Moderator: John Wihbey
Panelists: Sharon Strover, Meredith McFadden, Kenzo Soares Seto, Elettra Bietti

Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging technology — it is already embedded in hiring, healthcare, public infrastructure, and democratic processes, yet the institutions meant to govern it remain incomplete and unevenly distributed across global contexts.

This webinar treats AI governance as a political and cultural question rather than a technical one: who sets the rules, whose values are encoded in them, and what accountability is possible when systems operate across borders and communities.

Drawing on applied ethics, media and communication studies, and labor-centered approaches to AI policy, the conversation traces how regulation is shaped from above, through legislation, industry self-governance, and international bodies, and contested from below, through worker organizing, civil society advocacy, and grassroots demands for digital sovereignty. Moderated by John Wihbey, the session brings researchers into dialogue with each other and the audience around the tensions, possibilities, and stakes of governing AI as a medium of social and political life.