Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming part of the institutional infrastructure through which governments process information, anticipate developments and make decisions. While existing debates have largely focused on digital transformation, automation, ethics and regulation, this panel examines a broader question: how might AI transform state capacity and the practice of statecraft itself?
The panel conceptualises AI not simply as a technological tool but as a potential new layer of governmental capacity, expanding states' ability to analyse complex information, forecast developments, simulate policy consequences, and support administrative and political decision-making. At the same time, the growing use of AI raises fundamental questions concerning democratic accountability, political responsibility, bureaucratic expertise, technological sovereignty and the relationship between computational optimisation and human judgment.
The panel invites theoretical, empirical and comparative research on AI and public administration, policy-making, democracy, bureaucracy, strategic foresight and international statecraft. It seeks to develop a political science framework for understanding the emergence of the AI-enabled state and to explore whether artificial intelligence represents an incremental extension of digital government or a more fundamental transformation in how states perceive, decide and exercise authority.
