Orwell exhorted writers to “never use the passive where you can use the active”, Williams explains how passives can sometimes help create a sense of flow.

But if you can first grasp the origins and qualities of bad writing, you may learn to diagnose and cure problems in your own prose (keeping things simple helps a lot).

Britain becoming an AI superpower.

As the US expands the number of critical data sets that are publicly available, their conditions of use and access will become increasingly important (Bates 2014).

“It appears there was some sort of confrontation between the two men in the house and the Israeli army, and the two men in the house were shot dead,”

Some regulations intervene in the market while others facilitate the market; some regulations benefit large companies and others harm them.

Both Democrats and Republicans support regulations that would require companies to label AI creations as such,

As a self-professed pro-union president, Biden must answer to unions across the country that worry that the technology could eliminate workers’ jobs.

By racing to regulate AI, lawmakers could miss the opportunity to address some of the technology’s less obvious dangers. Machine learning algorithms are often biased, explained Eric Rice, who founded USC’s Center for AI in Society. Several years ago, researchers found that a popular healthcare risk-prediction algorithm was racially biased, with Black patients receiving lower risk scores.

Schaake expressed concern that when Altman and others warn of existential threats from AI, they are putting the regulatory focus on the horizon, rather than in the present. If lawmakers are worrying about AI ending humanity, they’re overlooking the more immediate, less dramatic worries.

AI companies should adhere to “an appropriate set of safety requirements,” which could entail a government-run licensing or registration system.

AI governance is a journey, not a destination.

The concept of safety brakes, along with licensing for highly capable foundation models and AI infrastructure obligations, should be key elements of the voluntary, internationally coordinated G7 code that signatory nation states agree to incorporate into their national systems.

a means for mutual recognition of compliance and safety across borders

against internationally agreed standards

the OECD to develop principles for trustworthy AI

an AI system certified as safe in one jurisdiction can also qualify as safe in another.

a voluntary AI Code of Conduct.

s well as India and Indonesia

In each area, the key to success will be to develop concrete initiatives and bring governments, companies, and NGOs together to advance them.

Unless academic researchers can obtain access to substantially more computing resources, there is a real risk that scientific and technological inquiry will suffer, including that relating to AI itself.

Transparency requirements in the AI Act, and potentially several of the to-be-developed standards related to the Act, present an opportunity to leverage such industry initiatives towards a shared goal.

One of these is the Coalition for Content Provenance Authenticity, or C2PA, a global standards body with more than 60 members including Adobe, the BBC, Intel, Microsoft, Publicis Groupe, Sony, and Truepic. The group is dedicated to bolstering trust and transparency of online information including releasing the world’s first technical specification for certifying digital content in 2022, which now includes support for Generative AI.

whenever an AI system is used to create artificially generated content, this should be easy to identify.

The AI Act will require that AI providers make it clear to users that they are interacting with an AI system.

The AI Act requires developers of high-risk systems to put in place a risk management system to ensure that systems are tested, to mitigate risks to the extent possible, including through responsible design and development, and to engage in post-market monitoring.

t’s also important to make sure that obligations are attached to powerful AI models, with a focus on a defined class of highly capable foundation models and calibrated to model-level risk. This will impact two layers of the technology stack. The first will require new regulations for these models themselves. And the second will involve obligations for the AI infrastructure operators on which these models are developed and deployed. The blueprint we developed offers suggested goals and approaches for each of these layers.

The AI Act acknowledges the challenges to regulating complex architecture through its risk-based approach for establishing requirements for high-risk systems.

They would be akin to the braking systems engineers have long built into other technologies such as elevators, school buses, and high-speed trains, to safely manage not just everyday scenarios, but emergencies as well.

Our blueprint proposes new safety requirements that, in effect, would create safety brakes for AI systems that control the operation of designated critical infrastructure.

As the EU finalizes the AI Act, the EU could consider using procurement rules to promote the use of relevant trustworthy AI frameworks. For instance, when procuring high-risk AI systems, EU procurement authorities could require suppliers to certify via third-party audits that they comply with relevant international standards.

such as the AI Risk Management Framework developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, and the new international standard ISO/IEC 42001 on AI Management Systems, which is expected to be published in the fall of 2023.

we’ve been supportive of a regulatory regime in Europe that effectively addresses safety and upholds fundamental rights while continuing to enable innovations that will ensure that Europe remains globally competitive.

