From tech wars to tech culture wars? “Value shaping” and “value signaling” in AI system design and governance

As Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly sophisticated in emulating human communication and expressing social values, they also gain greater relevance for questions of culture and identity. This makes it important to take seriously the role of culture in AI in its own right. This article conceptualizes and illustrates major ways in which this value dimension becomes salient and provides an overview of conflicts over embedding culture and political ideology into generative AI systems. Besides an unintentional incorporation of values into AI, governments and businesses intentionally shape the values of AI systems – leading to tensions within and between societies and both on the level of AI system design and governance. Governments and businesses furthermore engage in value signaling as the open recognition of the fact that certain social values and political ideas are embedded in AI systems. These developments add an important facet to the politics of AI.