Democratization, state capacity and developmental correlates of international artificial intelligence trade

Does acquiring artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies from the U.S. or China render countries more authoritarian or technologically less advantageous? In this article, we explore to what extent importing A.I./high-tech from the U.S. and/or China goes parallel with importers’ a) democratization or autocratization, b) state capacity, and c) technological progress across a decade (2010–2020). Our work demonstrates that not only are Chinese A.I./high-tech exports not congruous with importers’ democratic backsliding, but autocratization attributed to Chinese A.I. is also visible in importers of U.S. [AH1] A.I. In addition, for most indicators, we do not observe any significant effect of acquiring A.I. from the U.S. or China on importers’ state capacity or technological progress across the same period. Instead, we find that the story has a global inequality dimension as Chinese exports are clustered around countries with a lower GDP per capita, whereas U.S. high-technology exports are clustered around relatively wealthier states with slightly weaker capacity over territorial control. Overall, the article empirically demonstrates the limitations of some of the prevalent policy discourses surrounding the global diffusion of A.I. and its contribution to democratization, state capacity, and technological development of importer nations.