Chesterman's AJIL essay "Silicon Sovereigns": AI, international law, and the tech-industrial complex
ProfChesterman · x · 2026-09-28
NUS law professor Simon Chesterman shares his essay "Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex" in the American Journal of International Law (Vol. 120 special issue).
- A review essay built around three books: Verity Harding's "AI Needs You," Waqar Zaidi's "Technological Internationalism and World Order," and Acemoglu & Johnson's "Power and Progress"
- Traces the rise and fall of 20th-century technological internationalism to today's challenge of reining in "digital robber barons"
- Argues AI cannot be left to govern itself: international law and new institutions must check the tech-industrial complex
- Companion piece to his call for a UN framework convention on AI safety
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