Conference Paper
Mediatization of National AI Strategies: The Sociotechnics of Egypt’s AI Policy
No.
ERF32AC_68
Publisher
ERF
Date
May, 2026
Topic
D. Microeconomics
This article examines how national artificial intelligence (AI) strategies operate as mediatized sociotechnical artefacts by tracing the evolution of Egypt’s National AI Strategy between its first phase (2017–2021) and its updated version (2025–2030). While mediatization research has shown how media logics reshape politics, governance and everyday life, their role in structuring national AI policy remains underexplored, particularly in the Global South. Drawing on mediatization theory, the article asks how shifting media and public discourses around AI ethics, risk and opportunity are reflected in, and co-produced by, Egypt’s AI strategies. Empirically, the study uses qualitative document and thematic analysis of the two strategy versions, related policy reports and official communications. The analysis focuses on how the strategies frame AI’s purposes, position citizens, articulate ethics and governance, and reference broader imaginaries of national progress and competitiveness. The findings show a marked shift from a technology-centric to a societal-centric policy paradigm. The 2017–2021 strategy frames AI primarily as a lever for economic growth, regional competitiveness and infrastructure, with ethics and inclusion invoked largely at a rhetorical level and citizens positioned as passive beneficiaries. By contrast, the 2025–2030 strategy embeds concerns about accountability, digital power asymmetries, public engagement, urban development, heritage conservation and Arabic-language foundational models, repositioning citizens as stakeholders and moving from imitative adoption toward aspirations of technological sovereignty. Across both phases, the strategies function as communicative instruments that respond to and amplify evolving global and national media narratives on AI. Conceptually, the article advances an understanding of “mediatized AI governance” and demonstrates how national AI strategies in Egypt mediate the relationship between technological development, state authority and societal expectations, with implications for AI policy-making in the wider Arab region.