Towards Global AI Governance: The Urgent Need for a Global AI Forum and Agency

Yesterday's hearing on AI Regulation by the Senate Judiciary Privacy, Technology, and the Law Subcommittee, held on Tuesday, May 15, 2023, was historic for a compelling reason: it sparked discussions about potential regulatory frameworks for AI.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, advocated for establishing a federal oversight agency with the authority to grant and revoke AI development licenses. He proposed that creators be compensated when their work is used to train an AI system, and he agreed that consumers who are harmed by AI products should be able to sue the developer.

"We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening," Altman said in his testimony, sparking a more extensive debate about AI regulations and their limits. This hearing sparked a serious discussion about the need for global coordination of AI regulations and governance. This topic is close to my heart.

International collaboration on AI governance, regulation, and geopolitics is enticing. On a global level, I think we need to establish a Global AI Governance forum and a multilateral AI coordinating agency.

Global AI Governance Forum

Like the United Nations' annual Internet Governance Forum, the Global AI Governance Forum should aim to bring together stakeholders from governments, academia, business, civil society, and the technical community for a transparent, open, and inclusive AI debate.

Through participatory and open dialogues, this forum would enable the creation of regulatory frameworks that reflect public values and requirements, facilitating a bottom-up approach to policymaking. It would also promote AI governance norms, best practices, information exchange, and collaboration.

A Global Multilateral Coordination Organization

The second concept is a global AI governance coordinating agency that seeks to harmonize AI rules across jurisdictions to achieve international collaboration, regulatory convergence, and consistency in AI governance.

Several multilateral international organizations exist today, including UNESCO and the OECD, and have issued AI ethics principles and implementation guidelines; however, due to the broad implications of AI, more than these may be required. The limited scope of current global organizations (e.g. ITU, UNESCO, OECD) and the need for a highly specialized institution necessitates an international agency coordinating AI regulations.

Global AI Governance Feasibility and Effectiveness

It is critical to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed frameworks and start a global multi-stakeholder dialogue about it. Everyone emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and coordination in dealing with AI. Still, we need to work on it and make progress. We need active stakeholder participation, resource allocation, and geopolitical alignment.

Finally, the global AI Governance forum and coordinating agency proposals are pathways toward international AI cooperation and coordination.

The real challenge is aligning key global players (the United States, the European Union, China, Japan, Russia, and India) with their divergent geopolitical agendas and opposing stances on a common global AI governance framework and establishing the necessary institutions.

I am interested to know your thoughts, ideas, and proposals for global AI governance. Please leave them in the comments.