Policy Prompt

AI governance is not a one-note issue. It spans geopolitics, science, philosophy, sociology, and as it grows and impacts more aspects of human governance and decision making, so does its span. Unlike the Space Race, there’s little reason for international actors to limit collaboration, given the intangible nature of this progress and its broad reach into so many aspects of our lives across the globe. What stags are we missing by limiting ourselves to hunting rabbits?

Paul and Vass are joined by Boris Babic and Brian Wong of the University of Hong Kong to discuss the intersection of governance, philosophy, physics and more to tackle today’s beast of AI. Touching on both responsibilities and freedoms of governments and private actors, they open a window to a world in which AI advancements are shared and grown, not kept under lock and key to wither without sunlight.

Mentioned:

Supranational organizations: archive.unescwa.org/supranational-organizations

“Raising the lobster”: sinicapodcast.com/p/raising-the-lobster-phrase-of-the

Iris Marion Young: cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-habermas-lexicon/iris-marion-young

OpenClaw AI: openclaw.ai/

The Space Race: wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race

NeurIPS: neurips.cc/

NeurIPS US-sanctioned contributors ban (and reversal): reuters.com/world/china/china-boycotts-top-ai-conference-after-ban-papers-us-sanctioned-entities-2026-03-27/

Stag Hunt in game theory: wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_hunt

Nash equilibrium: wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium

Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum: youtube.com/watch?v=sFBkNX1-cbg

Brussels strategic roadmap for digitalisation and AI in energy: data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/WK-16692-2025-INIT/en/pdf

Kenya Artificial Intelligence Strategy: ict.go.ke/sites/default/files/2025-03/Kenya

The Three-Body Problem, novel by Liu Cixin: wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)

Further Reading:

Boris Babic: borisbabic.com/

Brian Wong: cccw.hku.hk/team/brian-wong/

Credits:

Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. 

Original music by Joshua Snethlage. 

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. 

Be sure to follow us on social media. 

X: @_policyprompt

IG: @cigionline

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at [email protected]

It’s easy to forget that everything in our lives that’s not strictly natural has been manufactured. That manufacturing incorporates elements from around the world, elements that had been designed, harvested, synthesized, shipped, assembled, shipped again to meet you. This system is remarkably efficient and ridiculously cheap, but that’s come at a cost. Our highly convenient world stands on toothpick-thin struts. How can we design it better?

In this episode of Policy Prompt, Paul and Vass are joined by Tim Minshall, inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), Head of the IfM’s Centre for Technology Management and a Fellow of Churchill Co. Together, they explore the reality of today’s manufacturing, the fragility of the supply chains we take for granted, and how a better world can be manufactured.

Mentioned:

Friction-maxxing: wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction-maxxing

Institute for manufacturing: ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/

COVID-19 toilet paper crisis: statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/7899-great-toilet-paper-scare-2020

Mercantilism: wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism

Supply chains: wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain

2021 blockage of the Suez Canal: wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Suez_Canal_obstruction

Magic Eye pictures: wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Eye

Critical minerals: wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_raw_materials

Decarbonization: news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/04/22/what-is-decarbonization-and-how-do-we-make-it-happen/

Liberation Day and tariffs: wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Day_tariffs

USMCA review in 2026: csis.org/analysis/usmca-review-2026

Redundancy: wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundancy

Further Reading:

Tim Minshall bio: ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/people/thwm100/

How Things Are Made: A Journey Through the Hidden World of Manufacturing (Ecco, 2025) by Tim Minshall: indigo.ca/en-ca/how-things-are-made-a-journey-through-the-hidden-world-of-manufacturing/9780063434653.html

Your Life Is Manufactured: How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better (Faber & Faber, 2025) by Tim Minshall, shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize in 2025: royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/science-book-prize/books/2025/your-life-is-manufactured/

Credits:

Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. 

Original music by Joshua Snethlage. 

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. 

Be sure to follow us on social media. 

X: @_policyprompt

IG: @cigionline

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at [email protected]

Today’s world is more convenient than it has ever been in history. It can take fewer than five discrete actions to have most anything delivered right to your door, and you don’t even have to get up from your chair. But in our world becoming so comfortable, so convenient, we must ask the question: What are we losing?

In this special episode, Vass is joined by Tim Wu, a preeminent legal scholar and former Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy at the United States, in a live conversation recorded at Hot Docs in Toronto, in November 2025. The discussion was anchored on Tim’s latest book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (Knopf, 2025), which illuminates how we can reclaim control and create a balanced economy that works for everyone in a modern world where tech platforms have been permitted to run rampant in their own self-interest under the guise of free innovation. We regulated electricity when it became clear it would change the world; why not today’s disruptive tech?

Mentioned:

Human Potential Movement: spreadgreatideas.org/glossary/human-potential-movement/

Clay Shirky: shirky.com/

Raffi’s Bananaphone: wikipedia.org/wiki/Bananaphone

Amazon sellers bidding for top spots in results: aihello.com/resources/blog/amazon-ppc-bidding/

Lina M. Khan, former commissioner of the FTC: ftc.gov/about-ftc/commissioners-staff/lina-m-khan

History of nursing homes: share.google/G1faVin0hpjK5p5pS

Canadian 2025 budget: budget.canada.ca/2025/home-accueil-en.html

Economic gardening: kauffman.org/resources/policy/economic-gardening/

Democracy in decline worldwide: en.ara.cat/politics/democracy-in-decline-72-of-the-world-s-population-lives-in-autocracies_1_5352060.html

Hugo Chavez launching monetary support for Venezuelan children living in poverty in 2011: reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/chavez-launches-cash-giveaway-for-poor-venezuela-kids-idUSTRE7BB1C8/

Further Reading:

Tim Wu biography: timwu.net/

The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (Knopf, 2025): penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691177/the-age-of-extraction-by-tim-wu/

Agency decay from AI usage: cigionline.org/articles/the-silent-erosion-how-ais-helping-hand-weakens-our-mental-grip/

Credits:

Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. 