People who design and operate AI systems cannot be accountable unless their decisions and actions are subject to the rule of law.

This is the fundamental need to ensure that machines remain subject to effective oversight by people, and the people who design and operate machines remain accountable to everyone else.

accountability

There are enormous opportunities to harness the power of AI to contribute to European growth and values. But another dimension is equally clear. It’s not enough to focus only on the many opportunities to use AI to improve people’s lives. We need to focus with equal determination on the challenges and risks that AI can create, and we need to manage them effectively.

the Algorithmic Accountability Act.

the banning of certain applications of AI, like sentiment analysis or facial recognition, echoing parts of the EU regulation

it would require that tech companies identify and label AI-made text and images, which is a massive undertaking.

should tech companies have that same ‘get out of jail free’ pass for AI-generated content?

A giant unanswered question for AI regulation in the US is whether we will or won’t see Section 230 reform.

I must reflect “communist values.”)

The subtext here is the narrative that US AI companies are different from Chinese AI companies.

Technology, and AI in particular, ought to be aligned with “democratic values.”

regulations from the European Union, which some tech companies and critics say will stifle innovation.

regulators will probably be calling on tech CEOs to ask how they’d like to be regulated.

Schumer called innovation the “north star” of US AI strategy

Individual agencies like the FTC,the Department of Commerce, and the US Copyright Office have been quick to respond to the craze of the last six months, issuing policy statements, guidelines, and warnings about generative AI in particular.

a National AI Commission to manage AI policy,

a bill that would exclude generative AI from Section 230 (the law that shields online platforms from liability for the content their users create).

emain a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game

AI has become a double-edged sword in the era of digital information.

the potential of AI in safeguarding truth and trust in the digital age is vast.

may generate false positives and negatives,

AI models need large volumes of labeled data for training, but there's a shortage of labeled deepfake datasets.

by analyzing the linguistic structure of the content, cross-referencing it with verified databases, tracking the origin and propagation patterns, and more.

to realistically simulate blinking

AI models are being trained to spot deepfakes by identifying subtle patterns that humans might miss.

The generator improves its fakes based on feedback from the discriminator, resulting in extremely realistic deepfakes.

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)

Deepfakes, powered by advanced machine learning techniques, can create hyper-realistic videos or audio where individuals appear to say or do things that they never did

some form of “guidance or policy” before the US presidential elections next year, and hopes the industry can “converge on a small set of high-level principles.”

He also said regulation could create a more level playing field for companies that are already trying to follow safe and ethical best practices.

plans to “actively engage with governments and all stakeholders to establish risk-based regulatory frameworks” around AI.

pointed to the CAI’s “nutritional label” format, which gives viewers a sense of AI involvement in creation while not revealing too much about a given creative professional’s “secret sauce.”

the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) aimed at bringing more transparency to AI-generated content, said they hope that their efforts will help the group stay ahead of any potential regulations.

We have all kinds of use cases for AI, and it has to expand beyond GPT and large language models, or what we’re gonna legislate is GPT and large language models—not AI,

“Maybe there should be some other method to make sure that people are acting well—have some scoring system,

‘Please give licenses to make big models,’” he said. “And if you see this from the perspective of trying to use regulation as a way to close the door behind you, all of the testimony fits in perfectly.”

Senators on both sides of the aisle generally agreed on the need for regulation

Microsoft President Brad Smith also threw the company’s support behind the creation of a new government agency and licensing system for pre-trained AI models at an event in Washington

Altman, along with IBM’s Christina Montgomery, made suggestions for how Congress should take action, with Altman proposing “licensing and testing requirements” and Montgomery suggesting “precision regulation” of specific use cases.

Search Console recommendation:

New Predictive Insights

aving a complete guide to the behavior and interactions of your active users.

If Universal Analytics was all about page views, GA4 is all about events.

to collect web and app data

Changes to online privacy policies for one, and changes in consumer behavior for another.

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

The nature of this guiding sentiment is explained in the Discourse on Inequality (p. 197, note 2), where egoism (amour-propre) is contrasted with self-respect (amour de soi). Naturally, Rousseau holds, man does not want everything for himself, and nothing for others.

The General Will is, then, above all a universal and, in the Kantian sense, a "rational" will.

The whole complex of human institutions is not a mere artificial structure; it is the expression of the mutual dependence and fellowship of men.

