The AI & Geopolitics (AIxGEO) Project’s new report Moving Beyond Competition reviews hundreds of international policy frameworks and identifies five areas where emerging consensus makes real progress possible in 2025.
Multinational organisations and governments have struggled to make tangible, immediately actionable progress on AI policy over the past few years – often hampered by the impossibility of reaching broad consensus on such a massive and multifaceted topic. The search for a grand bargain can result in broad, confusing and cumbersome frameworks.
Moving Beyond Competition, the latest report from the AI and Geopolitics Project, reveals that global stakeholders can achieve more by narrowing the surface area of agreement. Analysing hundreds of global policy frameworks and agreements from international organisations, the report reveals that substantial AI policy progress is possible across a whole host of issues. In particular, the report identifies promising early alignment on agriculture, cybersecurity, environment, education and healthcare. With big bets in AI still yet to deliver a return on investment, fleshing out consensus in these key sectors could yield the kind of policy clarity and certainty that businesses and governments need to fully leverage the power of AI today.
The AI and Geopolitics team, including Verity Harding (Time100 AI and author of AI Needs You), Diane Coyle (Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge) and Aleksei Turobov (Bennett Institute for Public Policy), authored the report.
Said Verity: “When AI is discussed in the geopolitical context, it is usually depicted as an ‘arms race’ between the US and China. This obscures the role that other nations have to play and hinders the chance of meaningful international collaboration on AI – something that policymakers and business leaders alike want to see. We know from the space race, the rise of the internet, biotech and other disruptive technologies that even in times of great change, international cooperation is possible and often yields benefits, including greater global security and shared economic growth.
“In the midst of increasing international disorder and uncertainty, effective responses to new technologies can be rooted in multi-stakeholder engagement and international collaborations that uphold democratic values and institutions. Our research aims to move beyond the ‘AI arms-race’ framing, taking a more strategic and practical approach to international discussions, focussed on more narrow, target outcomes.This is not just about restrictions and regulations, but also how we can harness the benefits of AI by working together on some of the most difficult global problems.”
Said Aleksei: “After analysing hundreds of international policy documents, I was struck by the remarkable opportunities for cooperation hidden in plain sight. Our evidence reveals how specific domains – from environmental monitoring to healthcare innovation – create natural bridges for international collaboration, offering practical pathways to transform AI development from competition to cooperation.”
This is the first in a two-part series on the current state of global geopolitics and AI. This report focuses on western-anchored multinational organisations, the next report will broaden this scope to include the work of non-western organisations.
The AI & Geopolitics Project (AIxGEO) is a new initiative dedicated to a rights-based approach to AI and geopolitics; it is housed at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge.
Read the report: Moving beyond competition: domain-specific approach for international AI framework
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.
