AI-tocracy

Martin Beraja, Andrew Kao, David Yang and Noam Yuchtman

POID Working Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Can frontier innovation be sustained under autocracy? We argue that innovation and autocracy can be mutually reinforcing when: (i) the new technology bolsters the autocrat's power; and (ii) the autocrat's demand for the technology stimulates further innovation in applications beyond those benefiting it directly. We test for such a mutually reinforcing relationship in the context of facial recognition AI in China. To do so, we gather comprehensive data on AI firms and government procurement con-tracts, as well as on social unrest across China during the last decade. We first show that autocrats benefit from AI: local unrest leads to greater government procurement of facial recognition AI, and increased AI procurement suppresses subsequent unrest. We then show that AI innovation benefits from autocrats' suppression of unrest: the contracted AI firms innovate more both for the government and commercial markets. Taken together, these results suggest the possibility of sustained AI innovation under the Chinese regime: AI innovation entrenches the regime, and the regime's investment in AI for political control stimulates further frontier innovation.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; autocracy; innovation; data; China; surveillance; political unrest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-11-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ain
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Related works:
Journal Article: Ai-Tocracy (2023)
Working Paper: AI-tocracy (2021)
Working Paper: AI-tocracy (2021)
Working Paper: AI-tocracy (2021)
Working Paper: AI-tocracy (2021)
Working Paper: AI-tocracy (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:poidwp:020

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