Think BRICS participated in the BRICS Urban Future Forum in Moscow, a leading global platform bringing together over 13,000 attendees from 30+ countries to define the development agenda of BRICS megacities.

The forum explored the tension between competing visions for urban futures: from Yanis Varoufakis‘s warning about “techno-feudalism” and cloud capital controlling human behavior, to Kate Barker‘s utopian AI-autopilot cities in NEOM, to human-centered approaches prioritizing citizen trust over technological spectacle.

Key themes included sustainable urban development, AI governance, climate action, and international collaboration among BRICS cities. The forum turned dialogue into actionable strategies for international cooperation among cities, organizations, and companies — exactly the kind of multipolar exchange that Think BRICS covers through its Media Intelligence Hub.

Our coverage includes deep analysis on the ideological conflict between technology serving humanity versus enslaving it, and the path forward toward cities that are not merely smart, but wise, sustainable, and humane.