Barriers to regulating AI: critical observations from a fractured field
Ashlin Lee, Will Orr, Walter G. Johnson, Jenna Imad Harb, Kathryn Henne · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023
This chapter reflects upon the current state of artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, observing how both AI and its regulation are fragmented and fractured. We observe this fracturing across three axes. The first axis concerns definitional fractures, drawing attention to the fragmented state of AI as a concept and as an object of regulation. The second axis considers regulatory interventions, particularly how regulatory responses have not been unified or consistent in responding to the development and spread of AI. The final axis points to the unequal dispersal of benefits and burdens, and how AI regulation unevenly treats different actors. Drawing on Jackson’s concept of repair work, we argue that these fractures, while being evidence of suboptimal regulation, also provide new opportunities to reflect on the underlying dynamics of AI and its regulation in context.