"Why ought I to obey the General Will?" is that the General Will exists in me and not outside me. I am "obeying only myself," as Rousseau says.

The Sovereign must, therefore, treat all its members alike; but, so long as it does this, it remains omnipotent. If it leaves the general for the particular, and treats one man better than another, it ceases to be Sovereign; but equality is already presupposed in the terms of the Contract.

We have seen that the theory of the Social Contract is founded on human freedom: this freedom carries with it, in Rousseau's view, the guarantee of its own permanence; it is inalienable and indestructible.

Rousseau bases his political doctrine throughout on his view of human freedom; it is because man is a free agent capable of being determined by a universal law prescribed by himself that the State is in like manner capable of realising the General Will, that is, of prescribing to itself and its members a similar universal law.

The justification of democracy is not that it is always right, even in intention, but that it is more general than any other kind of supreme power.

regarding it as a purely ideal conception, to which human institutions can only approximate, and holding it to be realised actually in every republican State, i.e. wherever the people is the Sovereign in fact as well as in right

Every association of several persons creates a new common will; every association of a permanent character has already a "personality" of its own, and in consequence a "general" will

he General Will Rousseau means something quite distinct from the Will of All, with which it should never have been confused.

"There is often," he says, "a great deal of difference between the will of all and the general will; the latter takes account only of the common interest, while the former takes private interest into account, and is no more than a sum of particular wills."

The body politic is also a moral being, possessed of a will, and this general will, which tends always to the preservation and welfare of the whole and of every part, and is the source of the laws, constitutes for all the members of the State, in their relations to one another and to it, the rule of what is just or unjust."

The effect of the Social Contract is the creation of a new individual.

Doubtless," says Rousseau, "there is a universal justice emanating from reason alone; but this justice, to be admitted among us, must be mutual. Humbly speaking, in default of natural sanctions, the laws of justice are ineffective among men."

Rousseau saw the only means of securing effective popular government in a federal system, starting from the small unit as Sovereign.

democracy is possible only in small States, aristocracy in those of medium extent, and monarchy in great States

Government, therefore, exists only at the Sovereign's pleasure, and is always revocable by the sovereign will.

Sovereignty, on the other hand, is in his view absolute, inalienable, indivisible, and indestructible.

Government, therefore, will always be to some extent in the hands of selected persons.

Rousseau regards as inalienable a supreme power which Hobbes makes the people alienate in its first corporate action.

It is the view that the people, whether it can alienate its right or not, is the ultimate director of its own destinies, the final power from which there is no appeal.

This would leave us still in the realm of mere fact, outside both right and philosophy.

essential to distinguish between the legal Sovereign of jurisprudence, and the political Sovereign of political science and philosophy.

Where Sovereignty is placed is, on this view, a question purely of fact, and never of right.

"Sovereignty is the exercise of the general will."

He wished to break up the nation-states of Europe, and create instead federative leagues of independent city-states.

he therefore held that self-government was impossible except for a city.

He regards the State as existing mainly to protect life and property, and is, in all his assertions of popular rights, so cautious as to reduce them almost to nothing.

Hobbes, living in a time of civil wars, regards the worst government as better than anarchy, and is, therefore, at pains to find arguments in support of any form of absolutism.

As soon, therefore, as the State is set up, the government becomes for Hobbes the Sovereign; there is no more question of popular Sovereignty, but only of passive obedience: the people is bound, by the contract, to obey its ruler, no matter whether he governs well or ill.

He agrees that the people is naturally supreme, but regards it as alienating its Sovereignty by the contract itself, and delegating its power, wholly and for ever, to the government.

The best-known instance of its actual use is by the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower in 1620, in whose declaration occurs the phrase, "We do solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic."

The second view, which may be called the Social Contract theory proper, regards society as originating in, or based on, an agreement between the individuals composing it.

Grotius is sometimes held to have stated the theory so as to admit both forms of contract; but it is clear that he is only thinking of the first form as admitting democratic as well as monarchical government.

It was often supported by references to the Old Testament,

The doctrine that society is founded on a contract between the people and the government is of mediæval origin.

They represent society as based on an original contract either between the people and the government, or between all the individuals composing the State.

it turns out to be a weapon that cuts both ways.

it is based on the consent, tacit or expressed, past or present, of its members.

These are the Social Contract, Sovereignty and the General Will.

