Empowerments by AI will not only contribute to the improvement of state governance capacities, but also represent an important aspect of the digital industry. Photo: TUCHONG

Artificial intelligence (AI), as a cutting-edge technology and the driving force behind a new wave of scientific and industrial transformation, is becoming an integral part of our lives, whether we welcome it or not. However, at present, AI has posed new challenges to humanity on the technical, philosophical, ethical, social, and governance levels. To properly address the challenges and social consequences of AI, a state governance perspective is indispensable. 

According to Herbert Simon, one of the forefathers of AI, people begin solving problems from the “problem space.” In Simon’s view, the problem space is a person’s consciousness or psychological space during the problem-solving process, including the initial state of the problem presented to the person, the goal state to be achieved, the various possible intermediate states (imaginary or experiential) in solving the problem, the operators that can be used, and the “constraints” related to the problem. Following this theoretical framework, this article places AI in the problem space of state governance, and preliminarily analyzes the policy direction of AI around the structural dynamics of state governance.

Elements of state governance

State governance can be understood as a process of comprehensively allocating human and financial resources and pursuing coordinated development to create ideal public order, with the enhancement of legitimacy and effectiveness as the axis, relying on a national regulatory system and implemented through institutionalization, bureaucracy, policy, and culture.

State governance consists of state tasks, governors, and the public. State tasks are social problems that the state needs to address or overcome. The modern state is competitive, determining its tasks through international comparison and competition. Each state accomplishes national tasks, resolves social problems, and strengthens its viability by allocating human and financial resources across the nation through public policy. Governors refer to organizations or individuals that manage state affairs based on the constitution, law, and systems, with the polity as the institutional form and the political philosophy as the will of the state. The public is the policy audience and participates in the state governance process. Public policy is the path for the three factors to interact with each other.

The three elements of state governance and their interactions through public policy constitute an extremely complex state governance process, which is the object of research on the system and capacity for governance. The basic policy framework which incorporates AI and state governance is also displayed and constructed in this three-dimensional problem space.

AI as state task

No country competitive in the field of AI can afford to overlook AI as a state task. For example, the United States, which features the separation of powers, has successively promulgated four AI policies on the national level in recent years. These include the lengthy Final Report of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence released in March 2021, the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in October 2022, the AI Risk Management Framework 1.0 adopted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in January 2023, and the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence signed by the Biden Administration in October 2023.

China has likewise attached high importance to AI. Since the 19th CPC National Congress, pertinent policies have gradually formed a “1+N” policy system. “1” stands for the Development Planning for a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence issued by the State Council in 2017, and “N” refers to practical development plans, action plans, and implementation plans concerning the AI industry produced by various ministries and commissions following the CPC’s top-level design. These policies cover industries, governance, promotion, pilot zones for innovative development of AI, the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–25), integrated plans, three-year action plans, high-quality development plans, and talent cultivation.

Therefore, the governance of AI, as a state task, is competitive, overarching, and goal-oriented, encompassing such spheres as talent cultivation, infrastructure, software algorithms, and industrial applications. It plays a significant role in the formulation of national industrial and social policies.

AI as governance approach

State governance is carried out via the state’s institutional actions, state administrative organs’ organizational actions, and state governors’ subjective actions. The three parties are the policymakers and process managers of state governance.

When it comes to specific governance approaches, modern state governance generally follows eight models: a belief model of politics (religion), an organizational model of administration, a sharing model of culture, an interest model of the economy, a discourse model of communication, a moral model of society, a technological model of science, and a legal model of punishment. These models vary in mechanisms, characteristics, individual behavioral effects, effectiveness, and legitimacy.

AI holds the potential to empower all the eight models of governance. Taking the organizational model of administration as an example, AI has flattened the workflow which has greatly improved the efficiency of government administration. In China, through the “12345 hotline,” local governments have substantively enhanced their ability to respond to social problems, deal with social operation issues in a timely manner, and improve the degree and effectiveness of interactions between the people and the government. Similarly, AI can empower the political and cultural approaches of state governance. These empowerments will not only contribute to the improvement of the state’s governance capacity, but also represent an important aspect of the digital industry.

AI as new lifestyle

A society consists of interactions between humanity and nature, between humanity and technology, and between people themselves. These layers of interactions have brought a community of survival into existence that is bonded by shared meaning. The historical development of humanity suggests that the mode of human existence and the degree of civilization are largely determined by the level of sci-tech advancement.

For example, the “zeitgeist” that coalesced in Europe after the Middle Ages drove scholars to explain the world in “numbers,” and contributed to the development of modern science based on mathematics in the West. Once science takes shape, it also shapes the form in which human knowledge exists. Thus, the current social conditions and operational mode of humanity result from the sci-tech revolution.

As the jewel in the crown of the ongoing sci-tech revolution, AI will undoubtedly revolutionize the future of human existence. For example, the implementation of China’s “Artificial Intelligence +” plan has promoted the close integration of AI technology with diverse economic and social fields, spurring intelligent transformation and upgrading. This has not only made production more efficient and generated a new industrial ecosystem, but also inspired a new social formation.

While the full impact of AI remains to be seen, it is clear that AI’s role in information communication has removed the traditional role of information “gatekeepers.” Instant, participatory, and tailored information is available continuously, transcending time and space, and has ushered in a hyper-communicative lifestyle in the information age.

Today, an AI-based society is rapidly in the making as new fields are emerging one after another, such as big data, intelligent manufacturing, intelligent machines, smart society, and the Internet of Things. This trend will pose ongoing and great challenges to public policy.

Policy suggestions

State governance is enacted through public policy. As AI enters the problem space of state governance, new policy directions become clear.

First, policies on AI, a state governance task, should strike a balance between sci-tech and social functions. Although China is catching up and striving to outperform other advanced countries in AI development, it is necessary to realize that a new social formation is quickly taking shape. This highlights the necessity of comprehensive and balanced top-level design under the overall national strategic objective pertaining to AI, taking into account institutional, social, cultural, legal, and other factors.

Second, policies on AI, as a state governance approach, should focus on both effectiveness and legitimacy. As a technology, AI is prominently reflected in the increased effectiveness of state governance. It’s safe to say that the eight models of state governance can all be empowered by AI, thus improving the governance efficiency considerably. However, the fundamental characteristic of state governance that distinguishes it from for-profit organization is that it pursues both effectiveness and legitimacy. Effectiveness and legitimacy are not necessarily consistent. An excessive pursuit of effectiveness may reduce legitimacy.

Therefore, the policymaking of AI-enabled state governance models should prevent effectiveness from squeezing legitimacy, mitigate negative effects such as “data bureaucracy,” “data alienation,” “digital ruthlessness,” and “digital dominance,” and caution against the “emotional” pressure on the people. In addition, it is crucial to balance the eight state governance models empowered by AI, in order to sustain the coordinated development of these models.

Third, the “public” social policy, an object of AI, should coordinate differences within the AI-based society. The impact of AI on humanity is comprehensive, but the extent to which it advances society varies. With AI as the norm, multi-layered realities exist at the same time, characterized by the coexistence of traditional farming society, technological society, semi-AI society, and complete-AI society. Meanwhile, with the development of AI-related technologies, there will be increasing “intelligent agents” of different types and at different levels, which will become new partners for humanity and lead to new social formations. Social policies on AI should take this tendency into consideration to mitigate the consequences of the “AI divide” and promote a more reasonable new social structure.

Jing Huaibin is a professor from the School of Government at Sun Yat-Sen University.