Lorna Tilbian Columnist State of the nation I t started on 30 January 2020, when the World Health living crisis has impacted on lifes basic essentials food, heat Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a public health and shelter with food inflation running at an unprecedented emergency of international concern and by 11 March 19.2% in March, energy prices exacerbated by the invasion of 2020 characterised the outbreak as a global pandemic. Ukraine, and mortgage rates and rents rising as a result of What an unimaginable impact this has had on the world. higher bank rates. Consequently, the average consumer is When the WHO declared the end of Covid-19 as a global focused on need to have rather than nice to have health emergency on 5 May 2023 after seven million lives had expenditure, and the economy is flat lining. To counteract this, been lost and 13.3bn vaccine doses had been administered companies such as Octopus Energy are experimenting with worldwide the macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape artificial intelligence (AI) to reply to a third of customer emails had been redrawn. the work of around 250 people. As is well documented, central banks in response to the The rapid advance in AI represents a pivotal moment in the lockdowns imposed by governments worldwide reduced history of mankind. The last industrial revolution was a interest rates to near zero and continued quantitative easing for revolution of the muscle; this is a revolution of the mind. As we a prolonged period, which led to uncontrolled economic grapple to understand the true benefits and inherent risks, expansion with accompanying high where does the future lie? Is AI the inflation. The fastest interest-rate hikes answer to our problems and the in history ensued, with 10 consecutive to existential threats such as If theres one thing the modern solution rises in the US and 12 in the UK. To climate change or is it an existential mind was not created to be able threat in itself? Are we standing on the the surprise of many, there followed to cope with, its the relentless the inevitable credit crunch and edge of the abyss, heading towards a barrage of signs pointing to its attendant blow-ups, from the liabilitypoint of no return? own annihilation driven investments crisis in the UK last Another day, another existential autumn to the demise of four US threat. The content and conjecture regional banks. regarding the likely course of AI and The FAANGs Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, artificial general intelligence has exploded. If theres one thing Netflix and Google (now Alphabet) omnipotence during the modern mind was not created to be able to cope with, its lockdowns, with the world working, shopping, home schooling the relentless barrage of signs pointing to its own annihilation. and entertaining itself online, has given way to retrenchment With governments and regulators alike failing to regulate the and redundancies. The FAANGs have gone from being massive internet at its inception, let us hope they react in time with AI Covid beneficiaries to victims, as the end of the pandemic has and do not let the drive for growth and innovation override unleashed pent-up demand for experiential consumption across the wider existential concerns. For the first time in history, the wider real economy. humankind has created something that can control and destroy Additionally, the concentration risk of the FAANGs it. Those who can do something to put in guardrails, must. If Amazon in retail, Google in advertising, Meta in social media not well, theres not much the lowly people can do at this and Apple in luxury goods has led to swathes of lay-os, with point, unless we excise all use of tech from our lives, which Meta and Amazon recently embarking on their second rounds most of us are unlikely to do. in order to recalibrate their business models in line with slower It will be interesting to see whether hope appears in the form consumer demand. of government-level regulatory action, even newer (and This retrenchment by companies to mitigate headcount issues therefore, under-tested) competing tech, grassroots collective after inflating their organisations during the pandemic boom resistance, or a crisis-prompted return to a more primitive should not come as a big surprise. The post-pandemic cost-ofworld. Only time will tell and its not on our side. 37 Impact ISSUE 42 2023_pp36-37_Lorna_Tilbian.indd 37 16/06/2023 17:13