Rousseau, founding his whole system on human freedom, takes man as the basis, and regards him as giving himself what laws he pleases.

in the first words of the Social Contract, "is to inquire if, in the civil order, there can be any sure and certain, rule of administration, taking men as they are and laws as they might be."

distinguishing self-respect (amour de soi) from egoism (amour-propre),

he is passing over to the conception of "nature" as identical with the full development of capacity, with the higher! idea of human freedom.

the contrast between the "state of nature" and the "state of society" runs through all Rousseau's work.

How, Rousseau asks, can the will of the State help being for me a merely external will, imposing itself upon my own? How can the existence of the State be reconciled with human freedom? How can man, who is born free, rightly come to be everywhere in chains?

One school, by collecting facts, aims at reaching broad generalisations about what actually happens in human societies! the other tries to penetrate to the universal principles at the root of all human combination.

e is merely asserting the sure principle that a fact can in no case give rise to a right.

o lay down the essential principles which must form the basis of every legitimate society.

The Discourse on Political Economy is important as giving the first sketch of the theory of the "General Will."

But, by reading between the lines, an attentive student can detect in it a great deal of the positive doctrine afterwards incorporated in the Social Contract.

He recognises society as inevitable and is already feeling his way towards a justification of it.

The conclusion of the Discourse favours not this purely abstract being, but a state of savagery intermediate between the "natural" and the "social" conditions, in which men may preserve the simplicity and the advantages of nature and at the same time secure the rude comforts and assurances of early society.

Rousseau declares explicitly that he does not suppose the "state of nature" ever to have existed: it is a pure "idea of reason," a working concept reached by abstraction from the "state of society."

the idea of "nature" has already undergone a great development; it is no longer an empty opposition to the evils of society; it possesses a positive content.

The plan of the first Discourse is essentially simple: it sets out from the badness, immorality and misery of modern nations, traces all these ills to the departure from a "natural" state, and then credits the progress of the arts and sciences with being the cause of that departure.

Theory makes no great leaps; it proceeds to new concepts by the adjustment and renovation of old ones.

It is owing to this faculty of giving his generalisations content and actuality that Rousseau has become the father of modern political philosophy. He uses the method of his time only to transcend it; out of the abstract and general he creates the concrete and universal.

The intellectuals of the eighteenth century therefore generalised to their hearts' content, and as a rule suffered little for their lèse-majesté: Voltaire is the typical example of such generalisation. The spirit of the age favoured such methods, and it was therefore natural for Rousseau to pursue them.

we must always remember that Rousseau is writing in the eighteenth century, and for the most part in France. Neither the French monarchy nor the Genevese aristocracy loved outspoken criticism, and Rousseau had always to be very careful what he said.

we must see if the answer still holds when the question is put in a more up-to-date form.

The statesmen of the French Revolution, from Robespierre downwards, were throughout profoundly affected by the study of his works.

At the present day, his works possess a double significance. They are important historically, alike as giving us an insight into the mind of the eighteenth century, and for the actual influence they have had on the course of events in Europe. Certainly no other writer of the time has exercised such an influence as his. He may fairly be called the parent of the romantic movement in art, letters and life; he affected profoundly the German romantics and Goethe himself; he set the fashion of a new introspection which has permeated nineteenth century literature; he began modern educational theory; and, above all, in political thought he represents the passage from a traditional theory rooted in the Middle Ages to the modern philosophy of the State. His influence on Kant's moral philosophy and on Hegel's philosophy of Right are two sides of the same fundamental contribution to modern thought. He is, in fact, the great forerunner of German and English Idealism.

Great men make, indeed, individual contributions to the knowledge of their times; but they can never transcend the age in which they live.

Without mentally referring to the environment in which they lived, we cannot hope to penetrate below the inessential and temporary to the absolute and permanent value of their thought.

In the fu­ture, the new mod­u­la­tion format they de­veloped is likely to in­crease band­widths in other data trans­mis­sion meth­ods where the en­ergy of the beam can be­come a lim­it­ing factor.

French space com­pany, Thales Alenia Space is an ex­pert in tar­get­ing lasers with cen­ti­metre ac­cur­acy over thou­sands of kilo­metres in space. ONERA, also French, is an aerospace re­search in­sti­tute with ex­pert­ise in MEMS-​based ad­apt­ive op­tics, which has largely elim­in­ated the ef­fects of shim­mer­ing in the air. The most ef­fect­ive method of sig­nal mod­u­la­tion, which is es­sen­tial for high data rates, is a spe­cialty of Leuthold’s ETH Zurich re­search group.

