Identity Reboot (2020) was published before generative AI entered the public domain. Meta was still called Facebook, and ChatGPT and Claude would not arrive for several years. Privacy, I argued, preceded human ability to reason, and with the advance of AI, would be the canary in the coal mine of shrinking human choices and agency. Identity Reboot was not supposed to be about artificial intelligence. Its sole focus was one question: what role does digital identity play in our societies?
Instead of a narrow question, it turns out I had accidentally asked a big one. One weaving all the way from privacy to power, and ultimately illuminating the stakes of the AI race. Not for countries, but for the everyday person. Why we should care about why, how and where AI is developed, and how it is used.
This is a three-part series of essays revisiting Identity Reboot in 2026.
Identity Reboot Essays
The data race was always about the AI race, and the AI race is about power.
If left unchecked, AI will move into the vacant space privacy leaves.
Identity is the foundation of rights, and how a society treats identity determines what kind of society it is.
Identity Reboot (2020) was published before generative AI entered the public domain. Meta was still called Facebook, and ChatGPT and Claude would not arrive for several years. Privacy, I argued, preceded human ability to reason, and with the advance of AI, would be the canary in the coal mine of shrinking human choices and agency. Identity Reboot was not supposed to be about artificial intelligence. Its sole focus was one question: what role does digital identity play in our societies?
Instead of a narrow question, it turns out I had accidentally asked a big one. One weaving all the way from privacy to power, and ultimately illuminating the stakes of the AI race. Not for countries, but for the everyday person. Why we should care about why, how and where AI is developed, and how it is used.
This is a three-part series of essays revisiting Identity Reboot in 2026.
Identity Reboot Essays
The data race was always about the AI race, and the AI race is about power.
If left unchecked, AI will move into the vacant space privacy leaves.
Identity is the foundation of rights, and how a society treats identity determines what kind of society it is.