When COVID struck, George Yeo recalls, Chinese authorities told the public they held records of every epidemic in the country going back 2,500 years. Singapore’s former foreign minister uses that detail to open a theory of national power that runs from ancient China to the race for artificial intelligence.
A thread through history
Speaking in Edinburgh on the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations, Yeo follows one thread across centuries. It passes through a script Chinese schoolchildren still read in its original form, an invention that left China after a battle in Central Asia, Alan Turing, Charles Darwin, a Scottish engineer, and a wartime meeting aboard an American warship.
From open records to open models
The thread ends at a recent decision: China’s choice to release its AI models for anyone to use. As technology and energy spread to every country, Yeo asks what will set one society apart from the next, and he takes his answer from Adam Smith. Along the way, a small bird turns out to explain how an economy should be run.
Why it matters for Asia
Open-source AI models give Asian governments and companies powerful tools at low cost, and the region is building power plants and data centres at speed. If access to technology and energy evens out, Yeo’s question becomes the central one for Asian policymakers: which institutions and habits will let their societies make the most of it?
What do you think will decide which nations thrive? Watch the full keynote and judge for yourself.
Related
Further reading
- Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Footage: Adam Smith’s Panmure House. George Yeo keynote, New Enlightenment Conference, Edinburgh, marking 250 years of The Wealth of Nations. Watch the original
