Carney’s Davos Speech, A.I. in Government

Mike, Trey, and Russ open with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Davos speech arguing that the rules-based international order has ruptured and that middle powers should loosen their reliance on U.S. hegemony. Mike frames the debate around the long-term benefits versus short-term costs of American dominance, Trey agrees with Carney’s realist diagnosis but rejects his prescription to abandon liberal institutions, and Russ emphasizes the symbolic importance of a Western leader openly challenging U.S. power even if the material constraints make real independence unlikely. Next, the guys turn to the Trump administration’s plans to use AI in government, from Google’s Gemini drafting DOT regulations to the Pentagon exploring AI-assisted battlefield decision-making. Mike distinguishes between limited gains from AI-generated draft rules and much deeper risks from long-term dependence on private AI models, Trey focuses on the danger of outsourcing judgment rather than using AI as a narrow tool, and Russ argues that autonomous decision-making represents a disturbing further distancing of humans from moral responsibility, especially in warfare. Canadian PM Mark Carney’s Davos Speech (video and transcript) The Politics Guys on Facebook | X Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys. The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices