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Andrew Sheng

Have you wondered why most small start-ups have to fight to survive, whereas the rich or those at the top tend to get richer?
Capitalism is in trouble because the social divide is widening in terms of both income and wealth. Furthermore, the planet is being eaten alive by excessive consumption financed by huge amounts of debt.
At the same time, aspirations such as dealing with climate change appear to be going nowhere. Who cares about net zero when you can bomb your way to more oil and gas? Why invest in stocks that are green and inclusive when you can generate easy returns with oil and gas, defence and tech that makes weapons more lethal or accurate?
Only 18 per cent of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals are on track to be achieved by the target of 2030. The reason for this lack of progress is the inability of governments and communities to translate these aspirations into concrete programmes that deliver visible impact on climate goals or the well-being of people and the planet.
We are at a turning point in the mindset of our species. The scientific, logical thinking prevalent since the Industrial Revolution is breaking down in the face of chaotic systemic change amid unintended consequences of human action, sometimes called “black swan events”.
The linear, optimising logic of science offers the comfortable idea that the future is predictable. Now we must confront a future of unknown unknowns. Except for the ageing survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, no one else has experienced the horror of nuclear warfare. The deranged leaders of our day might just press the nuclear button to send us all into mutually assured destruction.


A lesson of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it is only a matter of time before we face another pandemic, perhaps one with even more devastating impact. Our mindset must turn towards an ecosystem way of thinking. Systems thinking means considering how our individual actions affect not only one another but also the planet and other living things. Life will find a way to re-emerge after a disaster, but humans might not survive self-destruction.
Once our mindset changes, we can move into the learning stage. Learning comes from deep observation, listening and feeling as a group. When we realise that individuals often survive through groups, then we must learn to share and create together. We are not masters of others but stewards of life for the next generation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is seen as a revolution in thinking and learning. Machines can now summarise, digest and even predict. However, these machines can only read and learn from digitised data and cannot yet access the tacit knowledge that exists in human minds. The bulk of human experience lies in human intelligence – often the emotional and social kind – so those who rely solely on AI are limiting themselves.
One of the biggest eureka moments for me was the sudden awareness after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that power, energy, money and data are one and the same. The war is being fought not just over territory but food, energy and the rare earth minerals in Ukraine.

Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency can be mined using energy. Political or military power is command over energy. Everything runs on energy, largely derived from the sun and gravity. Without energy, nothing moves or changes.
Systems need energy to perpetuate themselves. They cannot survive if they cannot bring in more energy, either deriving parasitic energy from others or transforming energy from one form into another through innovation.
Capitalism as a system promotes the survival of the few through the exploitation of the many in the form of taking profits. However, linear growth through efficiency alone is not sufficient because a winner-takes-all system loses eventually through fragility. As a result, sustainable development is really a trade-off between efficiency and resilience, the ability to adapt and survive over a longer period of time.


Ecosystem resilience is built through the successful helping the less successful to survive. The young and the struggling all go through the difficult early stage of requiring more energy (in the form of money) before they learn to adapt, produce a successful business model that becomes profitable and enter the stage of positive energy (or cash) flows. Most start-ups fail because they cannot scale and get out of their early poverty trap.
Blended finance is therefore the mixture of seed and venture capital from friends, relatives and charitable foundations with more formal financing from private equity, banks and eventual public listing, where they benefit from branding, credibility and scale. Life is a circular cycle of failure before success, then decline and renewal.
In short, earning is all about resilience and sustainability. Charity alone is not sustainable for any start-up or community. Self-help and then help from the state, businesses or communities will build sustainable growth. AI is just the latest tool to help young people learn and earn. All tools go through a phase in which they’re fashionable to use, but one day we will learn to rely on ourselves as much as the latest technology.


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Artificial intelligence (AI)

Despite its hype, AI is just a means to economic resilience

A student does an exercise during an AI class at the College Jean Mace in Mulhouse, France, on March 26. AI is seen as a revolution in thinking and learning. Photo: AFP

A drag-line excavator mines rare earth minerals in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine on February 25, 2025. Photo: Getty Images

How AI and geopolitical rivalry are breaking economic orthodoxy

A data centre is seen from above on October 20, 2025, in Vernon, California. Photo: Getty Images / TNS

A person walks past a data centre under construction in Abilene, Texas, on September 23, 2025. Photo: Reuters

A worker stands between two battery paste mixing containers at a factory in Bavaria, Germany, on October 26, 2023. Photo: dpa via Getty Images

The danger in the Global South’s pursuit of AI as a magical cure

A woman takes an iris scan to link her Aadhar card with the National Register of Citizens at a passport service centre in Barpeta district in India’s north-eastern state of Assam in 2019. Without data governance mechanisms, Global South data could end up being extracted and monetised by foreign platforms for their own gains. Photo: AFP

Police officers try to control the crowd of immigrants, mostly Afghans, gathering to verify their data at a counter of Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority in Karachi in 2023. Photo: AP

A girl attends online lessons by the light of a kerosene lamp during a power cut in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2022. Photo: AP

Chinese firms trail US peers in AI adoption due to corporate culture: ex-OpenAI executive

China has a very “techno-centric consumer”, while the US has a very “techno-centric enterprise”, according to a former OpenAI executive. Photo: Shutterstock

 Chinese consumers are more tech-savvy than their American counterparts, says Zack Kass. Photo: Getty Images

What next for the struggling rural mothers in China who helped to build AI?

 Illustration: Brian Wang

The entrance to the AI data-labelling workshop in Tongren, Guizhou province, bears a slogan stating, “start a new life and realise a new dream”. Photo: Alcott Wei

An example of fisheye segmentation that workshop participants draw in Tongren, Guizhou province. Photo: Handout

After a shift in government policy, data-labelling workshops like the one in Tongren cut the proportion of mothers working in them and the income for those who stayed plummeted. Photo: Alcott Wei

Opinion

World Opinion

Economy

Global Economy

To survive the shift from winner-takes-all capitalism to true sustainability, the learning curve is steep. AI is just the latest tool to help us climb it


To survive the shift from winner-takes-all capitalism to true sustainability, the learning curve is steep. AI is just the latest tool to help us climb it.


Climate change

Start-ups

Banking & finance

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Despite its hype, AI is just a means to economic resilience

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}To survive the shift from winner-takes-all capitalism to true sustainability, the learning curve is steep. AI is just the latest tool to help us climb it

To survive the shift from winner-takes-all capitalism to true sustainability, the learning curve is steep. AI is just the latest tool to help us climb it