Handbook on Public Policy and Artificial Intelligence

Book excerpt: This timely Handbook explores the relationship between public policy and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across a broad range of geographical, technical, political and policy contexts. It contributes to critical AI studies, focusing on the intersection of the norms, discourses, policies, practices, and regulation that shape AI in the public sector. Expert authors in the field discuss the creation and use of AI technologies and how public authorities respond to their development, by bringing together emerging scholarly debates about AI technologies with longer-standing insights on public administration, policy, regulation and governance. Contributions in the Handbook mobilise diverse perspectives to critically examine techno-solutionist approaches to public policy and AI, dissect the politico-economic interests underlying AI promotion, and analyse implications for sustainable development, fairness, and equality. Ultimately, this Handbook questions whether regulatory concepts such as ethical, trustworthy, or accountable AI safeguard a democratic future or contribute to a problematic de-politicisation of the public sector. The Handbook on Public Policy and Artificial Intelligence is a crucial resource for students and scholars of public policy and administration, political economy, political science, sociology, law, regulation and governance, computer science and technology studies. It is also beneficial to policy practitioners, civil society actors, and regulators working with AI technologies.