National AI governance ecosystems
Today, I spoke at Aaron Maniam’s class at Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford about national AI governance ecosystems.
Institutional approaches
I outlined three focus areas of institutional approaches I’ve noticed countries using:
Research-focused: first-wave AI Safety Institutes (UK, US, Japan, Singapore) who have focused on evaluations, testing, and “advancing the science of AI safety”
Regulators: EU AI Office, China’s ecosystem (led by the Cyberspace Administration of China), and 🇰🇷South Korea’s AISI given its newly-established responsibilities under the Korean AI law. 🇧🇷Brazil is likely to join this club once it passes its AI bill.
Industry-focused: light-touch government involvement focusing on boost national AI business. 🇫🇷France is the primary example. Another one might be 🇮🇳 India, depending on which approach it chooses.
Key institutional elements
Stepping back, I described some of the key institutional elements that underpin these approaches:
Inputs available for governments (at varying degrees):
• Public sector investment
• Economic stimulus
• Legitimacy and power
• Expertise
• Pressure
Outputs to aim for given these tools:
• Research
• Innovation
• Best practices/standards
• Enforcement
Institutional trade-offs
Inevitably, governments can't cover everything. They need to choose which inputs to prioritize, and which outputs to aim for. I described some of these institutional trade-offs that governments have been facing:
Regulatory powers: regulate vs let industry self-govern
Scope: frontier AI (natsec, critical infrastructure) vs broad coverage of applications across sectors
Statutory footing: legislate or not
Interoperability: prioritize domestic needs vs international harmonization
Originality: create a new agency vs adapt a new one
I simplified many aspects in the slides for educational purposes (the curse of breadth over depth), but hopefully they are helpful as a primer. I wished I had covered more approaches, such as the UNESCO-inspired national strategies of countries like Saudi Arabia – but luckily I was followed by a great presentation by Abdulrahman Habib that provided much more depth into a particular ecosystem.
I felt really energized by the students’ interest in thinking about the government’s role in ensuring AI is developed safely. Very grateful to Aaron Maniam for the invite!