How the World Sees Intelligent Machines

Abstract This first chapter explains the fundamental role narratives play in the understanding, development, and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) across the world. It then cites four motivations for this volume: understanding the diverse contexts in which AI is developed; introducing more diverse perspectives into global debates on AI governance; opening new comparative perspectives for the study of AI discourse; and facilitating the reimagining of mainstream Western narratives of AI. Although scholarship on AI narratives is nascent across many parts of the globe, this volume introduces the many distinct visions of AI that exist independently of, in dialogue with, or in explicit rejection of the hegemonic narratives of the anglophone West. The chapter concludes by introducing the structure of the volume, its themes, and its contributors.