Decision Without Deciders: AI Governance and the Infrastructuralization of Accountability

Hiroki Tamba(丹波大樹)
Independent Scholar
ORCID: 0009-0004-7635-0741
Published: March 20, 2026

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19325145
PDF: Download PDF
Also available on Zenodo


Abstract

This paper examines how AI governance infrastructures transform accountability structures by redistributing decision-making authority across socio-technical systems. Rather than identifying discrete agents responsible for outcomes, contemporary governance architectures produce forms of institutionalized accountability without clear decision-makers.

The analysis demonstrates how predictive classification systems and regulatory infrastructures shape behavioral environments, not merely by evaluating actions, but by structuring the conditions under which actions become possible and legible.

This shift challenges traditional models of responsibility and raises fundamental questions about the institutional production of causation in algorithmically mediated societies.


Keywords

AI governance, classification infrastructures, institutional causation, accountability, semantic governance


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