Forthcoming study, now available on Arxiv:
Levers of Power in the Field of AI
An Ethnography of Personal Influence in Institutionalization
Who holds power over decisions in our society? How do these people influence decisions, and how are these people influenced? How is this the same or different when it comes to questions about AI? These are some of the questions we set out to understand.
Abstract: This paper examines how decision makers in academia, government, business, and civil society navigate questions of power in implementations of artificial intelligence (AI). The study explores how individuals experience and exercise “levers of power”, which are presented as social mechanisms that shape institutional responses to technological change. The study reports on the responses of personalised questionnaires designed to gather insight on a decision maker’s institutional purview, based on an institutional governance framework developed from the work of Neo Institutionalists. Findings present the anonymized, real responses and circumstances of respondents in the form of twelve fictional personas of high-level decision makers from North America and Europe. These personas illustrate how personal agency, organizational logics, and institutional infrastructures may intersect in the governance of AI. The decision makers’ responses to the questionnaires then inform a discussion of the field level personal power of decision-makers, methods of fostering institutional stability in times of change, and methods of influencing institutional change in the field of AI. The final section of the discussion presents a table of the dynamics of the levers of power in the field of AI for change makers and 5 testable hypotheses for institutional and social movement researchers. In summary, this study provides insight on the means for policymakers within institutions and their counterparts in civil society to personally engage with AI governance.
