Artificial Intelligence and Punctuated Equilibrium: Shaping Government Attention in the Digital Age

How do government attention and policy agendas shift when information constraints are relaxed through technological advancement? Punctuated equilibrium theory links agenda‐setting dynamics to governments' limited information‐processing capabilities, yet we know little about whether and how technology improvement such as artificial intelligence (AI) influences policy agendas. This article proposes a conditional digital punctuation framework to specify the conditions under which technological advancements drive agenda shifts. Using China's implementation of AI initiatives as a quasi‐natural experiment, we find that government attention exhibits a punctuated pattern. AI increases technology‐focused attention, signaling incremental changes, while having minimal impact on general government attention. This selective impact stems from AI's asymmetric effects on information processing. Specifically, AI significantly increases the procurement‐based indicator of information quantity, which is associated with greater attention to technology sectors; however, no significant change is observed in the corresponding indicator of information quality, consistent with its limited impact on general government attention.