Editor BGF

As the Board of Peace—a U.S.-led international initiative launched by President Donald Trump and described by U.S. officials as operating within a UN Security Council–backed framework—convenes its first formal leaders’ meeting on Thursday, February 19, 2026, in Washington, global attention will focus on Gaza’s postwar future. The meeting is expected to be chaired by President Trump and to draw more than 20 participating countries, including regional Middle East partners and a number of emerging nations. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is confirmed to attend, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to be participating remotely or not attending in person.

The gathering is scheduled to take place at the former U.S. Institute of Peace building—reported in recent coverage as renamed by the administration, though aspects of the change have been described as contested and unresolved in court.

Key expectations and focus areas

• Reconstruction funding announcements: President Trump is expected to unveil a multi-billion-dollar Gaza reconstruction plan and press members for additional pledges, as part of the post-ceasefire implementation track.
• International stabilization force:S. officials have said plans will be presented for a UN-authorized International Stabilization Force intended to help secure Gaza during a transitional period. Key open questions include troop contributors, command arrangements, rules of engagement, and alignment with Israeli security requirements.
• Governance and security roadmap: Delegations are expected to discuss transitional governance mechanisms, humanitarian access and logistics, reconstruction sequencing, and longer-term political parameters—including how demilitarization goals and Palestinian self-determination are addressed in practice.
• Regional dynamics and legitimacy tests: Participation by Arab and Muslim member states is widely viewed as contingent on credible progress in Gaza and Palestinian rights, while some governments remain cautious about how this mechanism relates to existing UN processes and traditional multilateral diplomacy.

This convening is a major test of whether the Board can translate high-level political sponsorship into durable security arrangements, effective reconstruction delivery, and a credible diplomatic pathway for Gaza’s future.

The Boston Global Forum will monitor developments closely and provide updates in subsequent editions.

 

In early February 2026, Japan secured the two most critical components of the AI Age: the raw minerals and the high-end processing power. Within the AI World Society (AIWS) framework, these are seen not just as economic assets, but as the foundational infrastructure required to build a “Human-in-Command” digital society.

1. Resource Sovereignty: Deep-Sea Rare Earth Retrieval

On February 2, 2026, the Japanese vessel Chikyu successfully lifted rare-earth-rich mud from 6,000 meters deep near Minamitori Island.

• The AIWS Connection: AIWS emphasizes Technology Sovereignty. By securing 16 million tonnes of rare earths, Japan ensures that the magnets and components required for AI servers, robotics, and the AIWS Healthcare infrastructure are no longer vulnerable to geopolitical export bans.
• Strategic Impact: This world-first achievement provides the “Physical Foundation” for the AIWS Ecosystem, ensuring that ethical AI development is backed by a stable and independent supply chain.

2. Computational Power: TSMC’s $17 Billion 3nm Upgrade

Simultaneously, Japan and TSMC announced an upgrade to the new Kumamoto facility to produce 3-nanometer (3nm) chips, the most advanced in the world.

• Empowering the AIWS Angel: The AIWS Angel model—designed to serve as a lifelong healthcare and security companion—requires massive, efficient decentralized computing. These 3nm chips provide the energy-efficient “brain power” needed for such advanced AI assistants to operate in real-time.
• Infrastructure for Governance: Under the AIWS Model, the 3nm production line acts as the “Engine Room” for a new Social Contract, where advanced hardware enables the transparent, high-speed data processing required for pluralistic and inclusive governance.

3. Strategic Synthesis: The AIWS Triad

By aligning these two breakthroughs with the AIWS Framework, Japan is essentially completing a “Strategic Triad” for the 21st century:

1. Upstream (The Ocean): Rare Earths (The Material Layer).
2. Downstream (TSMC): 3nm Semiconductors (The Infrastructure Layer).
3. Governance (AIWS): The Ethical & Social Framework (The Intelligence Layer).

A Beacon for the AI Century

As we celebrate the “America at 250” initiative, Japan’s moves offer a blueprint for other nations. It demonstrates that a secure society is built by combining Deep-Sea Resource Discovery with Cutting-Edge Manufacturing, all governed by the AI World Society (AIWS) principles of peace, security, and human dignity.

https://www.reuters.com/science/japan-retrieves-rare-earth-mud-deep-seabed-test-mission-2026-02-02/

As deepfakes become cheaper, faster, and more convincing, the familiar playbook—better detection, stricter platform rules, tougher laws—looks increasingly insufficient. A Financial Times–style argument gaining traction is that deepfakes are ultimately a democratic governance problem, not only a technical one.

The central proposition is simple: ask citizens what trade-offs they want. Through citizen assemblies, public consultations, and transparent rulemaking, democracies can define what counts as harmful manipulation, what must be labeled, which uses are legitimate (satire, art, accessibility), and what penalties apply for fraud, election interference, or non-consensual deepfake abuse. This approach also builds legitimacy for hard choices—such as watermarking standards, identity verification in high-risk contexts, fast-track takedowns during elections, and liability rules that apply across platforms.

