When AI holds the torch🔥, who has the right to give the order? In Limoges, France 🇫🇷, a 143-year-old city hall burns. Its clock tower collapses into the flames. Generations build. A few destroy ❤️‍🔥in an instant. The flames evoke another wound in humanity’s memory: 💔 Yuanmingyuan, Beijing’s Old Summer Palace. On October 18, 1860, Lord Elgin ordered British 🇬🇧 troops to burn it during the Anglo-French invasion. French writer Victor Hugo condemned the destruction: “One day two bandits entered the Summer Palace. One plundered, the other burned.” Those claiming to represent “civilization” destroyed one of humanity’s greatest cultural achievements. Hugo also distinguished the crimes of rulers from the people they ruled. Different eras. Different responsibilities. The same enduring question: 🔔 Why should so few have the power to ignite destruction while countless others bear the consequences? Today, humanity is handing unprecedented power to AI. AI alignment cannot stop at: “How do we make AI obey?” The deeper questions are: Aligned with whom? Who has the legitimacy to define humanity’s interests? If those holding the torch control AI, could more “successful” alignment make humanity less safe? Superintelligence can amplify wisdom. It can also amplify greed, hatred and the desire to dominate. Controlling the most powerful model does not confer the right to speak for humanity. Billions of people must have a future beyond supplying training data, bearing the costs of automation and watching others decide their fate. Everyone deserves sovereignty over their data and AI, a voice in governance and a fair share of the wealth AI and robots create. This is the mission behind @LingoAITech’s Holon Agent 3.0: build the foundations of governance and accountability from the individual upward. 🗃️ Solid Pods: user-controlled storage for data, knowledge and memory. 🧠 Personal Ontology: a lasting digital self, independent of any single platform. 🚦 Permission Engine: choose your agents, define their authority and revoke future access. Models will change. Clouds will change. Your sovereignty must endure. Before AI reshapes the world for us, humanity must decide: Who may give it orders—and who can make it stop? Our vision of human–AI coexistence rests on billions of sovereign individuals with rights, voices and choices. No one should have to entrust humanity’s future to the goodwill of whoever holds the torch. One Ontology. Multiple Agents. Your Sovereignty. #Holon #Agent30 #SovereignAI #AIGovernance #LingoAI

Who owns your AI—and who decides whether you can participate in its future? I’ll be speaking at Future Leaders Conference 2026 in Singapore on 2–3 November. Much of AI governance works from the top down. A handful of technology giants control the infrastructure, set access rules and decide whose interests AI serves. People need power from the bottom up: sovereignty over their identity, data, knowledge and digital assets—and AI agents acting under their authorization. At @LingoAITech , we’re building that foundation through Holon (Agent 3.0): a network of sovereign personal AI systems connecting multiple agents, designed to empower everyone to create value, share in its rewards and participate in AI governance. One Ontology. Multiple Agents. Your Sovereignty. Our vision is to equip individuals, communities and institutions serving the global majority—including initiatives within @UN @intgovforum and @UNDP - infrastructure for meaningful participation. Broaden access. Bridge the AI divide. Enable cooperation across geopolitical boundaries. The future of AI needs billions of empowered people with a stake and a voice. 📍 Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, Singapore 📅 2–3 November 2026 Join the conversation. Help build the foundation. #SovereignAI #Agent3 #Holon

Penguin has moved up the publication date of my new book with Patchen Barss called "Smarter Than Us". The book explains how AI works for a non-technical reader and then talks about the myriad risks and what to do about them.