Chapter 20: The politics of regulating AI technologies: towards AI competition states

Overview & Synopsis

This chapter critically evaluates alternative conceptualizations of AIT regulation, based on a systematic review of scholarly articles against a wider set of works at the cross-roads of technology, regulation, and political economy. I map the state-of-the-art on AIT regulation across three broad perspectives. First, applied ethics prescriptions for “effective” and “good” regulation; second, technocratic rational choice proposals for “proportionate” interference in business freedoms, and third, political economy accounts of big tech capture. While the former two apply problematically apolitical concepts of regulation, the latter invites further reflection on the politics of regulating AITs. Taking that lead, I propose a novel concept of AI competition states fit to capture states’ strategic regulatory pursuits of their own specific visions of AI competitiveness. I end by carving out a three-fold research agenda to explore how AI competition states’ ideational underpinnings, institutional varieties, and its interactions with wider public policy governance shape regulatory projects.