High, especially youth, unemployment. Limited incentives to invest in education or health. Rule by a powerful, unaccountable elite. This is current petrostate reality. It could also be our AI future. Whether that future materializes hinges on how the gains from AI are distributed. If AI’s productivity-enhancing benefits are widely shared, it could deliver higher wages, shorter working hours, and broad-based prosperity that reinforces democratic institutions. If, however, the benefits accrue