A Crash Course on the “Corpocene”

In a conversation ranging from The Real Housewives to MrBeast, Policy Prompt hosts Vass Bednar and Paul Samson, with guests Grant Bollmer and Katherine Guinness, investigate how our collective engagement through screens has contributed to the commodification of individuals — a moment in capitalism that Bollmer and Guinness call “the corpocene” — and the emergence of modern opinion leaders.

In this episode, Bednar and Samson are joined by the authors of The Influencer Factory: A Marxist Theory of Corporate Personhood on YouTube, to discuss the evolving landscape of influencer culture. The episode touches on the growing phenomenon of “uncancelability” among influencers, the rise of avatars powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and the impact of fluctuating platform regulations.

Many nations have deemed AI an economic and national security imperative, and instead of working collaboratively to develop AI, they have adopted AI industrial policies. However, Susan Ariel Aaronson notes, “some nations are acting in ways that — with or without direct intent — discriminate among foreign market actors.”

In this paper, Aaronson aims to illuminate how these AI nationalistic policies may backfire. She provides examples of national policies designed to promote AI in the AI supply chain that appear to have trade-distorting effects and then discusses what the literature teaches us about the potential spillovers of such policies. “Today, vociferous constituents may demand AI nationalism. In the long run, however, AI internationalism is in everyone’s interest.”

Some of Canada’s top cybersecurity experts attended the second annual Waterloo Security Dialogue in June 2024 to share their cybersecurity concerns for the country and develop solutions to these growing threats. Hosted by CIGI, the event brought together a diverse group of stakeholders from all sectors, including government, business and civil society.

In this special report, Shelly Bruce, John Bruce, Kailee Hilt and Aaron Shull recommend that building Canada’s cybersecurity resilience will require enhanced cooperation both within and across jurisdictions to help mitigate cyber risks, reduce the number and severity of cybersecurity incidents, and speed recovery. From elementary schoolchildren to the workforce, Canadians of all ages need to be prepared for and protected against cybersecurity threats by a strong local and national framework.

In this paper, Karlie Alinta Noon writes that Indigenous cultures, knowledges and peoples bring crucial viewpoints to endeavours such as space exploration and “stand in stark contrast to the unsettling familiarity of the astro-colonialism that is currently unfolding.”

Noon calls for cosmic caretaking, which highlights fostering meaningful collaboration grounded in the principle of sustainable environment caretaking. Noon describes how Indigenous communities are increasingly demonstrating their unique role in the space industry, enriching both technological innovation and ethical considerations, and emphasizes the importance of preserving and protecting celestial environments through Indigenous-led astro-environmentalism and conservation efforts.

The Supporting a Safer Internet research project — led by CIGI, with support from the International Development Research Centre and Ipsos — surveyed 18,149 people of all genders in 18 countries regarding the impacts of technology-facilitated violence on their lives.

This version of the project’s Highlights report — available in English and in Arabic — has been developed with a specific focus on the data gathered from participants in the Middle East and North Africa region, who were not asked to report their sexual orientation or gender identity due to safety and legal limitations in those countries. Authors Nadia Al-Sakkaf and Natasha Chhabra utilize qualitative and contextual data from the SecDev Foundation to complement and provide a deeper understanding of the statistical data derived from this project.

“On July 26, 2024, participants in the Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce released the ‘stabilised text’ of the Agreement on Electronic Commerce…after a marathon negotiation spanning more than five years. The process leading up to what is the first global agreement on e-commerce has been rife with surprises from beginning to end.”

In this opinion, Henry Gao reviews some of those surprises and the hiccups along the path to the signing of a “quite impressive” package covering issues ranging from digital trade facilitation and regulatory framework to consumer protection and dispute settlement. Gao scrutinizes the language offering “interesting hints on how the signatories will approach various issues” and surveys the provisions that together comprise “the most comprehensive global agreement on e-commerce ever.”

In the eyes of its proponents, digital citizenship is the most progressive iteration of citizenship. But the rise of AI is presenting unprecedented challenges to this fledgling concept. Indeed, as Luis E. Santana, Inga Trauthig and Samuel Woolley write in this opinion, digital citizenship “is already in peril.”

Itemizing three new challenges that the widespread adaptations of AI present to digital citizenship, the authors argue for “digital citizenship practices that respect human rights and democratic values, and for interactions in these new spaces that address, rather than amplify, existing societal inequalities. From their early design, through their implementation, to the evaluation of their impacts, we need to consider all the ways in which emerging technologies affect citizenship.”

“In an era marked by increasing skepticism and mistrust in public institutions, innovative solutions to restore faith in government have never been more needed. As trust continues to erode, particularly concerning critical issues such as health care, immigration, climate change and the broader economy, a powerful yet underexplored tool emerges: AI.”

The deterioration of trust in government is a global phenomenon with far-reaching implications. In this opinion, Anthony Ilukwe says AI has the as-yet-untapped potential to revolutionize governance and rebuild public trust. Ilukwe reviews factors that contribute to this crisis of trust, describes several areas where AI could play a crucial role in restoring trust, and speaks to the challenges and considerations AI’s implementation would involve.