LSE: The Ballpark | “Is AI a threat or an opportunity for the US?” Master’s students essay competition for 2025

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Kayode Adeniyi, Natasha Chávez, Francesca Nicolodi | Recent years have seen growth in the capability and use of AI tools across society, including by business, academia, the media, and in the economy more widely. Many institutions have embraced AI tools and models such as ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Gemini (Google) to provide solutions to a variety of challenges, from the everyday to the global. At the same time, many commentators have expressed concerns about bias in AI, its contribution to other global challenges like climate change, and that it may even be a threat to society or democracy. In 2025, the Phelan US Centre ran an essay competition for master’s students with the prompt, “Is AI a threat or an opportunity for the US?” In this episode we spoke to the author of the winning essay, Kayode Adeniyi, and the runners-up, Natasha Chávez and Francesca Nicolodi. We discussed their essays, the competition, what it’s like for students to engage with a wider audience, and the opportunity they had to present their essays in the UK parliament to MPs and the British-American Parliamentary Group. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Read the essays from the winner and runners-up on the Phelan US Centre’s USAPP blog AI in the US: The Next Space Race or the Next Subprime Crisis? - Kayode Adeniyi - LSE Department of Management (winner) The AI race: will the US lead or fall behind? - Natasha Chávez - LSE Department of International Relations (runner-up) Trump’s hunger for AI domination is allowing Silicon Valley to seize the state but not its people - Francesca Nicolodi - LSE Department of Social Policy (runner-up) Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark is ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until Monday 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes a few minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025