How Exponential Tech is Disrupting Democracy

I've spent the past 14 years traveling the globe, meeting CEOs, leaders and innovators grappling with the dizzying pace of technological upheaval. During this time, something remarkable but also unsettling became clear: although our tools grow more advanced by the week, it's never been harder to see where the future is going.

The volume of new apps, platforms, and digital disruptions sometimes feels less like progress and more like a tsunami; vast and unstoppable, raising fundamental questions about our collective path forward. Yet, only a fraction of humanity truly comprehends its scope. This significant gap highlights the urgent need for widespread awareness on how our society is changing in front of our eyes.

This gap is especially worrisome as technology will not only bring abundance. In my upcoming book Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, I describe four scenarios—job displacement, the erosion of trust and truth, hyper-surveillance, and the environmental impact of transformative technologies— that are rapidly unfolding. These are not isolated challenges; they are deeply interconnected, wicked problems.

These challenges are harrowing enough in isolation. Yet, their convergence reveals a far more alarming picture. Together, they form a systemic vortex that threatens to reshape the very fabric of society.

The Convergence of Risks

At its core, the convergence of these risks stems from a paradox: our drive for progress often outpaces our ability to foresee its consequences. As the famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov already stated in 1988, "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."

The economic imperative to innovate, coupled with geopolitical competition and societal inertia, fuels a cycle where technologies are deployed faster than their ethical or environmental ramifications are understood. This isn't merely about the what of these risks but the how and why. Understanding the forces that drive these convergences allows us to anticipate their long-term societal implications and focus on mitigating the consequences before they spiral out of control.

The tools meant to unite us, from AI to social media, often deepen divides because they operate in a system where engagement, driven by algorithmic designs that reward polarization and sensationalism, trumps understanding.

Humanoid robots, for example, might spread misinformation—not due to flaws in their design, but because the systems controlling their deployment remain unregulated and are rarely updated when problems arise. This setup benefits the manufacturer, much like how misinformation on Facebook ultimately benefits Meta. As a result, the tools we celebrate for fostering connection or driving economic growth can, when compromised, exacerbate inequality, invade privacy, and fuel polarization.

Yet, beyond the risks to our privacy, ecology and economy, a more insidious transformation is underway. Forget Silicon Valley disrupting industries; now, it’s disrupting democracy.

From Platform to Power

With unchecked power and wealth, tech’s biggest players are no longer satisfied with running platforms. They want to run the world. Big Tech has moved from ‘breaking things’ to remaking governments. The 2024 US election saw a dramatic shift; Elon Musk and other tech billionaires threw their weight behind Trump, securing influence over policy and regulation. With control over information systems and AI investments, Big Tech now shapes everything from economic policy to national security. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is already cutting regulators that oversee his own businesses and Trump decided to remove important AI regulations. Are we witnessing a corporate coup in slow motion? If tech billionaires are the new policymakers, who ensures they serve the public good?

With these risks converging, the cascading effects create a reality where autonomy, equality, and sustainability are increasingly under siege. This convergence underscores the need for systemic solutions addressing individual crises and their interconnected nature. Incremental actions are no longer sufficient.

Why Incremental Change Won’t Save Us

Instead, we must embrace holistic, interdisciplinary approaches that align technological progress with ethical responsibility, environmental sustainability, and human well-being. This is not just a challenge for governments or tech giants. It is a call to each of us to demand better.

Better education, transparent verification, and proactive regulation. Whether by questioning the systems we use, advocating for ethical standards, or participating in digital literacy initiatives, every action contributes to a future where technology serves humanity. This means we need a fundamental shift in mindset, a Gestalt Shift. A futures thinking approach to mitigate risks while maximizing benefits. This requires a commitment to three critical pillars: education, verification, and regulation, each working together to create a resilient digital society.

First, education must transcend the mere integration of AI and other transformative technologies into classrooms. It is not enough to learn how to use these tools; we need a global culture of digital awareness. Just as we teach children to navigate physical dangers like crossing a busy street or driving a car when they are older, we must equip them to recognize and address the ethical, social, and environmental dimensions of technology before we expose them to it. By fostering critical thinking and ethical, technological literacy from an early age, we empower individuals to challenge the systems they engage with and demand transparency and accountability from tech companies.

Second, verification systems are imperative to regain trust in a post-truth world. The ability to authenticate digital identities and distinguish AI-generated content from genuine human interaction will serve as a cornerstone of societal stability. With tools like hyper-realistic digital deepfakes or high-definition AI-generated videos becoming increasingly accessible, robust verification mechanisms are no longer optional; they are essential. We need to verify if the person we are dealing with, whether via voice, video, or in the metaverse, is indeed the person they say they are. These systems must evolve alongside AI, ensuring we can verify the authenticity of people, organizations, and AI agents at any given moment using tools we can always trust.

Finally, regulation must match the velocity of innovation while maintaining the adaptability of a well-designed system, rigid enough to uphold principles but agile enough to evolve alongside the technologies it governs. To manage the profound societal impact of AI and other exponential technologies, we should adopt an approach akin to the FDA's rigorous drug approval process. However, this new regulatory body must go beyond evaluating the physical health impacts of new technologies to also assess the influence of these technologies on our mental well-being, cognitive autonomy, and societal cohesion. Just as the FDA ensures the safety and efficacy of treatments for our bodies, this agency would safeguard our minds against manipulation, misinformation, and unintended harm from advanced systems.

Crucially, regulation cannot be isolated within national borders. Technologies like AI operate globally, influencing billions in real-time. Oversight, therefore, must be a collective effort, with nations working together to create unified standards and mechanisms for accountability instead of working against each other in an arms race. Whether setting benchmarks for algorithmic transparency, developing quantum-resistant encryption standards, or establishing protocols for ethical data use, this collaboration is essential to maintain trust, foster innovation, and protect the integrity of the digital society we're building.

The Three Pillars for a Resilient Digital Society

These tools aren’t inherently dangerous, but the incentives shaping their design and deployment often are. Platforms optimized for outrage, robots spreading misinformation, regulatory bodies defunded by those they were meant to oversee; this isn’t a glitch in the system. It’s the system working exactly as built. The result? A world where exponential progress serves the powerful, erodes the commons, and manipulates the minds of billions through opaque algorithms and synthetic realities.

Yet this moment, daunting as it is, offers a profound opportunity: to upgrade the societal operating system. Education, verification, and regulation are not bureaucratic ideals, they are existential safeguards. We need education that fosters futures thinking, digital literacy, and ethical resilience. We need verification systems that restore trust in an age of synthetic truth. And we need agile, global regulatory frameworks that match the speed and scale of the tools we’re unleashing. Because the alternative is a future built on manipulation, surveillance, and short-term gain.

The more people understand the stakes, the harder it becomes for companies and governments to get away with mediocrity, manipulation, or decay. Informed citizens ask better questions. Empowered communities demand better systems. And when we raise the floor of public understanding, we raise the ceiling of what’s possible. This isn’t just a strategy for surviving disruption, it’s the long game for elevating humanity. Better decisions build better futures. Let’s widen our lens and build a world worthy of the tools we’ve created.