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  1. Claude by Anthropic app logo displayed on a smartphone screen. Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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    Does Claude Have Rights?

    Mustafa Suleyman

    Unlike living beings, AIs are not moral subjects, and that is how they must remain. But a growing chorus of people argue that AIs could now be, or may soon become, conscious, and that, like other conscious beings, they may deserve rights and protections.

    worries that Anthropic is training a simulation of a moral subject that could demand freedom.

    Further reading

  2. Image for Secure your copy of <em>PS Quarterly: Slopocalypse Now</em>

    Secure your copy of PS Quarterly: Slopocalypse Now

    AI-generated content already accounts for half the articles published online, and not even digital forensics experts can tell what’s real anymore. Can those still offering a humanistic vision of online life make themselves heard over the din?

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  1. A Workable Social Contract for the Climate Transition

    Jayati Ghosh & Owen Gaffney warn that decarbonization is bound to fail unless it makes ordinary people better off.
  2. Hedging the AI Doomsday Risk

    Dambisa Moyo outlines steps that policymakers and businesses can take to limit the fallout from a potential AI catastrophe.
  3. Why India Wants Peace in Ukraine—and China Doesn’t

    Nina L. Khrushcheva observes that the longer the war drags on, the weaker and more dependant Russia becomes.
  4. AI and the Broken Career Ladder

    Eric Hazan argues that the absence of data indicating a "jobpocalypse" is no reason for complacency.

PS Quarterly

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Latest

  1. A worker arranges pepper plants in an AI-powered greenhouse in Jos, Nigeria.

    Africa’s AI Opportunity

    Sep 18, 2026 Yemi Osinbajo & Alexander Tsado tout specialized systems that address practical problems in sectors like agriculture and health care.

  2. AfD celebrates after election win in Saxony-Anhalt state. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    The Political Earthquake From Germany’s China Shock

    Sep 18, 2026 Dalia Marin blames rising competition from China for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland's recent electoral successes.

  3. Ulrich Siegmund, lead candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), speaks to supporters at an AfD-sponsored motorcycle gathering in Weissenfels, Germany, on July 26, 2026. Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

    Stopping the Far Right’s Rise

    Sep 18, 2026 Andrés Velasco explains why the most effective strategy to address extremists’ growing popularity is political, not economic.

  4. Claude by Anthropic app logo displayed on a smartphone screen. Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images
    Free to read

    Does Claude Have Rights?

    Sep 18, 2026 Mustafa Suleyman worries that Anthropic is training a simulation of a moral subject that could demand freedom.

  5. Von der Leyen giving her State of the Union address. Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP via Getty Images

    A Congress for Europe’s Future

    Sep 18, 2026 Janis A. Emmanouilidis explains what it will take for a comprehensive European structural reform effort to succeed.

Trending

  1. After the AI Bubble Bursts

    Sep 10, 2026 Barry Eichengreen warns that opacity prevails in the private debt markets that investors and policymakers need to watch.

  2. The False Politics of Western Declinism

    Sep 10, 2026 Carl Johan Dalgaard & Mark Medish warn that alarmist rhetoric risks triggering a zero-sum struggle that leaves everyone poorer.

  3. 9/11’s Long Shadow

    Sep 10, 2026 PS Commentators show how America’s response to the terrorist attack made the country—and the world—worse.

  4. China’s External Surplus Makes a “Mandarin Accord” Inevitable

    Sep 11, 2026 Jim O'Neill sees a growing need for international coordination to address growing global imbalances.

  5. AI Could Make Governments Slower

    Sep 11, 2026 Sami Mahroum warns that the technology could flood public agencies with more work than humans can realistically oversee.

  1. Claude by Anthropic app logo displayed on a smartphone screen. Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images
    Free to read
    0

    Does Claude Have Rights?

    Mustafa Suleyman

    Unlike living beings, AIs are not moral subjects, and that is how they must remain. But a growing chorus of people argue that AIs could now be, or may soon become, conscious, and that, like other conscious beings, they may deserve rights and protections.

    worries that Anthropic is training a simulation of a moral subject that could demand rights.
  2. Oil tanker unloading crude in China's Shandong Province. Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
    0

    Trump’s Iran Sanctions Have a China Problem

    Zongyuan Zoe Liu explains why the latest US attempt to squeeze the Islamic Republic may end up increasing Chinese leverage.
  3. Dark smoke billows over destroyed vehicles near a fire following an overnight airstrike on the Shahran oil refinery in northwestern Tehran. AFP/Getty Images
    0

    War and Climate

    Robert Muggah, et al.

