@verityharding.bsky.social
Director of AI & Geopolitics Project at University of Cambridge | Founder of Formation Advisory | TIME100 AI | Former Global Head of Policy for DeepMind | Author of “AI Needs You: how we can change AI’s future and save our own” https://tinyurl.com/y4v26spa
A coalition on the left won it for the Greens in Gorton & Denton. Read my latest piece about an emerging coalition of the left in the US—how AI is their uniting force, and what that means for the Democrats as they head into the midterms:
02.03.2026 08:41 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Find out how opposing AI became a uniting focus of the Democrat base, and why this causes the party a headache as they head into the midterms.
Someone on LinkedIn compared this piece to Tocqueville, so how can you resist?!
NEW POST:
Three groups within the left in the US are increasingly united against one bogeyman: AI. What does this mean for Democrats in the year of the midterms? It’s a coalition they didn’t ask for, but will have to lead.
Why are tech leaders flocking to Delhi next week? My latest post explores India’s rise as an AI power broker.
14.02.2026 11:14 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Why are tech leaders flocking to Delhi next week? My latest post explores India’s rise as an AI power broker.
14.02.2026 11:14 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0AI is challenging, but it doesn’t need to be frightening. So why do so many talk about every new aspect of it in such hyperbolic terms? My latest ‘AI Needs You’ post argues for calm.
09.02.2026 09:58 — 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0The Sunday Times today very much proving my point with this headline
08.02.2026 15:54 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Talking about AI in apocalyptic, frantic terms serves only to distract from real work that needs doing and has been done. Moltbook was the latest in a long line of triggers for a breathless panic that helps no one.
My latest edition of ‘AI Needs You’ on why we crave hyperbole in AI:
New: we dug into Epstein’s dealmaking in Silicon Valley. He used his connections with tech’s elite to get into hot startup deals, some of which paid off handsomely (coinbase) and others that did not (jawbone).
W/ @rmac.bsky.social + matt Goldstein
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...
Talking about AI in apocalyptic, frantic terms serves only to distract from real work that needs doing and has been done. Moltbook was the latest in a long line of triggers for a breathless panic that helps no one.
My latest edition of ‘AI Needs You’ on why we crave hyperbole in AI:
Beneath the calls for all-out American dominance in AI, there is a huge amount of division with the Republican party over what to do. The Silicon Valley critique is that Europe regulates tech too much, but plenty of states and MAGA-supporters want to regulate it too.
02.02.2026 15:55 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1
The consensus seems to say that the Trump administration is joined up in its support for AI and AI companies—but in fact, AI is one of the few issues causing rupture inside the MAGA movement.
Read all about it in the latest edition of AI NEEDS YOU (free to read)
The Trump movement is divided over AI, and it highlights something interesting about the future of AI and the future of US politics. My latest post:
30.01.2026 16:59 — 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
New AI NEEDS YOU post is up: On how AI has become an unlikely fault-line in the MAGA movement. Come for the 2am Senate drama, stay for the evangelical conservative wing who think AI scientists are 'apostates'.
Plus, Book of the Week!
New AI NEEDS YOU post is up: On how AI has become an unlikely fault-line in the MAGA movement. Come for the 2am Senate drama, stay for the evangelical conservative wing who think AI scientists are 'apostates'.
Plus, Book of the Week!
Thank you Sean!
29.01.2026 08:42 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0This is good and, more generally, it's always welcome to have someone talking about AI and politics that has actually worked in both AI and politics.
28.01.2026 09:12 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
In case you missed my new Substack on AI and politics — first edition on whether comparisons to an ‘arms race’ are appropriate.
With thanks to the substack OG @samfr.bsky.social for this kind recommendation!
My TED talk on why an ‘arms race’ is the wrong way to think about AI is now available online.
In it I argue:
(1/n)
“The point isn’t the rocket. The point is the moon.”
At a time when the world order is increasingly fractious and adversarial, it was incredibly encouraging to me that this message seemed to resonate with so many people in the room.
(6/6)
4. That AI isn’t the end in itself. We should focus first on the future we’re trying to build and the society we want to live in, and then work how AI can or will help or hinder us from achieving that
26.01.2026 21:49 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 03. Rather than comparing AI to the nuclear arms race, the Space Race offers a better historical analogy: showing that self-interest and self-restraint are not incompatible, and collaboration and competition can coexist
26.01.2026 21:48 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 02. That the core assumption of the arms race—that a single technological threshold will create a "ruler of the world"—is false, because AI adoption is continuous and non-binary
26.01.2026 21:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 01. Framing AI as a zero-sum arms race is not only nonsensical on a technical level, but profoundly dangerous geopolitically, encouraging isolationism and recklessness in an effort to win a race with no clear finish line
26.01.2026 21:47 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
My TED talk on why an ‘arms race’ is the wrong way to think about AI is now available online.
In it I argue:
(1/n)
Thank you!
24.01.2026 12:20 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
My new Substack launched yesterday with this piece on whether there’s a future for AI and geopolitics beyond the US-China binary. It’s something I’ve been thinking and writing about for years, but which is more urgent to consider now than ever. Please check it out and subscribe for future posts👇
24.01.2026 09:07 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 2