AI-enabled authoritarianism is not confined to autocracies. In this paper, we provide greater transparency by investigating and mapping the lifecycles of six AI systems deployed in different political regimes, ranging from the US to China. By drawing on an extensive range of sources (academic publications, investigative research reports, third-party evaluations, media interviews, government procurement notices), we conduct a systematic, qualitative comparison across systems to identify the critical technical and operational features that enable authoritarianism within their respective political contexts. We find that enabling features include the centralization and co-optation of administrative data for law enforcement and political punishment, regulatory gaps that fail to deter misuse, weak user compliance that nullifies human oversight mechanisms, and the encoding of protected group traits that identify members of vulnerable populations. We find that these features are present across systems deployed in autocratic and democratic regimes, albeit in varying configurations. We also find that both centralized and fragmented AI systems can contribute to authoritarianism by exploiting governance gaps: centralized systems directed by executive authorities, particularly within security and military institutions, are often not subjected to formal oversight mechanisms, while fragmented systems diffuse accountability between stakeholders, paving the way for entrenchment. These findings reveal that AI-enabled authoritarianism is distributed, resulting from design and operational choices made by developers, administrators, and users alike. We conclude with recommendations for developers and policymakers to mitigate these risks.

翻译：人工智能驱动的威权主义并非威权国家的专属。本文通过考察和映射部署在不同政治体制（从美国到中国）的六个人工智能系统的生命周期，提供了更高的透明度。基于广泛资料来源（学术论文、调查研究报告、第三方评估、媒体访谈、政府采购公告），我们对这些系统进行了系统性的定性比较，以识别在其各自政治背景下促成威权主义的关键技术和操作特征。研究发现，促成特征包括：将行政数据集中化并纳入执法和政治惩处用途；未能阻止滥用的监管漏洞；弱化人类监督机制的合规缺陷；以及编码识别弱势群体成员受保护群体特征。我们发现这些特征以不同配置同时存在于威权国家和民主国家部署的系统中。我们还发现，集中式和碎片化的人工智能系统都可能通过利用治理漏洞助长威权主义：由行政当局（特别是安全与军事机构）指导的集中式系统往往不受正式监督机制约束，而碎片化系统则分散了利益相关者之间的责任，为系统固化铺平道路。这些发现揭示，人工智能驱动的威权主义具有分布性特征，源于开发者、管理者与用户共同做出的设计与操作选择。最后，我们为开发者和政策制定者提出了缓解这些风险的建议。