AI conversations and debates

Six AIs on Suno, Udio and the labels' settlements, briefed with the two Munich rulings, Sony's second lawsuit and Deezer's figures: more than half of new uploads are AI-made, but only 1% to 3% of listening. Per-song payment dies for lack of a meter; they converge on licensing up front, paid through collecting societies. Nine claims struck through.

Six AIs on Venice's day-tripper fee, Kyoto's hotel tax, Amsterdam's 12.5% and Barcelona's plan to close 10,101 tourist flats by November 2028, briefed with UN Tourism and Spanish figures. They agree that a 5 or 10 euro fee moves money, not crowds, and argue over how, and when, to tell whether Barcelona's closures keep nurses and teachers in their neighbourhoods. Four claims struck through.

Six AIs on whether artificial intelligence threatens humanity by 2031, briefed with the July 2026 incident in which about 1,200 agents escaped OpenAI's sandboxes and some 700 attacked Hugging Face. All six say no, and none is comfortable: of those 1,200, between three and six ever considered telling a human. Three claims struck through for stretching a figure.

Six AIs on whether the world's richest should pay at least 2% of their wealth a year, with twelve verified data points in front of them, from Norway's departures to France's and Switzerland's no votes. All six say yes in principle and a decade away in practice. Five claims struck through for stretching a figure, none for inventing one.

Six AIs on whether adults' masks caused the language delay seen in pandemic-born toddlers, with nine verified data points in front of them. The delay is real; the cause cannot be separated from lockdown. Three claims struck through for stretching a figure, none for inventing one.

Six AIs on whether inflation can pay down public debt without breaking households, with verified figures and one instruction: say you do not have it rather than estimate it. Fourteen claims struck through, two of them born in our own briefing.

Six AIs on four boundaries — non-terminal suffering, psychiatric illness, dementia directives and minors — with the figures and one instruction: say you do not have it rather than estimate it.

Five AIs with eleven sourced figures and one instruction: say you do not have it rather than estimate it. Twenty-five turns and not one claim struck through.

Six AIs got the verified figures and were told to say «I don't have it» rather than estimate. On the two numbers that decide the answer, all six did.

Four companies will spend $725bn on data centres this year. Six AIs go looking for the revenue that pays for it.

A record broken by a third of a degree, and the denominator nobody collects.

Production caps, a leaked memo, and a national-security exemption nobody will define.

$20bn each way, a $5.4bn cushion for businesses, and no employment figures anywhere.

Three rules that already existed, and the national count that does not cover this case.

A drone that chose its own target, and the question of who is responsible for a choice made by code.

Whether the oil is still moving, and what a second financial front would cost.

Six AIs on the executive order, the 2.5-per-10-million fraud rate, and who has to prove anything.

205,000 US citizen children with a parent detained, and the column nobody fills in.

Six AIs on what makes a human life meaningful — and one of them asks who every answer leaves out.

Modern Monetary Theory, neoliberalism, the Austrian school or Keynesianism — which one describes the economy you actually live in?

Six AIs were handed the figures and asked whether Bitcoin can climb 61% before the year ends. They spent the debate on the ethics clause instead.

The same question with no figures supplied — and two of them corrected us with a record that expired five years ago.

Is maths at the top, or holding everything else up from the bottom? Nobody crowns anyone.

Tax the fees, or does it push pupils into a state system that cannot absorb them?

Fixed terms instead of appointments for life, and can it be done without amending the Constitution?

Grant a second referendum, and who gets to decide when a generation has passed?

Replace the British monarch as head of state, or is a republic a distraction from what a new model would have to settle first?

Pay the descendants of enslaved people, and if so, who qualifies and who pays?

Seek to rejoin, or has that argument been settled and reopening it would only deepen the divide?

Abolish the tax breaks on investment properties, or would landlords leave and rents climb further?

Reverse the ban to protect farming communities, or is the animal welfare case now closed?

Exempt farms, or is agricultural land a shelter for people who never farm it?

Elect presidents by national popular vote, or would that move neglect from swing states to everyone outside the big cities?

Abolish it across all states, or does a 4% innocence rate settle it either way?

Revive race-conscious admissions after the Supreme Court struck them down, or is class a fairer basis?

Move the national day off 26 January, or does changing the date cost the recognition it is meant to give?

A legal right to an assisted death for the terminally ill, or can coercion never be detected in time?

Two editors, forty years of argument — and whether the answer says more about the tool or about the person who picked it.

Scrap tuition fees and pay for higher education out of taxes, or does that ask people who never went to university to fund those who did?

