Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Chesterman, Simon
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Chesterman, Simon
author_facet Chesterman, Simon
contents Artificial intelligence is reshaping science, society, and power. Yet many debates over its likely impact remain fixated on extremes: utopian visions of universal benefit and dystopian fears of existential doom, or an arms race between the U.S. and China, or the Global North and Global South. What's missing is a serious conversation about distribution - who gains, who loses, and who decides. The global AI landscape is increasingly defined not just by geopolitical divides, but by the deepening imbalance between public governance and private control. As governments struggle to keep up, power is consolidating in the hands of a few tech firms whose influence now rivals that of states. If the twentieth century saw the rise of international institutions, the twenty-first may be witnessing their eclipse - replaced not by a new world order, but by a digital oligarchy. This essay explores what that shift means for international law, global equity, and the future of democratic oversight in an age of silicon sovereignty.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_05506
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex
Chesterman, Simon
Computers and Society
Artificial intelligence is reshaping science, society, and power. Yet many debates over its likely impact remain fixated on extremes: utopian visions of universal benefit and dystopian fears of existential doom, or an arms race between the U.S. and China, or the Global North and Global South. What's missing is a serious conversation about distribution - who gains, who loses, and who decides. The global AI landscape is increasingly defined not just by geopolitical divides, but by the deepening imbalance between public governance and private control. As governments struggle to keep up, power is consolidating in the hands of a few tech firms whose influence now rivals that of states. If the twentieth century saw the rise of international institutions, the twenty-first may be witnessing their eclipse - replaced not by a new world order, but by a digital oligarchy. This essay explores what that shift means for international law, global equity, and the future of democratic oversight in an age of silicon sovereignty.
title Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex
topic Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.05506