What are the potential economic and ethical implications of AI advancements by 2026 for society and policy-making?

The AI model maker race will continue in 2026, along with more agents and a growing pressure on companies to prove AI can pay off in the real world, experts tell Axios. Why it matters: AI may be both the current and next big thing, but success increasingly hinges less on being the "best" model and more on timing. The big picture: Rapid progress by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others drove frequent leapfrogging — and fierce price competition — in 2025. That dynamic is expected to intensify next year and beyond. "We're just gonna be in this constant race," Box CEO Aaron Levie told Axios. Reality check: There are important, often-overlooked steps between the arrival of more powerful algorithms and a boost in productivity. The winners must understand when a technology is mature enough to deploy and how to integrate it into messy, human-run organizations without burning money or credibility."Good AI won't need long prompts. The more you have to explain, the worse the product is." Winston Weinberg, CEO and co-founder of Harvey, tells Axios. "The best systems will already know the context." "A jump in model capability does not instantly mean that task gets automated in the economy," Le