high standards of AI safety. There is also increased funding for third sector organisations to upskill in the areas of technology, law, and social justice advocacy; with fairer compensation made to volunteers involved in organising community-based activities, the barrier of entry into key dialogues and public consultation is reduced.

A. Diverging from present-day dynamics of AI solutions and capabilities clustering in a small handful of techno-powers (e.g. USA, China, and Europe), our world sees a wider distribution of power balance among the public sector, private sector and civil society (made of AI recipients and data subjects who can exercise their voices – via digital self-determination – in how their personal data is collected and reused to develop AI tools). The reversal of entrenched power dynamics across the public-private-community continuum prompts the development of AI systems in close alignment with the agreed priorities of the recipient community. Globally, AI tools that are most widely distributed and used in community spaces can be seen in utilising stronger pattern recognition capabilities within the energy sector to fight climate change; furthermore, as diagnostic tools to support medical staff in the effective delivery of crucial healthcare services (e.g. detecting lung cancer risks via x-ray scans); and, most crucially, AI tools are used to promote wider access to affordable and personalised education to counter persistent labour shortages in teaching and child care services. On the other hand, an international treaty or a moratorium outlines unacceptable AGI applications. One example is the use of AI/AGI tools to “mind read” human emotions for commercial gains, behavioural manipulation, and, especially in the case of data subjects with protected characteristics, for policing and criminal prosecution purposes. Another clear “red flag” is applying AI/AGI tools into the military arena to create weapons of mass destruction.

Q. How has your world avoided major arms races and wars, regarding AI/AGI or otherwise?

A. Following the “AI in Community” movement – wherein community members demand aligning AI capabilities with public benefit, above and beyond the wealth creation agenda – civil society has stronger engagement in AI/AGI and data governance. This activity is facilitated by open data, which has improved public access to accurate information. Coupled with affordable and highly-personalised education, most community members of all age and socio-economic backgrounds can learn about socio-legal issues in AI/AGI technology. Without fake news to provoke social polarisation, a highly-educated public effectively steers their shared AI futures by speaking from historical insights.
With rhetoric and government propaganda having less sway than before, public sentiments on key issues such as major arms races and war – with or without using AI/AGI – becomes key to government administrations trying to remain in democratic “power” (which are can be revoked by their electorate upon an elected official’s failures to act in the interests of public good) revert to good behaviours. Locally and globally, AI and data governance have since evolved further into the participatory models. The continual distribution of decision-making powers away from a narrow group of stakeholders (e.g. elected officials and those with enough wealth to lobby for certain agendas), the increased presence of public accountability in AI/AGI governance has reemphasised the values of transparency, cooperation and peace. These conditions encourage more cross-cultural collaborations and global partnerships in AI/AGI governance to promote shared understanding on the common ethical responsibility to use AI for public benefit. 

Q. In the US, EU, and China, how and where is national decision-making power held, and how has the advent of advanced AI changed that?

A. EU
By 2045, lawmakers enshrined the right to democracy in member states’ constitutions to mean that participatory methods are necessary in all data-driven decision-making systems. The legislative changes have reduced information asymmetries skewed towards private tech companies; instead a healthier equilibrium is achieved between public sector, private sector and the public which work together in collaboration.
Advanced AI particularly helped with meaningful transparency – the educated public is better able to enforce their rights and assess current and future impact of decisions by data-driven systems adopted by the government.

US
National decision-making power still vests largely in the President, but a new youth assembly comprising diverse voices is formed with a collective power to veto decisions, including on matters such as war, sanctions and climate change. A similar trend towards digital self-determination occurs, which pressures Silicon Valley into democratising the Internet and tackling harmful algorithms for public good.

China
The national decision-making power is still strongly centralised in the government, however by 2040 the country has transitioned from autocracy to a hybrid set up (similar to Singapore in 2022). Advanced AI in 2040 further accelerated this transition for China to move towards DSD and open data, in response to rising social ills such as debt and cultural repression.

