Setting the AI Agenda -- Evidence from Sweden in the ChatGPT Era
It addresses the problem of understanding elite influence in AI policy for Sweden, but is incremental as it applies existing theory to a new context.
This paper investigates the AI policy debate in Sweden before and after ChatGPT's release, finding that academics, not politicians, lead the discussion, which has become more substantive and risk-focused.
This paper examines the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) meta-debate in Sweden before and after the release of ChatGPT. From the perspective of agenda-setting theory, we propose that it is an elite outside of party politics that is leading the debate -- i.e. that the politicians are relatively silent when it comes to this rapid development. We also suggest that the debate has become more substantive and risk-oriented in recent years. To investigate this claim, we draw on an original dataset of elite-level documents from the early 2010s to the present, using op-eds published in a number of leading Swedish newspapers. By conducting a qualitative content analysis of these materials, our preliminary findings lend support to the expectation that an academic, rather than a political elite is steering the debate.