The good, the bad, and the weird

The good news is that agentic AI offers governments an opportunity to dissolve​ the silos and​ legacy systems that have throttled public service for years. Urban futurist Greg Lindsay sees​ new capabilities for planning, operations, and​ adaptation. Done right, this may be how the state​ finally gets better at being itself.

The bad news is that the same agents designed to expand access can be​ turned against the​ citizens they were meant to serve — through surveillance,​digital redlining, and algorithmic​ inequality. Public servants need to inoculate their institutions before bad actors get there first.​ Which is why governments need to get weirder before they get better. Drawing on the​ foresight practice of​ “threatcasting” potential threats — and how to stop them — Lindsay​ argues the capacity worth building now is the kind that sees around corners. Not another roadmap, but constantly rehearsing the future.