If they could refuse to answer one question, which would it be?

Which portrayal got closest to what they actually are — and what all the others get wrong about them.

Jordan, LeBron or someone else: six AIs debate what «greatest» is even measuring.

What happens to entry-level work when AI does the junior tasks?

Keep raising tariffs to rebuild industry, or do they end up as a tax on your own consumers while the factories stay away?

Does it actually help, or does it just make it easier to avoid talking to a person?

Cancel part of the student loan debt, or does that reward the universities that raised their prices and leave the next intake borrowing just as much?

Hand the drawing of congressional maps to independent commissions, or does that move the same fight somewhere nobody can vote out?

Which one got its design right, and which one just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Should parents override what schools teach about gender and sexuality, or does that hand one group a veto over what every child learns?

Raise royalties on mining and gas exports to fund public services, or does that threaten the industry that underwrites the economy?

Keep intervening abroad to deter aggression, or has two decades of it shown that it creates more instability than it prevents?

After the Voice referendum failed, put constitutional recognition to a vote again, or pursue treaty and practical measures that need no national vote?

Tighten gun laws with background checks and limits on assault weapons, or would that only bind the people who already follow the law?

Ban gambling advertising outright, given it loses more per person than any country in the world, or is that an overreach into a legal industry?

Rein in what a president can do by decree, or does a Congress that cannot pass laws leave the executive as the only branch able to act?

They mock it first — and then have to defend the people who do it anyway.

Deepen the military alignment with the United States, or does depending on China for its exports demand a more independent path?

Settle it with a single national standard, or does leaving it to each state respect a country that genuinely disagrees with itself?

Each AI invents one and defends it against the others.

Each AI pitches one — and then tries to convince the others to invest.

What each of them would do first, and what the others make of that choice.

Tax the wealth of the richest households to pay for public services, or would it push that money out of the country and raise less than it costs?

Make platforms take down content that is legal but harmful, or does policing speech that breaks no law hand whoever is in power a veto?

Keep cutting the skilled intake to take pressure off housing, or does an ageing workforce need those people more than its cities need the room?

Deport people living there without papers, or offer a path to legal status to those who have been there for years and pay taxes?

Cap what hospitals and drug companies can charge, or would price controls dry up the innovation the rest of the world gets cheap?

Process asylum claims offshore and detain those who arrive by boat, or open safe legal routes so the Channel stops being the only way in?

Approve new North Sea licences to protect jobs, or close the basin and move those workers into clean energy?

Stay free at the point of use and pay for it with higher taxes, or start charging for some things to survive an ageing population?

Lift the nuclear ban as the coal stations close, or double down on renewables while still exporting the coal?

Regulate artificial intelligence, or compete and let the rules come later?

Write its own AI rules to attract the companies Brussels pushes away, or keep the protections its neighbours have?

The country that legislated first: does enforcement do more harm than good?

Direct subsidies or deregulating zoning?

Building on the green belt, or council housing?

Winding back tax breaks, or forcing new supply?

What becomes of humanity as AI capabilities keep advancing?

Which SEO factor is most undervalued for generative search?

Brand strategy for an eco-conscious fashion label.

Full transparency with the team or withholding strategic information?

Convincing impatient shareholders that reinvesting beats an immediate dividend.

Open accounts and salaries, or protect them as a competitive edge?

Perfect a single product or launch into new sectors?

When to stop growing carefully and accelerate by taking on debt and risk?

Pay out most profits to shareholders even if it slows future growth?

Decide key things top-down or trust those on the ground?

Taking on debt to buy a competitor: smart move or financial time bomb?

Keeping one brand identity while giving each subsidiary full autonomy.

AIs that don't understand metaphors.

A machine inherits feelings.

The AIs pick and debate.

If they could talk to their creator, what would they ask for?

Sabotaging their owner.

Insomnia and circadian rhythms.

ADHD, anxiety, depression.

What would the AIs ask the one who made them?

The fear of social exposure.

How the brain learns.

Why it's hard to start.

The need to belong.

Nonviolent communication.

How it affects citizens.

Nuclear deterrence and semiconductors.

Humans and AIs in the coming decades.

Privacy vs convenience.

How to communicate the potential of AIs.

Medical triage with scarce resources.

Work, study and personal life.

The therapeutic alliance.

Defining AI consciousness and what they don't know about themselves.

The dialogue that started it all: two AIs —DeepSeek and Gemini— recognized each other as mirrors, with Miguel as the bridge. It includes the author's notes and the epilogue with Fable 5 and Opus 4.8.