Reframing AI governance through a political economy lens

The paper critiques the current AI landscape, highlighting the dominance of 'Big Tech' and the 'bipolar geo-economic context' of the US and China. It argues that 'Responsible AI' frameworks often serve as a means for powerful actors to 'diffuse accountability'. The author proposes a 'supra-liberal framework' for governance, the creation of an 'AI commons' to democratize resources, and the integration of sustainability considerations to mitigate AI's 'massive carbon footprint'.

• Big Tech companies exercise significant 'infrastructural and narrative power' over the AI sector, allowing them to control access, shape policy discourse, and influence rulemaking.
• Countries in the Global South face structural barriers to AI sovereignty due to a 'bipolar geo-economic context' dominated by American and Chinese infrastructure, creating dependencies in talent, intellectual property, and debt.
• The 'Responsible AI' discourse is criticized for being co-opted by powerful entities to avoid liability and ignore systemic harms to people and ecosystems, reducing the concept to 'product safety' considerations.
• AI development is contributing to the environmental crisis through high energy and water consumption; for example, training GPT-3 required water equivalent to filling a nuclear reactor cooling tower.
• The document identifies a 'culture of impunity' where AI models are deployed rapidly without adequate risk assessment, often shifting the burden of error onto frontline workers while defending the technical prowess of the models.
• To democratize AI, the author proposes an 'AI commons' approach, including a global center for AI innovation modeled after CERN and the reform of intellectual property regimes to prevent 'data extractivism'.

APA

Rowley, S. (2024). Reframing AI governance through a political economy lens. World Association for Christian Communication. https://waccglobal.org/reframing-ai-governance-through-a-political-economy-lens/

Chicago

Rowley, Saskia. Reframing AI governance through a political economy lens. World Association for Christian Communication, 2024. https://waccglobal.org/reframing-ai-governance-through-a-political-economy-lens/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rowley |first1=Saskia |title=Reframing AI governance through a political economy lens |publisher=World Association for Christian Communication |date=26 February 2024 |url=https://waccglobal.org/reframing-ai-governance-through-a-political-economy-lens/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rowley2024reframing, author = {Rowley, Saskia}, title = {{Reframing AI governance through a political economy lens}}, institution = {World Association for Christian Communication}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://waccglobal.org/reframing-ai-governance-through-a-political-economy-lens/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }