Book

In November 2022, a research lab released a chatbot as an experiment. Within months, governments that had never needed a position on machine learning were signing declarations, drafting statutes, and rewriting export controls. The Algorithmic Turn tells the story of how artificial intelligence became a subject of international politics and law, and why the rules written so far have been fast, fragmented, and often weaker than they appear. The book traces four connected arenas: the summit sequence from Bletchley Park to New Delhi and the United Nations’ slower construction of a scientific panel and global dialogue; the contest over chips, compute, and export controls that culminated in the DeepSeek shock and the push by middle powers and the Global South for a seat at the table; the courtrooms and regulators where binding rules on copyright, ownership, and sanctions screening have actually taken shape; and the struggle to establish what is real once synthetic media costs almost nothing to produce. Rather than advocate for any government’s approach, this account reads treaty text like a specification and model capabilities like a communique. The result is a clear-eyed account of a three-year transformation, and a practical framework for judging the next announcement, regulation, or summit that claims to govern AI.