Paris-​based pro­ject part­ner ONERA de­ployed a mi­cro­elec­tromech­an­ical sys­tem (MEMS) chip with a mat­rix of 97 tiny ad­justable mir­rors. The mir­rors’ de­form­a­tions cor­rect the phase shift of the beam on its in­ter­sec­tion sur­face along the cur­rently meas­ured gradi­ent 1,500 times per second, ul­ti­mately im­prov­ing the sig­nals by a factor of about 500.

Laser op­tical sys­tems, in con­trast, op­er­ate in the near-​infrared range with wavelengths of a few mi­cro­metres, which are about 10,000 times shorter. As a res­ult, they can trans­port more in­form­a­tion per unit of time.

How­ever, trans­mit­ting data between satel­lites and ground sta­tions uses ra­dio tech­no­lo­gies, which are con­sid­er­ably less power­ful. Like a wire­less local area net­work (WLAN) or mo­bile com­mu­nic­a­tions, such tech­no­lo­gies op­er­ate in the mi­crowave range of the spec­trum and thus have wavelengths meas­ur­ing sev­eral cen­ti­metres.

The laser beam travels through the dense at­mo­sphere near the ground. In the pro­cess, many factors – di­verse tur­bu­lence in the air over the high snow-​covered moun­tains, the wa­ter sur­face of Lake Thun, the densely built-​up Thun met­ro­pol­itan area and the Aare plane – in­flu­ence the move­ment of the light waves and con­sequently also the trans­mis­sion of data. The shim­mer­ing of the air, triggered by thermal phe­nom­ena, dis­turbs the uni­form move­ment of light and can be seen on hot sum­mer days by the na­ked eye.

“For op­tical data trans­mis­sion, our test route between the High Alti­tude Re­search Sta­tion on the Jung­frau­joch and the Zi­m­mer­wald Ob­ser­vat­ory at the Uni­ver­sity of Bern is much more chal­len­ging than between a satel­lite and a ground sta­tion,”

National defence is a paradigmatic example of a public good.

goods are usually defined as public goods if and only if they are both non-rivalrous and non-excludable (e.g., Varian 1992: 414)

Bob’s consumption of a grain of rice makes it impossible for Sally to consume the same grain of rice. By contrast, Sally’s enjoyment of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 in no way diminishes Bob’s ability to do the same. Rice is thus rivalrous while music is not.

he experience gained through the engagement of the EU Office in San Francisco with the tech sectorshould be used

the establishment of informaldigital hubs

The Council calls forthe informal EU Digital Diplomacy Networkto continue to engagein strategic discussions on key emerging and challenging issues of tech and digitalpolicyand regularly to convene in enlarged format, bringing in, as appropriate, other European and like-minded partners, as well as other stakeholdersand relevant networks, andto further strengthen its coordination with the EU Cyber Ambassadors’ Network

the Council calls on the High Representative, the Commission, and Member Statesto enhance digital capacity building and cooperation with Africa

The Digital for Development (D4D) Hubis a good example of the Team Europe approach to digital cooperation with partner regions globally.

as well asdigital commonswhich contribute toincreasingthe usability of new technologies and data for the benefit of a society as a whole, offering trusted and secure international connectivity, such as subsea and terrestrial cables, or wireless networks, and taking into account ICT supply chainsecurity as an important element of building a resilient digital ecosystem

coordination in order to ensure that an improvedInternet Governance Forum(IGF)remain the main global platform for multistakeholder digital dialogue after 2025, in order to maintain support for the open, global, free, interoperable and decentralised internet including in the context of the negotiations for a Global Digital Compact

an ambitious agreement on e-commerce in the context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), including rules on the data free flow with trust;

Strengthen the role of the EU inthe International Telecommunication Union(ITU),by clarifyingstrategic goals, notably in view of the Plenipotentiary Conference in 2026, developingcoordinated positions, including, where appropriate, with other partners in the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), particularly on telecommunication standardisation,including future generation such as 6G,radio-communicationand development, conducting cross-regional outreach and promotingas a strategic objective the ITU’s commitment to achieving universal, meaningful connectivity that respects human rights and fundamental freedoms; and increasingcooperation among EU Member States represented in the ITU Council. The EU should also aim to strengthen coordination in the International Organization for Standardization(ISO) and other standard setting forato ensure that new technologies develop on the basis of interoperable and/or open standards.

