Global AI governance: barriers and pathways forward 


Paper by Huw Roberts, Emmie Hine, Mariarosaria Taddeo, Luciano Floridi: “This policy paper is a response to the growing calls for ambitious new international institutions for AI. It maps the geopolitical and institutional barriers to stronger global AI governance and considers potential pathways forward in light of these constraints. We argue that a promising foundation of international regimes focused on AI governance is emerging, but the centrality of AI to interstate competition, dysfunctional international institutions and disagreement over policy priorities problematizes substantive cooperation. We propose strengthening the existing weak ‘regime complex’ of international institutions as the most desirable and realistic path forward for global AI governance. Strengthening coordination between, and the capacities of, existing institutions supports mutually reinforcing policy change, which, if enacted properly, can lead to catalytic change across the various policy areas where AI has an impact. It also facilitates the flexible governance needed for rapidly evolving technologies.

To make this argument, we outline key global AI governance processes in the next section. In the third section, we analyse how first- and second-order cooperation problems in international relations apply to AI. In the fourth section we assess potential routes for advancing global AI governance, and we conclude by providing recommendations on how to strengthen the weak AI regime complex…(More)”.