Discussions on AI ethics and policies often focus on metaphysical questions and normalizing insights, such as the difference between humans and machines and the changing meanings of human intelligence. Since AI is always situated in specific cultural and social contexts, however, such approaches fail to capture key dimensions of the relationships and patterns of interactions that people and institutions around the world have with emerging technologies such as generative AI. This Crosscurrents themed section hosts interventions that tackle this problem. Mobilizing the tradition in media and cultural studies that stresses the importance of situating communication in specific context and cultures, contributors envision potential pathways that bring the question of culture and the dimension of everyday experiences to the center stage, thereby contextualizing AI more rigorously within the dialectic of the global and local cultures. Through this lens, we aim to foster critical dialogue and advance understandings of AI within the contemporary geopolitics of global cultures.