We are pleased to announce the launch of the Summer Lecture Series as part of the SCRIPTS Forum 2026 – “Emergent Digital (Dis-)Orders: AI Governance between Liberal and Authoritarian Scripts”. In four lectures, the series explores the relationship between AI and political order. As AI is not merely a technical innovation but also a political instrument, it can foster transparency and democratic inclusion, while also enabling manipulation and authoritarian control.

In the first lecture, Akin Ünver (Özyeğin University) examines how AI-assisted “fact-checking” functions as a performative practice in polarised online debates, serving as a tool for epistemic signalling and rhetorical contestation. The second lecture, by Rebecca Adler-Nissen (University of Copenhagen), explores how competing geopolitical tech imaginaries among states and companies shape the emerging global tech order and the development of regulations. In the third lecture, Andreas Jungherr (University of Bamberg) investigates public attitudes towards military uses of AI, highlighting the role of moral beliefs, technology perceptions, and threat contexts. The series concludes with a lecture by Margaret E. Roberts (University of California, San Diego), analysing how partisanship shapes preferences for and perceptions of bias in large language model outputs.