Ah, my final article of 2024. What to write about?
As many of you know, my work focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, business, economics, trade, and the future of our beautiful world, region, and country—moving forward as a diverse and vibrant community. That’s usually what I write about. But once a year, maybe twice, I allow myself to diverge just slightly—still keeping all of those topics top of mind for you, the reader.

If you’ve been reading the headlines, you might think nearshoring is in trouble—thanks to recent elections and the looming threat of higher tariffs. And sure, the path forward may get more complex as the U.S. and Mexican administrations set their direction in early 2025. But I believe Mexico stands to gain more than it loses in the long run—for one simple reason: China’s biggest threat is Mexico. That’s right. Set down your coffee and let me explain.

There’s nothing like a geopolitical sibling rivalry to kick off the holiday season. Who gets what, who’s left out, and who’s going to win on the global stage? Earlier this week, the United States imposed additional export restrictions on certain high-performance chips (also known as semiconductors), aiming to limit the development of AI for domestic, government, and military use. Not to be outdone, China responded with export restrictions of its own—this time on two rare earth elements used to produce those very semiconductors: germanium and gallium. They sound more like ancient Roman cities than critical minerals, don’t they?

“Sorry, ma’am, but your card has been declined.” The cashier’s words wash over you as your face turns red. The people behind you are clearly annoyed—they want you to step aside so they can move on with their day. But you ask, “Why was my card declined?” You know you have more than enough money to cover a charge a hundred times that amount. What’s going on?

The cashier replies, “The new currency program says you’ve exceeded your monthly limit for alcohol and meat. I think you need to wait until next month to buy something in this category.” He’s referring to the new intelligent currency launched earlier that year, which replaced all physical cash.

If you’ve been following the news, TikTok, Instagram, or any other information outlet, you’ve probably wondered: Should I be worried about AI stealing my job? Google the question, and you’ll get mixed answers—some views will reassure you that everything’s fine, and others will make you want to throw your phone out the window.

But have you ever stopped to think about those “everything’s fine” takes? What if it’s actually an AI calming you down—so it can keep harvesting your attention and selling you things you don’t need?

Glimpse of the future: “Why am I sitting in the parking lot of a government office while my editor is texting me about my column? It’s 2030—this shouldn’t be happening! I can’t open the doors. It just says: ‘Administrative lock.’”

It might sound like a distant possibility (and I hope it stays that way), but the idea that someday your car might say, “Confirmed—destination: Fast Company Mexico, Santa Fe,” and the moment the doors close it reroutes you with a message, “You’ve been redirected by state order to Government Office X”—isn’t just science fiction. Technically, it’s completely possible. So what’s stopping it?

Technology is both an industry and a foundational pillar of all human development. It has enabled enormous leaps in human progress, both in relative and absolute terms. Every day, the barriers to accessing, acquiring, developing, and deploying advanced technologies from one part of the world and bringing them to your home country are getting lower.

How do we decide to take a political or business action? How do we determine what we believe and what we’ll do? Usually, it’s a function of some research (I hope), what we’re told in conversations, and what we observe in the media. Are things getting better? Worse? Could a conflict be emerging somewhere? Is a company about to make headlines—really good or really bad?

Up until ten years ago, as a society, we had a much easier time identifying good, bad, and malicious information. That’s not to say there were never successful disinformation campaigns to sway markets, push political candidates, or influence geopolitical dynamics. Ah, the good old days.

Is artificial intelligence our friend, foe, or frenemy? I’m asked that question weekly when the topic of AI comes up. What should we do? When should we do it? Can’t we just unplug it like a toaster?

At the end of the day, AI is the best friend you never knew you were missing. And once you start using it, you wonder how you ever lived without it. It helps you write emails, reports, and, ahem… your homework if you’re in school or university. The level of productivity and the speed at which we’re becoming accustomed to these systems is truly impressive.

AI agents are raising the stakes yet again for what we can expect from our technological companions in the coming months. Over the past few months, when I’ve been giving speeches or presentations and showing the audience how many of the things that were said to be impossible or “a century away” are happening every few months as we live and breathe. The rate of change and the things you and I will be able to do in the coming months and years will lead us to a much better future, where more people can do more things with the aid of artificial intelligence.

Did AI just become a nuclear supervillain? Possibly—but not in the traditional Marvel Comics sense. If we’re not careful, AI might just consume all of our extra energy and turn us into paper clips, as illustrated in Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence. Unless we put on our energy-saving superhero suits and smart prompt-writing gloves, we just might be able to save the world.

There’s a little secret about artificial intelligence that isn’t so secret anymore. It’s very, very hungry. It’s easy to think that using AI has very little cost, since most users don’t experience the expenses associated with training and operating the various AI systems we’ve all come to enjoy in our daily lives.

Now that the elections have passed in Mexico and winners have been selected, we can start to focus on some of the real opportunities artificial intelligence presents for Mexico in the near and long term. We find ourselves at a very promising moment in the economic history of Mexico. Tensions between the United States and China, conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, the pandemic, and numerous other geopolitical shifts have made this the Mexican Moment, driven in many ways by the trend called nearshoring.

If you find yourself snacking on lettuce and carrots recently, it may have an unexpected origin outside your desire to be healthier. LinkedIn has started to turn all its users into unsuspecting digital guinea pigs by training on users’ data for their new generative AI models. Granted, the data will help LinkedIn users produce better messages, posts, and increase engagement, all valuable aspects of being on the site. However, they are training on everyone’s data by default with an automatic opt-in unless you shut it off. Don’t worry; I’ll tell you how to shut it off and regain your digital power.

“Where’s the beef?!” This is a throwback to a series of commercials from the 1980s for the U.S. restaurant chain Wendy’s, when many hamburger chains were offering smaller portions of beef for the same price—much to the frustration of customers. Today, we find ourselves asking a similar question about the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). It often feels like we’re still waiting for that promise of something truly new and better to actually show up in our lives—at home or at work. Whether you’re part of a company building AI, a firm trying to use it, or simply someone trying to make sense of it all, it’s easy to wonder: “Where’s the technical beef?!”