Maria Michalis publishes two new works on AI governance

Prof. Maria Michalis has recently published two new works on AI governance.

This fest is an article in the Special Issue “AI, Governance and Public Policy” of the Journal of Digital Media Policy. Written with Dr Krisztina Rozgonyi (Austrian Institute of Technology), the article titled “Governing AI at the international and supranational level: Divergent approaches and implications for media governance” explores emerging international AI governance frameworks (OECD, G20/G7, UNESCO) and the earliest comprehensive legal instruments from the European Union and the Council of Europe, noting divergence in priorities and values. It then concentrates on developments in the EU, and the potential consequences for media policy and the democratic remit of regulators. It argues that the focus on AI regulation has sidelined key media policy debates. This signals a deeper epistemological shift from sector-specific expertise toward transversal forms of oversight, from media policy to technical standardisation, and from public interest to market efficiency, product safety, and systemic risk management. The article calls for reimagining media regulators’ mandates to include AI oversight, embedding them in horizontal governance structures and ensuring their active role in international and supranational coordination.

The second publication, “Competitiveness and artificial intelligence in the EU’s future strategy,” is an open-access chapter, written with Hannu Nieminen (University of Helsinki), in Digital Media Shadowing Democracy: Technology, Communication, and Power by A. Balčytienė, P. Bajomi-Lázár, and H. Sousa. The chapter explores how the EU’s recent leading AI policy reports place AI at the centre of Europe’s future competitiveness strategy. It shows that these reports strongly embrace the idea that AI can drive growth and solve major economic challenges, but this confidence in technological fixes may come at the expense of Europe’s democratic and social values. The chapter also reveals two major gaps: a narrow focus on competition with the USA and China, and a tendency to treat the EU as a single actor while overlooking the different realities of smaller member states. As these reports are already shaping the next phase of EU digital and AI policymaking, the chapter offers a timely critical perspective on the ideas guiding Europe’s future. It asks an urgent question: can Europe pursue technological leadership without weakening the values it seeks to protect? By unpacking the assumptions behind current policy thinking, the chapter opens up a wider debate about power, sovereignty, inequality, and the political consequences of AI strategy.

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