Generative AI, Big Tech and the Value of Political Economy Analysis for the Sociology of Artificial Intelligence

This chapter asks: What implications does the latest development in artificial intelligence (AI) have for the sociological study of this emerging technology in the twenty-first century? It first identifies that a distinctive feature of AI development in the past two decades has been the leading role played by industry and big technology companies in AI research and innovation. This has become particularly manifest in the recent development of large language model (LLM)-based generative AI. Through an analysis of AI research and innovation in the United States and China, I argue that AI research and innovation in the twenty-first century have a distinctive political economic nature. The rest of the chapter outlines key themes and approaches for analysing AI from a political economy point of view.