Q. Is the global distribution of wealth (as measured say by national or international gini coefficients) more, or less, unequal than 2021’s, and by how much? How did it get that way?  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient)

A. In 2045, the global gini index has fallen from 2022’s estimated figure of 70 to match 2013’s 62.5. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated global inequality, but since AI in Community took off, AI has been positioned to narrow wealth gaps both among and within countries. With fair access to data and knowledge comes the rapid development of previously underprivileged areas. Empowered by decentralised AI deployment, citizens are now in better control of their local resources and information. As such, the average Gini for all countries decreases to 32, below 2013’s benchmark of 38.

Notably, past estimations tended to under-state figures due to lack of available data especially from developing countries, arising from factors such as the incomplete taxation of capital incomes. This new and more accurate gini index is therefore encouraging.

Meanwhile, countries resistant towards AI in Community and upholding more autocratic, centralised forms of governance see increasing gini coefficients. For instance, Russia’s oligopolistic economic structure was further perpetuated, where the access of AI remained largely in the control of the oligarchs. In 2045, Russia’s gini index has escalated to 49 – with the figure likely understating the true level of inequality, since many important inter-oligopoly trades are still performed off-the-books. Wealth is increasingly concentrated among the minority of people, and this trend has driven many Russian talents to seek immigration, further exacerbating the divide. Perhaps against this backdrop of impending unrest, the governors have little choice but to also consider the more democratic discourse of AI into community soon.

Q. What is a major problem that AI has solved in your world, and how did it do so?

A. Today emerging economies (Global South) face deep-seated oppression socially, economically, and politically. These gaps from their northern counterparts arose from post-colonial globalisation, which facilitated free trade exploitation and solidified the North’s economic dominion. Voices of the Global South have not only been unfamiliar to the North World, but often marginalised and dismissed. While the Global South’s AI has developed vastly in the years preceding 2022, many countries are still in the techno-colonialism trap and AI is often deployed according to Western models that are not tailored to their indigenous needs.

With the trending popularisation of the AI in Community vision across the globe after a decade of wide-scaled unrest, AI is increasingly used to promote equitable and sustainable economic and social terrains. By situating AI in relations of trust, it becomes a tool for bottom-up governance – AI empowers citizens to provide the ‘quality control’ for AI governance, ensuring that powers are not exercised arbitrarily. Data access is opened up through information looping, reversing power dependencies on technological giants and empowering the data subjects/communities, with choosing how their data is accessed and managed. Recognising that AI can deny/bias data access and skew risk evaluations, newly developed algorithms work to red-flag biased interpretations and narrow existing digital divides. At its heart, AI in Community places the voices of AI recipients at the core and structures AI development and usage according to the specific needs of the people, in a way that recognises and accounts for individual and communal vulnerability.

Q. What is a new social institution that has played an important role in the development of your world?

A. The InterNetional Initiative launches in 2025 to address rising demands of AI explainability. It aims to communicate behavioural information about AI and facilitate exchanges between humans and AI carriers. It espouses grassroots AI deployment, practising inclusivity in engaging all communal voices and addressing these AI-related queries and concerns through methods of direct engagement. With the increased sophistication towards AGI, the Initiative comes to serve a more important role in face of new possibilities of active human-AI interactions. For instance, in 2042 AI robots act as moral advisors for their communities, with the employment of the Baysian and other theories in communicating ethics and moral decision-making. The smooth transition into this heightened AI involvement in people’s daily lives – as new forms of social entity – requires identifying and working through context-specific challenges in safe spaces of openness and trust.

Humans face a range of challenges in adjusting to the new social norm of AI in Community. It becomes essential for humans to understand the behaviour of AI, and vice versa – as part of the facilitation of human-AI social bonding rooted in transparency, explainability and trust. While the “black-box” issue of AI is alleviated through better explainability in these social-communal settings, the AI also captures more information of the evolving needs of humans in a post-AGI world where new priorities and ways of life are formed.

Importantly, the Initiative also joins up different global communities to exchange insights, share their worries, and co-design new directions for further development of AI.