Steven Boykey Sidley
Steven Boykey Sidley is a professor of practice at University of Johannesburg, columnist-at-large for Daily Maverick and a partner at Bridge Capital. His new book "It's Mine: How the Crypto Industry is Redefining Ownership" is published by Maverick451 in SA and Legend Times Group in UK/EU, available now. His columns can be found at https://substack.com/@stevenboykeysidley
Articles By This Author
The US War with Iran – it was supposed to be easier than this…
There is a particular kind of hubris that afflicts powerful states on the eve of a war they expect to win quickly. It is the conviction that the enemy will behave according to the planner’s model rather than its own military and defence strategies. The Trump administration carried that conviction into Iran on 28 February 2026, and it has spent every week since discovering, expensively, how wrong it was.
God and the machine – AI enters the Vatican
Encyclicals from the papacy have traditionally been events of great gravitas for the 1.4 billion Catholic faithful. Being neither Catholic nor religious, I have had only a passing rather than a personal interest in them.
The AI backlash in the West is growing and China is thrilled
At the University of Arizona commencement this month, Eric Schmidt, the much-admired ex-CEO of Google, began telling graduates that artificial intelligence would reshape classrooms, hospitals and professions. The boos came back immediately, loud and clear. He was not alone.
The weary traveller and the fading charm of Airbnb
We took a break recently, travelling abroad to see family. So today I am taking a break from my usual beat in tech, AI and geopolitics to relate a story from my trip, and what it means for travellers, including many who read this column.
The truculence of the titans – Musk and Altman slug it out in court
There is something especially thrilling about watching two of the world’s richest and most influential tech CEOs go at it.
The curious case of the White House and the missing scientists
Sometimes a long percolating news story comes to a head, and when viewed in context and in the light of day it just seems like science fiction. Which in this case, perhaps it is.
The giddy side of AI
On February 15, a technology blueprint was published online titled “Solve Everything”. The subtitle was more interesting. It read “Achieving Abundance by 2035”. It is 92 pages long, carefully considered, well written, deeply researched.
Artemis II – a brief breath of oxygen as the world drowns in conflict
Talk about bad timing. Just as NASA finally pulled off one of those rare, cleansing acts of human achievement that make our species seem worth the trouble, the planet was busy doom-scrolling the Strait of Hormuz: oil panic, war and prospect of a global food crisis.
Renting humans – agentic AI’s external labour pool
There is a surprising and somewhat unsettling story that has tumbled out of the world of AI, specifically “agentic” AI, which is a spanking new and revolutionary addition to your good ‘ol chatbot from OpenAI or Anthropic.
Terafab – is this Musk’s last gamble?
On 21 March Elon Musk took the stage at the Seaholm Historic Power Plant in Austin, Texas and announced the most dauntless bet in the history of private enterprise. The prize, if he wins, is incalculable. The cost, if he loses, will be huge (but probably not incalculable).