This citizen-first approach echoes the “democracy-as-technology” mindset advanced by Audrey Tang (the 2025 World Leader in AIWS Award recipient): legitimacy comes from participation, transparency, and accountable public systems—not just from better algorithms. In practice, that means pairing technical defenses (provenance, labeling, detection) with durable civic infrastructure that helps society decide what to protect, what to allow, and who is responsible when synthetic media causes harm.

For years, the first response to new symptoms was “Dr. Google.” Now many people ask LLMs instead—and OpenAI says 230 million users submit health-related questions to ChatGPT each week. That surge is the backdrop for ChatGPT Health, a new product experience meant to help people navigate medical information more safely than general web searching—while emphasizing it is not a replacement for a doctor.

The core question is whether AI’s risks—misinterpretation, overconfidence, and harmful self-treatment—can be mitigated enough to deliver a net benefit. ChatGPT Health’s promise is clearer guidance, better context, and stronger guardrails than the “link soup” of search, potentially reducing the anxiety spiral that “Dr. Google” became known for.

AIWS Healthcare perspective: This trend strengthens the case for the AIWS Healthcare Model, which is designed for 24/7 life-course care (prevention → prediction → early intervention → recovery) and expands “health” to include physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, and social well-being. AIWS emphasizes an “Angel” AI companion that is kind, non-judgmental, and escalation-to-human by design, plus ethics/consent governance—moving from “AI answers” to continuous, trustworthy care support.

Please see full here:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/22/1131692/dr-google-had-its-issues-can-chatgpt-health-do-better/?utm_source=the_download&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_term=&utm_content=*%7CDATE:m-d-Y%7C&mc_cid=4798e0462f&mc_eid=be5202f3c7

A new Scientific American analysis argues that today’s generative AI still struggles with a basic weakness: it does not maintain a stable, continuously updated understanding of the world across space and time—so it can produce inconsistencies (a dog’s collar vanishes; a loveseat turns into a sofa). “World models” aim to change that by giving AI an internal, evolving map of reality—often described as 4D modeling (3D + time)—so systems can stay consistent, remember what just happened, and plan what should happen next. (Scientific American)

The article highlights early research using world-model approaches to improve video generation and enable more reliable augmented reality, where virtual objects must stay anchored and obey occlusion rules (e.g., digital objects disappearing behind real ones). It also notes major implications for robotics and autonomous vehicles, where a learned world model could help machines anticipate outcomes and navigate safely. (Scientific American)

Beyond applications, the piece frames world models as a potential prerequisite for more general intelligence: large language models may encode broad “conceptual” knowledge, but they typically lack real-time physical updating and spatiotemporal memory—capabilities researchers argue are essential for AI that can act coherently in the real world. (Scientific American)

General Agents has introduced Ace, a real-time “computer pilot” designed to operate across everyday software interfaces the way a human would—seeing the screen, navigating menus, and executing multi-step tasks directly through the user interface rather than relying only on APIs. This approach signals a major shift from “chat-based assistance” to autonomous action on the digital desktop—where speed, reliability, and safety become decisive. (SiliconANGLE)

In reporting on the agentic-computing race, WIRED highlighted Ace’s standout advantage: extremely low latency. Harsha Abegunasekara, CEO of a competing startup, credited General Agents with “cracking” speed—calling Ace “light speed” and noting rivals had not matched it despite months of work. (WIRED)

For BGF–AIWS, Ace illustrates both promise and urgency. “Action AI” can dramatically accelerate productivity—reducing friction in administration, operations, and service delivery. But as agents gain the power to do, not just suggest, governance must evolve: audit logs, per missioning, abuse prevention, transparency, and human responsibility must be designed in from day one.

This is where AIWS principles matter: an AIWS Angel should not merely act fast—it should act ethically, explainable, and in service of human dignity. Ace is a glimpse of the near future; AIWS is the blueprint for ensuring that future remains trustworthy.

https://www.wired.com/story/jeff-bezos-new-ai-company-acquired-agentic-computing-startup/

In 2025, Bitcoin’s journey underscored the growing tension between innovation, risk, and governance in the digital asset world — a lesson with direct resonance for the AI Age.

After reaching a record peak of around $126,000 in October, Bitcoin’s price slid nearly 30% by early December, reflecting familiar market dynamics of rapid rallies followed by sharp corrections. Drivers of the rally included institutional ETF inflows, supply contraction from the halving event, and favorable macroeconomic conditions, while rising U.S. Treasury yields and substantial ETF outflows — including a notable $2.7 billion redemption from BlackRock’s IBIT ETF — applied downward pressure.

Amid this price turbulence, a key theme emerged in 2025: private litigation has stepped in where regulatory enforcement receded. Under the U.S. administration’s lighter enforcement posture, investors increasingly turned to class actions and civil suits against crypto projects — notably alleging misrepresentation and unregistered securities issues in cases involving companies like Unicoin and Gemini. Litigation around influencer marketing and promotional claims also rose sharply, highlighting the need for stronger disclosures and corporate governance.

