The Algorithmic Divide in China and An Emerging Comparative Research Agenda

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

6-2025

ISBN

9789087284657

Abstract

With the arrival of big data analytics, machine learning, and AI, governments at both the national and subnational levels have been eager to deploy automated decision-making (ADM) systems to detect and recognize patterns, predict and shape preferences, and ultimately streamline and improve governance. One topic that has been underexplored in ADM literature is the gap between those who have access to, or proficiency in, algorithmically enhanced or AI-driven technological products and services and those who do not. This proverbial gap resembles the digital divide, on which scholars in communication studies and other disciplines have conducted extensive research for the past three decades.

Recognizing that past scholarship on the digital divide can provide helpful insights into research on the algorithmic divide, this chapter begins by identifying the similarities and differences between these two inequitable gaps. The chapter then discusses the importance of studying the algorithmic divide in China and how this study can build on, illuminate, and create synergy with China-related academic and policy research in other areas. To highlight the potential comparative insights provided by studying the algorithmic divide, this chapter concludes by examining three sets of policy responses that commentators have proposed in legal and policy literature to bridge this divide. It further contextualizes these responses in relation to local conditions in China.

First Page

211

Last Page

236

Num Pages

26

Publisher

Leiden University Press

Editor

Haiqing Yu & Rogier Creemers

Book Title

Automating Governance in China? Data-Driven Systems in the Scoring Society

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