Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in public governance, raising new challenges for anticipating its societal implications while safeguarding democratic accountability within expanding computational infrastructures. This article examines how anticipatory AI governance can be operationalised in the age of supercomputing through a mixed-methods, multistakeholder study conducted in the Basque Country (Spain). The empirical focus is Gipuzkoa, a devolved historical territory with fiscal autonomy and a rapidly developing advanced-computing ecosystem centred in Donostia–San Sebastián, where regional initiatives are positioning the territory within Europe’s emerging high-performance and quantum computing landscape. The study combines participatory action research involving six civil society organisations, seven provincial directorates, and eleven municipalities with an online citizen survey (N = 911). The findings indicate that anticipatory AI governance is supported through four interrelated governance mechanisms: institutional coordination across administrative levels, multistakeholder participation, territorial public capability, and the strategic embedding of advanced computational infrastructures. Rather than evaluating the governance of supercomputing technologies themselves, the analysis examines governance perceptions, institutional practices, and democratic arrangements associated with these infrastructures. The article’s contribution lies in integrating anticipatory AI governance, territorial governance, and advanced computational infrastructures within a devolved city-regional setting, offering evidence-informed insights for regions seeking to strengthen democratic capacity alongside technological innovation.

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