ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIGITALISATION
Intelligent governance The G7 Apulia Summit marks an opportunity to drive further progress on regulating the development and use of artificial intelligence – a fast-evolving landscape that is teetering between national sovereignty and international cooperation T he 50th annual G7 summit in Italy represents a crucial juncture in the global dialogue on artificial intelligence and By Kenddrick Chan, LSE IDEAS, and Chris Alden,
professor of international relations, LSE
global governance. Between the summit in Apulia in June 2024 and its predecessor in Hiroshima in June 2023, many initiatives have aimed at shaping the trajectory of AI development. These include the Summit on Responsible AI in the Military Domain, convened by the Netherlands, and the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, hosted by the United Kingdom. There is also the G7’s very own Hiroshima AI Process, with a policy framework that comprises guiding principles and an international code of conduct, among other things. THE SHIFTING AI GOVERNANCE LANDSCAPE Such recent endeavours to regulate the development and use of AI have made good progress in putting into place the foundational building blocks, such as
guiding principles and joint declarations of intent. The UK’s AI Safety Summit in late 2023 was relatively remarkable given that it was attended by states that are leading the AI field. The summit culminated in the Bletchley Declaration, which acknowledged AI’s inherent risks, called for international cooperation to address them, and reiterated the need for safe, human-centric and responsible development and use of AI. Similar sentiments are echoed elsewhere, as demonstrated by the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of Resolution 78/241 in December 2023, which revolved around the states’ concerns regarding the application of AI in the military domain. At the regional level, the landscape of AI regulation is also evolving. AI regulation policy is being worked on at the African Union, and the EU Parliament has adopted the AI Act. However, various challenges lie ahead. Competing national interests mean that states will likely prioritise national security and tech leadership over collaborative safety standards, especially in AI technologies that have dual-use capabilities. This preference may lead to a ‘wall of national sovereignty’ and, if states retreat behind this wall, the resulting regulatory divergence – characterised by conflicting regulations and standards – poses a major barrier to international AI cooperation. The lack of legally binding enforcement mechanisms also limits the impact of international initiatives as their practical effectiveness often hinges on enforcement measures to ensure compliance. THE G7 AS A FORCE OF POSITIVE PROGRESS The progress made over the past year is a cause for optimism. At Apulia, G7 leaders should continue building upon the progress made, with two focus areas. The first is for G7 leaders to collectively commit to operationalising the Hiroshima AI Principles. This could
ECOSYSTEM, NOT EXPLOSIVES Perhaps the best way to think about AI in relation with the nuclear weapons challenge is that AI is more akin to an ecosystem consisting of different species (that is, applications) that interact in complex ways to shape the environment (in other words, society), rather than an explosive weapon that needs to be governed by principles of containment and non-proliferation.
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G7 ITALY: THE APULIA SUMMIT — 2024
globalgovernanceproject.org
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