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.

翻译：根据国际政治经济学理论，国家往往倾向于依赖而非约束强大的企业。因此，国际政治经济学为解释为何迄今为止在国际和国家层面治理人工智能的努力发展、应用和执行不均衡提供了有用的视角。基于近期探讨人工智能公司如何参与地缘政治的研究，本立场文件认为，部分人工智能工作者可被视为地缘政治的行动者。文章适时指出，单靠治理无法确保负责任、合乎伦理或稳健的人工智能开发与应用，应更多关注人工智能开发环节自下而上的干预措施。人工智能工作者自身应被定位为个体变革推动者，特别是在考虑其促进算法集体行动的潜力时。借鉴参与式设计方法，本文建议将人工智能工作者作为知识、相对权力和意向性的来源进行赋能，以鼓励更负责任和公正的人工智能开发，并为促进算法集体行动创造条件。