# AI — The Post-Davos Agenda.

1 Opinion January 27, 2026 Forbes ![Michael Posner](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_046658.jpg?itok=t24nqftK)By Michael Posner

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Last week at Davos, between discussions of Greenland and President Donald Trump, the world’s elite grappled with a more fundamental question: how to govern artificial intelligence without stifling innovation or sacrificing human welfare. Conversations exposed a stark divide: Europeans demanding government regulation and Americans championing unfettered innovation.

That choice—between innovation without oversight or regulation that stifles competitiveness—is a false one. Instead, government and tech companies must collaborate to forge a third path: one that harnesses AI’s transformative potential while establishing ethical guardrails that protect workers, communities, and democratic values.

U.S. tech companies, unconstrained by serious regulation, are racing to build artificial intelligence tools that can match or exceed human cognitive abilities across any task—known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). While pursuing this goal, they are accumulating vast sums of wealth.

Read the full [*Forbes* article](https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelposner/2026/01/27/ai-the-post-davos-agenda/).
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*Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, Professor of Business and Society and Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.*

## More from Michael Posner

- [America At 250: The Quiet Assault On Civil Society.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/america-250-quiet-assault-civil-society)
- [At The Vatican, Global Leaders Grapple With AI’s Moral Stakes.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/vatican-global-leaders-grapple-ais-moral-stakes)
- [It's Time to Regulate Frontier AI the Way We Regulate Drugs.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/its-time-regulate-frontier-ai-way-we-regulate-drugs)
- [Lafarge: The Cost Of Complicity](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/lafarge-cost-complicity)
- [Microsoft’s Anthropic Brief Is About More Than AI — It’s About Democracy.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/microsofts-anthropic-brief-about-more-ai-its-about-democracy)