In contrast to traditional markets, where public enforcement often sets norms, the crypto ecosystem saw private legal action become a central mechanism shaping behavior and accountability. Looking ahead to 2026, analysts expect the market to stabilize structurally rather than soar, as litigation risk and compliance frameworks increasingly define competitive advantage.

AIWS Insights: Governance, Trust, and Digital Futures

For the AI World Society (AIWS) community, these developments carry several lessons:

• Volatility in digital ecosystems — whether in financial assets or intelligent systems — underscores the importance of robust governance frameworks that balance innovation with stability and public trust.
• Legal and ethical accountability cannot be an afterthought; where public regulation is slow or uneven, civil mechanisms and standards help fill gaps and protect stakeholders, echoing the principles in the AIWS Digital Asset Standards Initiative (DASI).
• As AI and digital asset technologies converge, responsible deployment and clear transparency are essential to ensure technologies serve societal good rather than exacerbate risk or enable misinformation.

In a world where both AI systems and digital markets evolve rapidly, the interplay of risk, accountability, and human-centered governance will shape not just economic outcomes but the broader trust that underpins digital civilization.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/bitcoin-2025-volatility-rise-private-litigation–pracin-2025-12-24/

This brief summarizes the assessment of the US-China tech race provided by Mark Kennedy, Founding Director of the Wahba Initiative for Strategic Competition at NYU and member of the Boston Global Forum (BGF) Board of Thinkers, as featured in the Goldman Sachs Top of Mind report (Issue 144, December 2025).

The “Central Switchboard” of Rivalry

Kennedy characterizes technology not merely as a component of the US-China rivalry, but as its “central switchboard”. He argues that whoever controls the routing of technology, data, and computing power will dictate terms across military, economic, and informational domains. He suggests that the geopolitical implications of this contest are currently underappreciated.

The Four Arenas of the Tech Race

Kennedy identifies four distinct “arenas” where the competition is unfolding:

1. Technological Innovation:The United States leads in most advanced technologies, including semiconductors, AI frameworks, cloud infrastructure, and quantum computing. It also maintains a superior ability to attract global talent.
2. Practical Application:China leads in the deployment and adoption of technology. For example, China’s robotics deployment in manufacturing is twelve times greater than that of the US when adjusted for income. It is also more proactive in testing and deploying physical AI, such as uncrewed taxis and drone deliveries.
3. Global Installations (“Digital Plumbing”):China dominates this arena, particularly in the Global South, where it has outpaced the West in building essential digital infrastructure and networks.
4. Technological Self-Sufficiency:China is making significant strides toward independence through its “dual circulation” strategy. It is actively reducing reliance on Western technology while increasing Western dependence on Chinese supply chains for batteries and critical minerals.

Key Findings and Outlook

• Effectiveness of Export Controls:Kennedy asserts that US export controls have not been “especially significant” in stopping China. Instead, they have accelerated China’s planned transition toward domestic semiconductor technology.
• Current Standing:While the US leads in developing the technology itself, China is rapidly closing the gap or leading in infrastructure, application, and self-sufficiency.
• The Future Result:Kennedy envisions a world where neither side is the outright victor. He predicts a bifurcated outcome where the US may continue to lead in developing the most advanced technologies, while China leads in global installations.

Professor Paul Triolo and others in the report echo Kennedy’s concerns, noting that China’s vast engineering talent and resources make it a formidable contender for eventual technological self-sufficiency.

Dear Distinguished Leaders, Scholars, and Thinkers,

In an era where artificial intelligence is reshaping every dimension of human existence—from governance and creativity to ethics and spirituality—we stand at a pivotal crossroads. The rapid advancement of AI invites us not only to ask what technology can achieve, but how it might align with the deepest sources of wisdom, meaning, and transcendence that humanity has long attributed to Divine Intelligence.

Can AI serve as a bridge to greater understanding of the divine? Might it amplify compassion, justice, and peace—or risk diminishing the sacred essence of human consciousness? How can we ensure that the tools we create reflect not merely human ingenuity, but the eternal values of love, truth, and harmony that many traditions associate with the Divine?

The Boston Global Forum (BGF) – AI World Society (AIWS) Family invites you to join a thoughtful, interdisciplinary exploration of the partnership between Artificial Intelligence and Divine Intelligence. This dialogue seeks to unite leading minds from technology, philosophy, theology, ethics, and global leadership to examine how AI can be guided by spiritual wisdom, fostering a future where innovation serves the highest aspirations of humanity. Outcome of this discussion will contribute to America at 250 – A Beacon for the AI Age, envisioning the United States as a global leader in human-centered AI governance.

We warmly welcome your insights, reflections, and contributions to this vital conversation. Please share your thoughts, essays, or proposals by emailing [email protected].

Together, let us illuminate a path toward an AI Age that honors both the brilliance of human creation and the sacred mystery that inspires it.

With respect and anticipation,

Governor Michael Dukakis

Co-Founder and Chair Boston Global Forum

Former Governor of Massachusetts

1988 Democratic Nominee for President of the United States

Nguyen Anh Tuan

Co-Founder, Co-Chair, and CEO Boston Global Forum

Creator, AI World Society (AIWS)