CONCEPT
Competing Fictions (Geopolitics of AI)
The divergent national narratives about AI—American market story, Chinese state-capacity story, European rights story—that produce materially different technological and institutional trajectories from identical underlying capabilities.
Nations do not adopt technologies; they adopt stories about technologies, and the stories determine adoption. The United States adopted an internet-freedom narrative—minimal regulation, maximal private investment, platforms protected from liability. China adopted an information-control narrative—heavy regulation, tight surveillance, sovereignty over data flows. Same technology, different fictions, divergent outcomes. Harari's framework predicts AI will follow this pattern. The American fiction treats AI as economic opportunity (maximize private investment, minimize regulatory friction). The Chinese fiction treats AI as strategic asset (centralized coordination, state direction of research, data as national resource). The European fiction treats AI as rights challenge (regulate to protect privacy, democracy, equity). Each captures something real, misses something critical. None constitutes a wise global response.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The divergence is not superficial but constitutive. The American market fiction has produced: rapid capability development, concentrated gains, minimal transition support for displaced workers, world-leading AI companies. The Chinese state-capacity fiction has produced: strategic deployment, centralized control, integration