A Fractured Future

This chapter analyzes the fragmentation of the global order of artificial intelligence (AI) governance, arguing that contemporary AI governance has become a field of normative and geopolitical contestation rather than a framework for coordinated risk management. It approaches this process as a layered phenomenon, spanning institutional and legal arrangements, diplomatic and geopolitical arenas, and the competing narratives through which technological development is justified and contested. The chapter contrasts the market-oriented American approach and the rights-based regulatory model of the European Union with China&s;s conception of AI governance, which emphasizes order, harmony, and development through state coordination. It examines international summits and organizations as sites of normative rivalry, highlighting China&s;s strategic turn toward universal forums – particularly the United Nations – as alternatives to Western regulatory clubs. Particular attention is given to Chinese narratives of AI governance and initiatives that frame AI as a tool for an inclusive and multipolar technological order. By examining diversity within BRICS+ and the Global South, the chapter shows that global AI governance is increasingly polycentric and negotiated rather than bipolar. It concludes that AI has become a central axis of contemporary geopolitics, defined less by technological superiority than by the authority to shape the rules of the future.