The future is here

A illustration showing a robotic figure against the backdrop of AI written in the background on May 4, 2023. — Reuters

By the end of 2023, generative artificial intelligence (AI) – capable of crafting poetry, designing architecture and solving complex problems – had already redefined human potential. Yet, in a staggering failure of foresight, the world’s most powerful institutions – think tanks, governments, corporations, and academia – remained blind to the most important paradigm shift of the 21st century.

This was not just about underestimating a new tool. It was a systemic misunderstanding of a deeper revolution: the emergence of the Sci-Tech-Human Power Complex, powered by the globalisation of Information, Knowledge, Research, Innovation and Development (IKRID). These forces are redefining how power is generated – not through capital or machines alone, but through a fusion of technology, science and human agency.

By late 2023, tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E had become mainstream, impacting everything from education and design to healthcare and legal services. AI could draft contracts, write code, create art and even diagnose rare diseases. Despite this, institutional leaders continued to view generative AI through a narrow economic lens, primarily to reduce costs or automate tasks.

A 2023 McKinsey report highlighted billions in potential savings but made little mention of AI’s democratising potential. Think tanks like Pew focused on job displacement rather than empowerment. Academic institutions and policy bodies failed to recognise generative AI as an environmental shift – like electricity or the internet – redefining not just efficiency but the very structure of power. The oversight revealed a broader failure: the inability to recognise generative AI as the apex of the Sci-Tech-Human Power Complex – a new system where individuals, particularly the marginalised, could co-create the future.

The term ‘Sci-Tech-Human Power Complex’ refers to the convergence of science, technology and human creativity as the new engine of power in a post-internet world. Unlike the earlier industrial revolutions that were mechanised or computational, this revolution is human-centric. Its foundation is IKRID, a decades-long trend that has dismantled knowledge barriers.

Since the 2000s, platforms like GitHub, arXiv and MOOCs have allowed individuals globally, regardless of income or geography, to access and produce cutting-edge knowledge. African developers launched mobile banking apps, citizen scientists contributed to genome projects, and indigenous coders used AI to preserve languages. This feedback loop, where humans use tech to innovate and tech enhances human agency, has produced a new power structure. Generative AI is its most visible product, enabling a refugee to learn coding, a rural entrepreneur to build global brands, or a disabled artist to create museum-quality work. Yet institutions failed to grasp this shift, reducing it to mere automation rather than appreciating its emancipatory potential.

So why did global institutions miss the significance of the Sci-Tech-Human Power Complex? Most research institutions analysed AI in fragmented silos – economic disruption, regulatory concerns or military applications. A 2023 Brookings report fixated on AI safety but ignored its potential to drive grassroots innovation. These elite-driven models failed to recognise the participatory, decentralised nature of IKRID.

CEOs of major corporations treated AI as a proprietary tool for internal gain, not as a platform for public co-creation. Surveys showed that companies focused more on cost-cutting than on innovation. Open-source AI models, created by global collaborations, often outperformed billion-dollar corporate ones.

Policymakers were even slower. By the end of 2023, very few countries had integrated AI into education or public health infrastructure. The UK’s regulatory approach emphasised safety and risk, but sidelined opportunity and access.

This blind spot reflects an outdated reliance on the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ narrative, ignoring the deeper human and social transformation underway.

In education, generative AI could deliver personalised lessons to underserved communities in their native dialects. It could revolutionise simulations, VR, AR, and video learning tools for skill development. Yet, Unesco’s 2023 data revealed that global AI integration in education was negligible, leaving 260 million children out of school.

In healthcare, AI could offer low-cost diagnostics in regions without doctors. But WHO’s 2023 findings showed that 3.5 billion people still lacked basic care due to poor tech deployment. In both cases, the marginalised are not just recipients but potential co-creators. IKRID empowers a Kenyan coder to develop climate solutions or an Afghan girl to build educational content from her village.

Economically, companies ignoring the Sci-Tech-Human Power Complex are setting themselves up for irrelevance. A McKinsey survey in 2023 revealed that only 20 per cent of firms used AI for product innovation, leaving them vulnerable to agile startups. Politically, the failure to acknowledge empowered citizens may lead to instability. The Arab Spring was a preview; IKRID has only accelerated since then.

To avoid further obsolescence, leaders must take five urgent steps: one, adopt holistic frameworks: think tanks must embrace interdisciplinary research, blending technology with sociology, ethics, and anthropology. This allows for a policy built around empowerment, not just control. Two, corporate co-creation: companies should empower employees and users to innovate using AI tools. Firms that embraced this approach in 2023 saw innovation rates jump by 30 per cent.

Three, inclusive governance: governments must invest in AI for remote education, rural healthcare, and infrastructure. Rwanda’s AI-based rural medical network served over two million people in 2023, proving it is possible. Four, strengthen global networks: the EU’s Horizon programme showed how transnational collaboration increased the impact of AI research by 40 per cent between 2020–2023. More such partnerships are needed.

Lastly, public empowerment: awareness campaigns should teach citizens how to become co-creators in the Sci-Tech-Human Power Complex, not passive users.

The failure to embrace generative AI by 2023 was not just about technology but was a refusal to recognise a new world order powered by IKRID and the Sci-Tech-Human Power Complex. This revolution is humanistic, inclusive, unstoppable.

China’s recent leap – from Deepseek to autonomous agents like ‘Manus’ and ‘Super Agent’ – is not isolated genius. It reflects mastery over this new complex. And it’s a warning: while others hesitate, some nations are racing ahead.

In this unfolding era, a refugee could study quantum physics, a villager could launch a global brand, and a disabled poet could move millions. But this future demands new leadership – interdisciplinary, inclusive and driven by the full potential of the human mind.

Those who ignore it will not just fall behind. They will disappear.

The writer is an advocate of the high court and a former civil servant.

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