Shaping AI from within: the values and power of AI developers

Niels Selling and Pontus Strimling

Chapter 15 in Handbook on the Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence, 2026, pp 248-264 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: AI developers build and design artificial intelligence. Yet their role as agents of self-regulation – and stewards of ethical and responsible AI – remains underexplored. This chapter begins by reviewing the literature on their ability and willingness to exercise power over the development of AI. We then turn to their values and worldviews to shed light on what this power may translate into. Drawing on existing studies and new empirical data, we demonstrate that the values and ideological orientations of AI developers diverge significantly from those of the broader public. At the same time, current research on AI developers is limited and often contradictory. We view this as a call for further inquiry and highlight promising avenues for future work. Such research holds the potential to anchor conversations around AI governance in a clearer understanding of who shapes the technology and what drives their decisions.

Keywords: Developers; Practitioners; Values; Power; Agency; Ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035338573
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