# AI Workers, Geopolitics, and Algorithmic Collective Action

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.17331 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.17331/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 17 of its 93 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Nov 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Algorithmic Collective Action in Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04262/) (2023)
- [POTs: Protective Optimization Technologies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.02711/) (2018)
- [Worldwide AI Ethics: a review of 200 guidelines and recommendations for AI governance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.11922/) (2022)
- [Mapping the individual, social, and biospheric impacts of Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17129/) (2024)
- [Decline Now: A Combinatorial Model for Algorithmic Collective Action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.12633/) (2024)
- [How Do AI Companies "Fine-Tune" Policy? Examining Regulatory Capture in AI Governance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.13042/) (2024)
- [AI, Global Governance, and Digital Sovereignty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.17481/) (2024)
- [Conversational Agents as Catalysts for Critical Thinking: Challenging Social Influence in Group Decision-making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14263/) (2025)
- [Crowding Out The Noise: Algorithmic Collective Action Under Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.05707/) (2025)
- [Unlikely Organizers: The Rise of Labor Activism Among Professionals in the U.S. Technology Industry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15790/) (2023)
- [Minority Collective Action for User-Side Fairness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.15374/) (2025)
- [Activism by the AI Community: Analysing Recent Achievements and Future Prospects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.06528/) (2020)
- [Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.05506/) (2025)
- [Generative AI as a Geopolitical Factor in Industry 5.0: Sovereignty, Access, and Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00973/) (2025)
- [100,000 or the Robot Gets it! Tech Workers' Resistance Guide: Tech Worker Actions, History, Risks, Impacts, and the Case for a Radical Flank](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08084/) (2025)
- ["We need to do more ... I need to do more": Augmenting Digital Media Consumption via Critical Reflection to Increase Compassion and Promote Prosocial Attitudes and Behaviors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.04377/) (2023)
- [Towards Adaptive AI Governance: Comparative Insights from the U.S., EU, and Asia](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00652/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Design Concept: Scaffolding Geopolitical Reflection Among Tech Workers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.28904/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

According to the theory of International Political Economy (IPE), states are often incentivized to rely on rather than constrain powerful corporations. For this reason, IPE provides a useful lens to explain why efforts to govern Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the international and national levels have thus far been developed, applied, and enforced unevenly. Building on recent work that explores how AI companies engage in geopolitics, this position paper argues that some AI workers can be considered actors of geopolitics. It makes the timely case that governance alone cannot ensure responsible, ethical, or robust AI development and use, and greater attention should be paid to bottom-up interventions at the site of AI development. AI workers themselves should be situated as individual agents of change, especially when considering their potential to foster Algorithmic Collective Action (ACA). Drawing on methods of Participatory Design (PD), this paper proposes engaging AI workers as sources of knowledge, relative power, and intentionality to encourage more responsible and just AI development and create the conditions that can facilitate ACA.