Artificial intelligence is transforming the global economy, but behind its rise is a broader corporate governance failure. Over decades, shifts from accountability to founder authority in technology firms enabled a small elite to capture unprecedented control over the digital economy and AI. This development has profound implications for global power, regulation, and democratic resilience.
Corporate Governance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence traces this trajectory in four parts. It begins by examining the historical foundations of corporate governance and how the technification of governance allowed tech founders to dominate digital markets. It then analyses three competing governance models: US-based founder control; the emergence of 'missionary' nonprofit governance at organizations like OpenAI and Anthropic; and China's state-centric governance, which enforces extreme accountability to political authority through direct state capture of tech firms.
Moving beyond critique, this book advances practical solutions. It argues that avoiding AI oligarchy and safeguarding digital sovereignty require rebalancing authority and accountability, dismantling concentrated power, and establishing international governance akin to a “CERN for AI.” With an interdisciplinary lens on law, political economy, and geopolitics, it challenges leading narratives and offers policymakers, academics, and practitioners a framework for rethinking AI governance at a systemic level.
