Tales of Cyberspace and Artificial Intelligence: Diverging Stakeholderships?

Eriksson, Johan; Giacomello, Giampiero

Tales of Cyberspace and Artificial Intelligence: Diverging Stakeholderships?

This article traces the evolution of the Internet from the 1990s to the 2020s and compares it with the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly following the public launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. It identifies both parallels and divergencies between these two overlapping technological domains, focusing on the growing integration of AI into online applications. The central argument is that, whereas users once played a decisive role in shaping the Internet’s trajectory and politics, the contemporary AI landscape is dominated by two principal stakeholders: governments and private companies. User groups, by contrast, have become largely marginalized in debates on AI policy and regulation. While users in cyberspace historically acted as co-creators, they are thus far confined to the role of consumers in relation to AI. This shift toward elite-driven governance raises important concerns regarding the emergence of authoritarian tendencies in the development and implementation of AI and digital technologies in general.

The special issue “CTRL + Power: The Politics of Digital Authoritarianism” of Global Policy, is published in open access with the financial support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo. The issue is part of the initiative “CTRL + power: the (geo)politics of digital authoritarianism”, an academic collaboration between T.wai, LSE IDEAS and the University of Torino.

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CTRL + Power: The Politics of Digital Authoritarianism

29 July 2026

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