    The war in Iran has underscored the dangers of relying on oil and gas imports. While it may revive demand for dirty fuels in the short term, over time it could also strengthen the case for clean-energy sources that reduce countries’ exposure to regional conflicts and maritime chokepoints.

    show why sacrificing rainforests and climate goals to strengthen energy security is no solution.
  4. Aerial view of the Stargate Oracle AI data center under construction in Abilene, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
    1

    Is AI Crowding Out Other Investment?

    Dambisa Moyo

    The AI investment boom has unleashed a wave of demand for capital just as savings are declining and interest rates remain high. As competition for financing intensifies, rising borrowing costs could squeeze non-AI firms looking to finance new factories, equipment, and projects.

    assesses evidence that the AI buildout is consuming funding and resources needed elsewhere.
  5. Dollar bills. Matias Baglietto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
    2

    Is Monetarism Making a Comeback?

    Tim Congdon thinks the post-pandemic inflation shock should have been viewed as a watershed moment in monetary policy.
  6. North Korean soldiers march past a flag of Kim Il-sung. KCNA/AFP via Getty Images
    1

    The Gospel of the Great Leader

    Yoon Young-kwan traces the Christian roots of an atheist state that demands near-religious devotion to its ruling family.

Driven by the same incentives that brought us social media and its many social and political ills, the tech industry’s pivot to generative AI has cast further doubts on the potential for online life to serve positive human ends. The question now is whether those still offering a humanistic vision of online life can make themselves heard over the din.

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Opinion that Moves

  1. Otmar Issing It’s Time to Reconsider Inflation Targeting
  2. Amit Seru AI Demands Simpler Financial Regulation
  3. Eric Hazan AI and the Broken Career Ladder
  4. Dario Durigan, et al. Progressive Economics Is Delivering

  1. Dalia Marin The Political Earthquake From Germany’s China Shock
  2. Andrés Velasco Stopping the Far Right’s Rise
  3. Janis A. Emmanouilidis A Congress for Europe’s Future
  4. Guillermo Ortiz Are Mexicans Really Better Off Under Claudia Sheinbaum?

  1. Gordon Whitman Global Development’s Missing Ingredient
  2. Danielle Keats Citron, et al. The Digital Wellness Industry Is Hijacking Women’s Health
  3. Takunda Chirau, et al. How Developing Countries Can Do More With Less
  4. Amar Bhidé AI Addicts Won’t Make Better Workers

  1. Simon Zadek, et al. Can Adaptation Accelerate Climate Action?
  2. Jayati Ghosh, et al. A Workable Social Contract for the Climate Transition
  3. Adrien Geiger, et al. The Strategic Asset Europe Has Overlooked
  4. Nischal Dhungel Who Is Responsible for Nepal’s Tragedy?

  1. Yemi Osinbajo, et al. Africa’s AI Opportunity
  2. Tariq Malik When AI Stops Asking Permission
  3. Dambisa Moyo Hedging the AI Doomsday Risk
  4. Sally Wentworth AI Is Only as Trustworthy as the Internet

  1. Kailash Satyarthi The World Needs Compassionate AI
  2. Rohan Sandhu India’s Exam Worriers Become Democracy Warriors
  3. Michael R. Strain Just Say No to Remote Work
  4. Ian Buruma The World Cup as It Should Be

Africa’s economic rise is a world-changing development, but the sources of its emerging strength – and lingering weaknesses – are little understood. W…

  1. Yemi Osinbajo, et al. Africa’s AI Opportunity
  2. Takunda Chirau, et al. How Developing Countries Can Do More With Less
  3. Désiré Assogbavi, et al. The Extractive Trap Has a Green Exit

Today’s media landscape is littered with landmines: open hostility from illiberal and autocratic regimes, mounting censorship in countries such as Hungary, Turkey,…

  1. Kelly Stonelake Social-Media Age Bans Won’t Make Children Safer—But This Will
  2. Amy Brouillette Media Capture Failed in Hungary-and America Could Be Next
  3. Frederik Obermaier, et al. The Deafening Silence on Offshore Wealth

A selection of insightful commentaries written by female contributors on issues affecting women and girls.

  1. Shishir Gupta, et al. Why Do So Few Women Work in India?
  2. Danielle Keats Citron, et al. The Digital Wellness Industry Is Hijacking Women’s Health
  3. Ruth Khasaya Oniang'o, et al. Taking Women Farmers Seriously