Clever people out there say that AI could lead to 300 million people worldwide losing their jobs. The data centres the technology relies on are consuming ever more energy. And the AI boom has given a small number of American companies power over our economies – power which even the combined might of the European Union only has a limited ability to rein in.
The consequences for us all are enormous.
So unsurprisingly at the Almedalen political week AI is everywhere. One in ten events here this week centered on the issue. In the backstreets and alleyways of Visby it's finding its way into almost every conversation.
At the Media Stage, where I've spent much of my week, AI finds its way into almost every discussion, and it's the same story everywhere else: what does the AI era mean for national security? How does Sweden ensure it has the electricity it needs for AI? What does it mean for universities, for trust in society? Could it lead to disinformation spreading ahead of the elections?
These are the questions of our age, but while Swedish companies and civil society are grappling with them, the political parties seem to be wishing them away. At the latest parliamentary debate between party leaders, AI was mentioned only in passing, if at all, by most party leaders.
Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist was the only leader to put it front and centre. She had it in her speech at Almedalen too: AI will allow us to reduce emissions; it will also require more energy, she admitted. She didn't have much to say about how we'll generate the energy to power those data centres and how we'd cope with the possible job losses, but it was to her credit that she addressed it at all.
When Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch took to the stage at Almedalen, she had lots to say about the economy, Judeo-Christian values, the need to improve healthcare; she had some nice things to say about immigrants too. But arguably the biggest question of the age, AI, was absent. As for the Sweden Democrats' Jimmie Åkesson, leader of Sweden's second largest party – immigration, integration and crime were predictably all on the agenda, but AI wasn't.
Maybe the other leader speeches will do better, but past performance doesn't give reason to be optimistic.
We shouldn't be surprised: many of us would probably dearly love AI to never have been invented and politicians sense that; much easier for them to stay in their comfort zones. But it's here and it's transforming our society at a phenomenal speed. The huge problems and opportunities it presents require urgent political action. Which politicians will take up the challenge?
In other political news
Sweden's government is going to take a direct majority stake in a company planning to build three small modular reactors (SMRs), the country's first new nuclear reactors in half a century.
Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson used his speech at the 2026 Almedalen political festival to attack the poll-leading Social Democrats on everything from crime to fuel prices.
Focusing on welfare over tax breaks, Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch called on the right wing to step up their campaign or lose the election.
The Swedish parliament stalled the government's bill to expand the state's powers to hold children in migration detention.
Will childhood nostalgia and a bumblebee create a buzz for the far-right Sweden Democrats in the election campaign?
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