Studying the discursive order of artificial intelligence: Cross-national media coverage in China, Germany, and the US (2012–2024)

As a transformative force, artificial intelligence (AI) has become central to national interests, international prestige, and geopolitical strategy, sparking a global competition for leadership as countries vie for economic and political influence. This competition also unfolds discursively, as nations and sectors seek to shape the public debate about the economic, political, and societal implications of AI. Despite this, scholarship remains largely limited to single-case studies of “Western” countries, primarily the United States and United Kingdom, leaving gaps in understanding how national interests intersect with the global AI landscape. To address this, the current study makes two primary contributions: Theoretically, it introduces the concept of the global discursive order (GDO) as a framework for analyzing how AI discourses are constructed and contested across countries. Empirically, the study operationalizes this framework through a computational approach, offering a longitudinal , multilingual , and cross-national analysis of 18,746 news articles on AI from China, Germany, and the United States—three central players in global AI development—from 2012 to 2024. Findings along the analytical dimensions of uniformity—diversity, stability—volatility, and insularity—interrelationality reveal distinct national profiles, overlapping discursive trends, and cross-national reflexivity within the GDO of AI.