Original music by Joshua Snethlage. 

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. 

Be sure to follow us on social media. 

X: @_policyprompt

IG: @cigionline

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at [email protected]

Ever since the ancient Athenians first attempted a democratic approach to governance, nations worldwide have been attempting to perfect it. Some things we’ve gotten right; for instance, many nations have decided that the Athenians’ exclusion of many groups of people was not conducive to democracy, and instead have elected to include all people, not just men who owned land. But we’ve oftentimes gotten things wrong, too. How can we reinvent democracy, given what we know now?
In this episode of Policy Prompt, Paul and Vass welcome James Bacchus, a former member of the US Congress, a founding judge, twice chairman and chief judge of the Appellate Body at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, director of the Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity at the University of Central Florida, CIGI senior fellow, and much more, to discuss how a true global democracy could be formed, one that accurately represents all nations and that dutifully involves all humankind. Many of us are quite removed from the “democratic” proceedings of our nations. What if we had the right to participate?
Mentioned:
Chinese coal plants: apnews.com/article/china-coal-solar-climate-carbon-emissions-242abe76eb69f5a362e977de74ff3254
8 The Economist Democracy Index: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
Gerrymandering:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#:~:text=Gerrymandering%2C%20
Participatory Democracy: www.govocal.com/blog/what-is-participatory-democracy
Sortition, the “jury duty” system: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition
The Pnyx, an important site in the creation of democracy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pnyx
Athenian Democracy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy
“Living Democracy,” a philosophy of John Dewey: share.google/qXy5uA1tEdqhZowtl
Food shortages in Central Florida due to government shutdown mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2025/10/15/central-florida-food-banks-step-up-as-government-shutdown-impacts-families
Further Reading:
James Bacchus bio: cigionline.org/people/james-bacchus/
James Bacchus books: google.ca/search?sca_esv=4ee06a5b294f010f&hl=en&q=inauthor:%22James+Bacchus%22&udm=36
Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. 
Original music by Joshua Snethlage. 
Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. 
Be sure to follow us on social media. 
X: @_policyprompt
IG: @cigionline
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at [email protected]

The playing field for modern scams is bigger than ever. Entire guarded compounds are dedicated to online and phone fraud, and the network of influence and intimidation these organizations hold grows daily, facilitated by emerging technology such as artificial intelligence and mass automation. An epicentre has emerged in East and Southeast Asia; Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, China and more are both sources and victims of organized scams. Local governments have been cracking down to an extent, but this hydra has heads at all levels of public influence — a stronger, more coordinated approach is needed to conquer this beast.
This episode features experts Mark Bo and Ivan Franceschini in conversation with Paul on the scam industry and its victims, how organized scam syndicates can start to take over local economies through corruption and human trafficking, and what most people misunderstand about how these organizations operate. Based in East and Southeast Asia for two decades, Mark is a researcher who utilizes his background in corporate and financial mapping to investigate Asia’s online gambling, fraud, and money laundering industries. Ivan, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, Asia Institute, focuses his research on globalization, labour, and the evolving dynamics of crime in the digital age, particularly on the cyber-fraud industry.
Mentioned:
Sihanoukville, Cambodia: https://www.britannica.com/place/Sihanoukville
Pig butchering scam - a common crypto investment scheme: https://dfpi.ca.gov/news/insights/pig-butchering-how-to-spot-and-report-the-scam/#:~:text=Pig%20butchering%20is%20an%20investment,exchange%20to%20purchase%20crypto%20assets.
Scam centres in Cambodia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scam/_centers/_in/_Cambodia#
Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation: https://www.bluedragon.org/
Chen Zhi, the young tycoon accused of masterminding a multibillion-dollar international fraud network: https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/asia/cambodia-scams-chen-zhi-prince-group-intl-hnk
Federal Trade Commission data shows US consumers lost over $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/new-ftc-data-show-big-jump-reported-losses-fraud-125-billion-2024#:~:text=Newly%20released%20Federal%20Trade%20Commission,all%20other%20payment%20methods%20combined.
UNODC 2025 Technical Policy Report: Inflection Point: Global Implications of Scam Centres, * Underground Banking and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia: https://www.unodc.org/roseap/uploads/documents/Publications/2025/Inflection_Point_2025.pdf
UNODC 2023 Policy Report: Casinos, cyber fraud, and trafficking in persons for forced criminality in Southeast Asia: https://www.unodc.org/roseap/uploads/documents/Publications/2023/TiP_for_FC_Policy_Report.pdf
South Korea sanctions 15 individuals, 132 entities over online scams in Southeast Asia: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/s-korea-sanctions-15-individuals-132-entities-over-online-scams-in-southeast-asia/ar-AA1RfgLi?apiversion=v2&domshim=1&noservercache=1&noservertelemetry=1&batchservertelemetry=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1
More than 1,000 arrested in Cambodian cyber-scam raids: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/16/more-than-1000-arrested-in-cambodian-cyber-scam-raids
Further Reading:
Mark Bo’s bio: https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/authors/bo-mark?srsltid=AfmBOopSu7unvmVdZYFG2%5C_BC4teQZsQYrGpPia8vYTx-YfTjZ91h3Ib4
Ivan Franceschini’s bio: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/1108680-ivan-franceschini
Mark Bo, Ivan Franceschini and Ling Li, Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime Compounds (Verso, 2025)
Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. 
Original music by Joshua Snethlage. 
Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. 
Be sure to follow us on social media. 
X: @_policyprompt
IG: @cigionline 
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at [email protected]