The Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence

The Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence

Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb, and Catherine Tucker, editors.

As the effects of artificial intelligence are felt across economies and societies, many of its ramifications are still emerging. This volume brings together economists and political scientists to examine how AI intersects with regulation, military power, and political identity—offering analytical frameworks and identifying key open questions for future research.

The contributions address topics such as the allocation of property rights for AI inputs, trade-offs among alternative regulatory regimes, and the role of interest groups in shaping the technology’s trajectory. They explore how AI-related capabilities influence military effectiveness, resource allocation, and bargaining power among nations, and consider AI’s effects on political preferences, from the influence of AI-curated information on polarization to the implications of targeted political advertising and personalized education for national identity formation.

The volume highlights key trade-offs that arise in AI’s political economy, and points toward empirical strategies and theoretical models that can advance understanding in this emerging field. Drawing on diverse disciplinary perspectives, the collection provides a foundation for rigorous inquiry into how AI both shapes and is shaped by political and economic forces.

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