From tech wars to tech culture wars? ‘Values shaping’ and ‘values signaling’ in AI system design and governance

As Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated in emulating human communication and expressing social values, they also gain greater relevance for questions of culture and identity. This article conceptualizes and illustrates major ways in which this value dimension becomes salient by providing an overview of conflicts over embedding social values into generative AI systems. While values are often unintentionally incorporated in AI in different stages of its life cycle, governments and businesses also shape the values of AI systems in very deliberate and intentional ways – leading to tensions both within and between societies and both on the level of AI system design and governance. Governments and businesses furthermore engage in values signaling, recognizing and attempting to instrumentalize that certain social values and political ideas are embedded in AI systems. These developments add an important facet to the politics of AI.