otably the negotiations of the Global Digital Compact(GDC) and close cooperation with the UN Tech Envoy in particular on matters concerning Human Rights and the multistakeholder model of Internet Governancewhich is open, inclusive and decentralised.

owards Geneva-based organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union(ITU) and World Trade Organization(WTO)

n a Team Europe approach

he rights of those in vulnerable and/or marginalized situations, including women, youth, children, older people and persons with disabilities, continue to address inequalities, such as the digital gender divide and step up action to strongly oppose and combat all forms of discrimination on any groundwith a specific attention to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including on grounds of sex, race, ethnic or social origin, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, disability, age, sexual orientation and gender identity.

in line with the vision of digital humanism and preserving human dignity.

by fostering digital literacy as well as to advance the human-centric and human rights-based approach to digital technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence,throughout their whole lifecycle.

the twin digital and green transitions offer a huge opportunity for sustainable development worldwide

To achieve a high burstiness effect, I'll employ a careful blend of sentence structures, varying lengths, and a sprinkle of rhetorical devices.

Perplexity evaluates coherence and appropriateness, differentiating AI from human writing. It aids in quality assessment and comparison.

perplexity helps us gauge text quality and coherence. It measures how well models predict upcoming words based on context.

The model is just an equation. I think institutions and private owners will be much more protective of their data going forward.

rather numerous AI depending on the need, as companies will likely develop their own AI.

A centralized AI would cause myriad problems re: access & ethics: magnifying inequity, monopoly power, problems with privacy, the stifling of innovation, lack of personalization, bias, misuse, regulatory challenges… etc.

Language learning models will all be compatible with each other.

make some infinitely scalable ai protocols like the internet has that will allow for language learning models to be incorporated into every aspect of everything.

I suspect at some point individuals will have their own AI to manage themselves and their preferences and there will be a massive AI/human network that everyone will use to share improvements, thoughts, ideas, creations, discoveries,

Save time while learning more.

Concerns about public reputation have affected the development and release of large language models.

Much of professional and personal success depends on persuading others to recognize your value.

A recent survey of AI researchers revealed that 36 percent feel that AI could cause nuclear-level catastrophe.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, biologists translated a new type of technology, mRNA, into a safe and effective vaccine at a pace unprecedented in human history. When significant harms to individuals and society are on the line, regulation does not impede progress; it enables it.

banning biological weapons at the Biological Weapons Convention during the Cold War

a system of prohibitions, regulations, ethics, and norms that ensures the wellbeing of society and individuals.

Yet the ethos of this research is not to ‘move fast and break things,’ but to innovate as fast and as safely possible.

Due to a handful of early missteps with nuclear energy, we have been unable to capitalize on its clean, safe power, and carbon neutrality and energy stability remain a pipe dream.

These weapons, representing the first time in human history that man had developed a technology capable of ending human civilization, were the product of an arms race prioritizing speed and innovation over safety and control.

Away from geopolitics, Mr Sunak is keen to interest Mr Biden in his ideas about new international structures to regulate artificial intelligence. As sound and rational as these ideas may be, however, they are likely to be swamped should America decide to work something out with the EU .

Mr Rama’s confidence encompasses the region. The entire Balkans, he notes, even traditionally pro-Russian Serbia, is united behind Ukraine. A member of Nato since 2009 and since 2010 part of the Schengen group that grants visa-free travel within Europe for up to three months, Albania has no serious tussles with its neighbours, he adds. “This is unique in our history.”

Each party owns half of Debswana, which mines 95% of the diamonds in Botswana, the second biggest producer after Russia

It seems likely that many poor countries will want to emulate it, to their advantage—and India’s too. ■

India’s reputation is much better in the global south than America’s or China’s.

India’s technology could in such ways be tainted by the vishwaguru’s growing authoritarianism.

The system also suffers security breaches. Experts say it is very easy to access it with false credentials or spoof fingerprints. India’s technology offer, says one analyst, includes a lot of “hot air”.

By promoting its technology as a means to transform poor countries, India hopes to position itself as a neutral third force between what it sees as the transactional West and an authoritarian China.