Governance - General

Updated November 11, 2024

 

State Governance and Policy Initiatives

Somewhat in contrast to the lack of detail in regulation, various non-binding AI governance initiatives (mostly with multilateral government participation) have been adopted or proposed, and set out principles for safe and responsible AI:

• Multinational

  • Global Partnership on AI (proposed at G7 summit in 1988 and launched in 2020)

  • Guidelines for secure AI system development (November 2023)

  • AI Safety Summits

    • The Bletchley Declaration (November 2023)

    • AI Seoul Summit (May 2024)

      • Seoul Ministerial Statement for advancing AI safety, innovation and inclusivity

      • Seoul Declaration for safe, innovative and inclusive AI

  • G7

    • Hiroshima Process

      • International Guiding Principles for Advanced AI Systems (October 2023)

      • International Code of Conduct for Advanced AI Systems (October 2023)

    • Ministerial Declaration on AI cooperation (March 2024)

  • United Nations

    • AI Advisory Body - Governing AI for Humanity (interim report December 2023)

    • General Assembly Resolution - Seizing the opportunities of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development (March 2024)

    • UNESCO - Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (November 2021)

    • World Health Organization - Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health: Guidance on large multi-modal models (January 2024)

    • Politico reported in July 2024 that the UN intends to propose creation of a global AI Office.

• Regional

  • African Union

    • Blueprint: Artificial Intelligence for Africa (2021)

    • African Union Development Agency, AI White Paper and Roadmap Review (February 2024)

    • Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy (June 2024)

  • Assocation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Guide on AI Governance and Ethics (February 2024)

• Bilateral

  • United States and United Arab Emirates Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence (September 2024)

• National

  • Australia

    • Voluntary AI Safety Standard (September 2024)

    • AI and ESG: An introductory guide for ESG practitioners (October 2024)

  • France & China - Joint declaration on artifical intelligence and governance of global challenges (May 2024)

  • Hong Kong - Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, Policy Statement on Responsible Application of Artificial Intelligence in the Financial Market (October 2024)

  • Japan - Liberal Democratic Party, AI White Paper 2024: New Strategies in Stage II - Toward the world's most AI-friendly country (May 2024)

  • Singapore

    • Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI (May 2024)

    • AI Playbook for Small States (September 2024)

  • UK

    • Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, AI and Digital Hub

    • Bank of England, Artificial Intelligence Consortium - a platform for public-private engagement to gather input from stakeholders on the capabilities, development and use of AI in UK financial services.

 

Use of AI by Government Bodies

Governments are also beginning to issue guidance on use of AI by government bodies, such as:

• EU

  • Artificial Intelligence in the European Commission (AI@EC) Communication (January 2024)

  • European Data Protection Supervisor, First EDPS Orientations for ensuring data protection compliance when using Generative AI systems (June 2024)

• Netherlands - principles for cooperation between Dutch Data Protection Authority and Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure in regulating AI (June 2024) 

• UK - Generative AI Framework for HMG (January 2024)

• US - see actions summarized on US Executive Order on AI page.

 

The OECD published a policy paper Governing with Artificial Intelligence in June 2024 on use of AI to improve public governance.

 

Private Governance Initiatives

There are also various private governance initiatives including:

• AI-focused risk management initiatives - see Harms page
• At the AI Seoul Summit in May 2024, 16 leading AI companies agreed the Frontier AI Safety Commitments.
• AI Assurance Club of the Global Digital Foundation - Multi Actor Governance Framework for AI information sharing proposed by the
• Center for Information Policy Leadership - Building Accountable AI Programs (February 2024)

• JAMS - Artificial Intelligence Disputes Clause, Rules and Protective Order (April 2024)

• OECD - Recommendation and Principles on Artificial Intelligence (2019, last updated May 2024)

• RAND Corporation - Historical Analogues That Can Inform AI Governance (August 2024).

 

A 2023 article by Mokander et al proposes a three-pronged combined governance / technical approach to auditing large language models, involving (1) governance audits, (2) model audits and (3) application audits.

 

Company Policies

Leading AI companies are also developing and evolving governance approachs for their AI activities and models, e.g.:

• OpenAI has:
  • released a Model Spec (May 2024) that "specifies [OpenAI's] approach to shaping desired model behavior and how we evaluate tradeoffs when conflicts arise"
  • announced in October 2023 that it would release a Risk-Informed Development Policy, and had a safe and responsible AI program involving three teams: Safety Systems,  Preparedness and Superalignment -- however these structures are apparently in flux because of OpenAI disbanding its team addressing long-term AI risks in May 2024 and disbanding its AGI Readiness team in October 2024

• Google has:

  • set out AI Principles

  • released a Frontier Safety Framework (May 2024) - "a set of protocols for proactively identifying future AI capabilities that could cause severe harm and putting in place mechanisms to detect and mitigate them".