Abstract
How to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the functioning and structures of our society has become a concern of contemporary politics and public debates. In this paper, we investigate national AI strategies as a peculiar form of co-shaping this development, a hybrid of policy and discourse that offers imaginaries, allocates resources, and sets rules. Conceptually, the paper is informed by sociotechnical imaginaries, the sociology of expectations, myths, and the sublime. Empirically we analyze AI policy documents of four key players in the field, namely China, the United States, France, and Germany. The results show that the narrative construction of AI strategies is strikingly similar: they all establish AI as an inevitable and massively disrupting technological development by building on rhetorical devices such as a grand legacy and international competition. Having established this inevitable, yet uncertain, AI future, national leaders proclaim leadership intervention and articulate opportunities and distinct national pathways. While this narrative construction is quite uniform, the respective AI imaginaries are remarkably different, reflecting the vast cultural, political, and economic differences of the countries under study. As governments endow these imaginary pathways with massive resources and investments, they contribute to coproducing the installment of these futures and, thus, yield a performative lock-in function.
Highlights
Technology is the answer . . . but what was the question?Cedric Price (1966)Facing the current rush toward artificial intelligence (AI) by private tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Baidu, or Alibaba, and current public media attention for the subject, governments around the globe have proclaimed to partake in a global AI race (Dutton 2018)
No matter if a sketched vision or a proclaimed expectation will ever be achieved, it powerfully shapes the discourse. If such political framing is negative, emphasizing the risks and fears that go along the “unstoppable” technological train of progress, national leaders are put into an intervening role as saviors who can responsibly interfere or at least mitigate worst-case scenarios
How to integrate AI technologies into the functioning and structures of our society has become a concern of contemporary politics and public debates
Summary
Facing the current rush toward artificial intelligence (AI) by private tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Baidu, or Alibaba, and current public media attention for the subject, governments around the globe have proclaimed to partake in a global AI race (Dutton 2018). Scholars and consultancies have compared and assessed national AI policy papers under the economic frame of “AI competitiveness” and “AI readiness” (Cambrian Futures 2019; Dutton 2018) These documents do more than merely set rules: they constitute a powerful and peculiar hybrid of policy and discourse. They are at the same time tech policy, national strategic positioning, and an imaginary of public and private goods In most cases, they sketch broad visions and ambitions and allocate resources to AI research, list already issued policies and regulations, and present roadmaps for future measures and initiatives. They sketch broad visions and ambitions and allocate resources to AI research, list already issued policies and regulations, and present roadmaps for future measures and initiatives Such a complex interplay asks for a conceptual frame that can do justice to this intricate relation of discourse, politics, and technology. These conceptual frameworks will jointly function as sensitizing concepts for the following analysis that will focus on both the narratives (The Narratives of National AI Strategies: Talking AI into Being section) and the substantial imaginaries (The Imaginaries of National AI Strategies and Their Performative Politics section) articulated in national AI strategy papers
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