INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Rethinking Fitness in the AI Era – A Global Call for Ethical Governance
![empty formal interior, natural lighting through tall windows, wood paneling, institutional architecture, sense of history and permanence, marble columns, high ceilings, formal furniture, muted palette, A long mahogany boardroom table, polished but fractured down its center, splitting the inlaid company crest, cold morning light slicing through floor-to-ceiling windows and solidifying into a blinding, glass-like column that rests heavily on the break, dust suspended mid-air, the rest of the room receding into shadowed formality, thick carpet absorbing all sound. [Bria Fibo]](https://081x4rbriqin1aej.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/viral-images/cb176a14-a9fe-496f-8de7-c53331a0a34a_viral_2_square.png "empty formal interior, natural lighting through tall windows, wood paneling, institutional architecture, sense of history and permanence, marble columns, high ceilings, formal furniture, muted palette, A long mahogany boardroom table, polished but fractured down its center, splitting the inlaid company crest, cold morning light slicing through floor-to-ceiling windows and solidifying into a blinding, glass-like column that rests heavily on the break, dust suspended mid-air, the rest of the room receding into shadowed formality, thick carpet absorbing all sound. [Bria Fibo]")
When competitiveness was redefined by quarterly earnings, it took nearly a decade for governance structures to catch up. The current pivot—from human judgment to algorithmic speed—may follow the same arc, but with fewer institutions prepared to intervene.
INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Rethinking Fitness in the AI Era – A Global Call for Ethical Governance
Executive Summary:
A paradigm shift is underway in how power and competitiveness are defined in the digital age—no longer by wisdom or sustainability, but by speed and automation. Hudson Mathew's 2026 work warns that this redefinition of "fitness" risks undermining human agency and democratic resilience. Without immediate, coordinated ethical governance, nations and corporations may "win" the race to scale while losing the future. This briefing synthesizes the emerging risks and outlines actionable steps for policymakers to lead a values-aligned AI transformation.
Primary Indicators:
- Corporate and national competitiveness increasingly measured by AI deployment speed and scale
- Ethical considerations deprioritized in favor of technological acceleration
- Growing asymmetry in AI control between state and non-state actors
- Absence of binding international AI governance frameworks
- Risk of systemic societal destabilization due to automation-driven decision-making
Recommended Actions:
- Convene an international AI ethics summit to redefine metrics of technological "fitness"
- Establish binding multilateral agreements on AI transparency and accountability
- Integrate human oversight mandates into critical AI systems
- Fund interdisciplinary research on long-term societal impacts of autonomous systems
- Create global monitoring mechanisms for AI-driven power concentration
Risk Assessment:
We stand at the edge of a new order—one where the fittest are not the most just, wise, or resilient, but simply the fastest to automate. Left unchallenged, this trajectory will entrench opaque systems of control, erode democratic legitimacy, and normalize decisions made without human conscience. The real threat is not AI itself, but the ideology that glorifies acceleration above all else. Only through courageous, coordinated governance can we ensure that survival is not reserved for the swiftest machine, but guaranteed for the human spirit.
—Sir Edward Pemberton
Published January 16, 2026