Bremmer's Shift in Global Precedence and It's Impact on Big Tech and AI

Friday - June 16 2023, 03:41 UTC - 1 year ago

Bremmer's analysis has increasingly highlighted the US and China's control of world security and economy, as well as the power of tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Alibaba. These have accumulated more power than any large corporations of the past, having a major factor in shaping global geopolitics while the G-Zero world has had a big influence on international organisations and the multilateral order. Regulations like the 2021 EU's Digital Sovereignty Law have also highlighted the need to be aware of acting governing forces.

Ian Bremmer describes the world security order, the economic order and the transitioning digital and technology world order. The world security order will remain with the US and dominant unipolar power. The economic order is multipolar with the US and China each about equal and India, Europe and Japan as significant players. The technological and digital world order is already powerful in shaping and controlling global society .

It is becoming even more influential with AI and Large Language models. In 2021, the market value of the top 5 largest tech giants - Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, and Facebook - was estimated at $5.2 trillion, up from $2.7 trillion in 2017. The US and China are also engaging in a trade war, which has caused tensions in the global market. Bremmer argues that the Silicon Valley model of innovation, which relies on taking risks and occasionally failing, is incompatible with China's state-controlled economic system .

In 2012, Bremmer came up with the G-Zero world which refers to a breakdown in global leadership brought about by a decline of Western influence and the inability of other nations to fill the void. It is a reference to a perceived shift away from the pre-eminence of the "G7" ("Group of Seven") industrialized countries and the expanded Group of Twenty, which includes major emerging powers like China, India, Brazil, Turkey, and others .

Bremmer explains that, in the G-Zero, no country or group of countries has the political and economic leverage to drive an international agenda or provide global public goods.Bremmer has now shifted to the US controls world security and it is mainly the US and China that define the global economic agenda. In 2021, Bremmer claimed that tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Alibaba have accumulated more power than any large corporations of the past .

He says these nonstate actors are now shaping geopolitics and exercise a form of sovereignty over a rapidly expanding realm that is out of reach from national governments: the digital space.In 2021, the CEO of Alibaba, Jack Ma, disappeared for 3 months. China President Xi cracked down on China's technology giants. In October 2022, Elon Musk tweeted, "Nobody should trust Bremmer" in reply to a tweet by Bremmer saying, "elon musk told me he had spoken with putin and the kremlin directly about ukraine .

he also told me what the kremlin’s red lines were".As of today (Friday, 16 June 2023), Bremmer's analysis on the current world order has become increasingly clear: the US and China still control global security, with the US in a dominant unipolar position, and China and other emerging global powers in a multilateral economic order. Additionally, tech giants have accumulated more power than any large corporations of the past and have become a major factor in shaping global geopolitics as well as in the development of AI and large language models .

The G-Zero world has effectively shaped international organisations and the multilateral order while tech giants are continuing to lobby for their own interests. With recent government regulations such as the 2021 EU data privacy framework, 'The Digital Sovereignty Law', the need to be aware of larger governing forces is even clearer.