[Book talk] The AI Matrix: A critical political economy reading of the profit, power, and politics behind global AI transformation(s)
April 23 | 12:00 - 13:30
Members: Fenwick McKelvey
Clusters: Speculative Life
Join the Algorithmic Technology and Society CISSC working group for a discussion with Regine Paul on her new book, The AI Matrix: Profits, Power, Politics.
ABOUT THE TALK:
AI is often presented in extremes, either as a revolutionary technology boosting prosperity for everyone, or as a juggernaut that threatens jobs, democracy, or even human life. This talk cuts through those narratives by asking a simpler question: who really benefits from AI, and who has the power to shape how it is made and used?
Drawing on her co-authored book, The AI Matrix: Profits, Power, Politics (open access, with Daniel Mügge and Vali Stan), Regine Paul argues that today’s AI boom is not simply about clever machines taking over and our economies and societies needing to adapt, but about profit imperatives and political choices.
AI technologies are developed and deployed within pre-existing economic structures, largely reinforcing inequalities between industries, workers, and countries rather than fundamentally transforming them away.
The main focus of this talk is on how long-standing insights from critical and global political economy can help us expose the complex interactions (1) of political institutions and agency, (2) speculative tech narratives, (3) the imperative of geopolitical tech races, and (4) globe-spanning forms of domination and exploitation in shaping articulations of AI transformations, in the plural, on the ground as well as what connects these into one more global transformation, in the singular, across time and space.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Regine Paul is Professor at the Department of Government at Bergen University (Norway, on partial leave) and Research Group Leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne where she is currently building up a new group on “Technology and Statehood”. She is co-editor of Critical Policy Studies and the Elgar Handbook on Public Policy and Artificial Intelligence (2024), as well as co-author of The AI Matrix: Profits, Power, Politics (2026), with Daniel Mügge and Vali Stan.
April 23, 2026
12–1:30 PM
Resource Room EV 11.705
🎟️ If you’re planning to attend online, please register here to receive the registration link.