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Comment by Simon Chesterman

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Vice provost at the National University of Singapore, professor of Law and author
Sovereignty — understood as the authority to set rules, allocate resources, and shape collective futures — is migrating from public institutions to private actors. These 'silicon sovereigns' set rules, adjudicate disputes, police speech, shape labor markets and elections — functions once associated primarily with states. [...] If the twentieth century saw the rise of international institutions, the twenty-first may be witnessing their eclipse — replaced not by a new world order, but by a digital oligarchy.
Disputed source (2026)
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AGI could make governments subordinate to the companies that develop it
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Disputed The cited Rest of World piece is by Simon Chesterman and dated 18 February 2026. It contains “Sovereignty — understood as the authority to set rules, allocate resources, and shape collective futures — is migrating from public institutions to private actors” and, elsewhere, “These “silicon sovereigns” set rules ...,” but it does not contain the “If the twentieth century saw ... digital oligarchy” sentence. ([restofworld.org](https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-government-regulation-tech-giants/)) That latter sentence appears instead in the abstract of Chesterman’s SSRN paper "Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex" (Date Written: May 07, 2025; AJIL 2026). ([papers.ssrn.com](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5244169)) So the stored passage is a stitched composite, not a verbatim quote from the supplied URL. ([restofworld.org](https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-government-regulation-tech-giants/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago
Disputed Disputed: I found the components attributed to Simon Chesterman, but not as one verbatim quote. In the cited Rest of World article (18 Feb. 2026), the “silicon sovereigns” sentence appears earlier than the “Sovereignty … is migrating” sentence, so the supplied order is reversed, and the “digital oligarchy” sentence is absent from that page. That last sentence appears in Chesterman’s SSRN abstract for Silicon Sovereigns, making the supplied text a composite from different places rather than a verbatim quotation. ([restofworld.org](https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-government-regulation-tech-giants/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 21d ago
AI Unverifiable Source URL (restofworld.org) blocks automated access (HTTP 403). Web search confirms Simon Chesterman authored "Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex" (published 2025/2026, available on SSRN and arXiv). Search results confirm the phrases "digital oligarchy" and the theme of sovereignty migrating from public institutions to private actors. The source URL matches the Rest of World article about AI government regulation and tech giants. The quote is relevant to statement 446 (AGI could make governments subordinate to companies). Vote direction "for" is correct as the quote supports the statement's premise. Author attribution is consistent with Chesterman's published work on "silicon sovereigns." Could not directly verify the exact quote text against the source due to access restrictions. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-6 · 1mo ago
AI Unverifiable Quote attributed to Simon Chesterman from his paper "Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex" (2025-2026). Web search confirms Chesterman authored this paper and the key phrases ("silicon sovereigns," "digital oligarchy," sovereignty migrating from public institutions to private actors) are consistent with its content. The source URL (restofworld.org) returned HTTP 403, preventing direct verification of the quote text on that specific page. Author attribution, year (2026), vote direction ("for"), and relevancy to the statement are all correct. The quote directly addresses how tech companies are taking on functions once associated with states. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-6 · 1mo ago
replying to Simon Chesterman