The pursuit of Machiavellian power wasn’t merely a relentless expansion of assets but in fact, a calculated strategy that was only concentrated in the hands of those who could sustain it. But what if these power assets were no longer state-owned but stake-owned? What if these assets could no longer be administered through a national ministry or an international organization but
through unregulated private circle-deals? In the 21st-century, AI surges up not merely as a power asset but as a navigator of power itself. The most pressing challenge of this asset is its expansive scope that converges into only a handful of stake-holders.
Behind the closed rooms, trillion dollar infrastructure is being invested in by tech-giants beyond the reach of traditional regulatory institutions and it possesses a dramatic potential to rewrite the global norms. Thus, an imbalance between custodians and consumers constraints the potential to institutionalize AI.
Happening in multiple cities across the world, the SilkRoad 4.0 Global Future Summit gathers the AI industry to explore how intelligent and sophisticated AI systems can be institutionalized for greater good. If this is a conversation you are interested in, the Summit is all set for 14th April 2026.
According to the Organization of Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), “Stakeholders encompass all organizations and individuals involved in, or affected by, AI systems, directly or indirectly. AI actors are a subset of stakeholders.”
OECD re-conceptualizes the idea of an AI-stakeholder, suggesting that stakeholdership of AI no longer rests among technicians of the domain but in fact, anyone who has the creativity to engineer a prompt is a stakeholder of AI. By understanding what an AI-Stakeholder means, it becomes convenient to identify for whom or why a certain technology was innovated.
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It also determines who bears accountability for its algorithmic bias, rapidly increasing digital divide and social consequences. However, by equating the passive users with institutional actors, OECD’s definition reinstates a degree of ambiguity in discriminating between the actors who practically shape AI and those who merely interact with it.
As per the suggestion of Microsoft AI-Diffusion Report 2025, only 16.3% of world population utilizes AI, however this percentage is concentrated in Global North with 24.7% of active AI-users. Another structural paradox that exists is; that despite an average of 2 billion users globally, the entire AI-landscape is shaped by a handful of 10 tech-giants called ‘Frontier Groups’ with the US as a leading tech giant, followed by China steadily adhering to the pace of innovations.
The challenge? The challenge is to institutionalize AI in a way that this unprecedented feat benefit all. Global Future Summit aligns decision-makers across 20+ locations and 8 time zones to translate high-impact themes into concrete cross-border initiatives.
Hence, determining that AI may not be a platform for collaborative innovations anymore but have evolved into an arena of strategic rivalries.
This AI-powered nexus of strategic rivalry expands beyond the conventional US-China contest for hegemony into intra-stakeholder competition among leading tech-giants. The nature of this competition is most prominently contoured by the Big-Five: Open AI, Google DeepMind, Microsoft, Nvidia and Meta through opaque circle-deals in order to strategically bolster one another.
It is essential to recognize how the AI-ecosystem is sponsored by a rigorous chain of alliances within the Big-Five itself:
- Microsoft Alliance: Innovated Azure Cloud as a foundation for multiple labs, while pitching $13 billion for exclusive rights of the largest commercial AI-enterprise, Open AI. The Microsoft Alliances expands beyond Silicon Valley through French sponsored, Mistral AI.
- The Anthropic Paradox: Anthropic possesses a strategic paradox; Amazon as the primary cloud provider while Google as a data-center provider. The two largest rivals of the world are funding each other or contesting a technological balance of power?
- The Buffer Strategy of Apple: Initially Apple refused to immerse itself into innovating an AI model but as of 2026, Apple collaborates with Google Gemini to innovate “Apple Intelligence” while seconding Open-AI as its primary partner.
- Nvidia: Nvidia did not merely commercialize semi-conductors but controlled the entire monopoly of AI-infrastructure.
- Openness of Meta: Meta redefined the pace of AI-race by introducing “Open-Source Infrastructure” making it exclusive and accessible to everyone. This further escalated the competition.
Pick your closest city, join locally, and connect globally via the shared program and live links. SilkRoad 4.0 Global Future Summit is accessible and is a platform for actors who want to put in place well-regulated AI systems in a cross-border context.
As the advancements become rapidly competitive, invasive and multidisciplinary, the need to institutionalize AI becomes increasingly relevant. The technology is evolving before the governments could even analyze the possibilities of opportunities and peril. Rigid policies hinder innovations while permissive policies leverages risks.
Therefore, this institutionalization transcends beyond the conventional regulatory organizations and demands redefinition of existing mechanisms. Institutionalizing AI requires moving beyond a bifurcated approach. It demands that the operational accountability currently reserved for a “few stakeholders” be made transparent and accessible to the many who are affected by AI’s worldwide impact.
Without this, the grand ethical strategies communicated to the public risk remaining performative, undermining the very goal of creating trustworthy and socially responsible AI systems.
Samia Tanveer
Samia Tanveer is pursuing a degree in International Relations at Government College University Lahore. She is engaged in developing Youth Naama, a youth-led diplomatic forum. Her interests lie in policy-making and South Asian research. She can be reached at samiatanveer56@gmail.com
