The AI & Geopolitics Project (AIxGEO) is a new initiative dedicated to a rights-based approach to AI and geopolitics.
In recent years there has been a growing focus on a so-called “AI arms race” between rival nations that risks limiting innovation, heightening geopolitical tension and encouraging a race to the bottom on AI standards. Yet, from the early Internet to international space law and the Montreal Protocol, global responses to new technologies and technological challenges have been most successful when addressed through multi-stakeholder engagement and human rights.
The rapid adoption of new and powerful large language models, and the incredible resources poured into their development, has represented a watershed moment for AI. Previous work by certain government officials, corporations, civil society groups and more towards greater global cooperation in addressing the effects of AI technologies have been overlooked as a new narrative has taken hold. AI has become a race to win, a resource to hoard, instead of an opportunity for increasing collaboration and progress towards humanity’s greatest challenges.
AIxGEO aims – through research, publications and convenings – to provide an alternative to the AI arms-race narrative. Our initiative will seek to encourage global cooperation in addressing the effects of new AI technologies and advance a rights-based approach to technology and geopolitics. At its core, the project seeks to answer the question: “Which system can lead humanity toward sustainable prosperity and peace?”
What we will be doing:
- Advancing frameworks: AIxGEO will work to create new frameworks and innovative thinking that place human rights and democracy at the heart of geopolitics and technology policy.
- Developing a new narrative of cooperation: The project seeks to counter the growing inclination toward a technologically driven cold war by offering an alternative narrative that promotes collaboration instead of hostility.
- Promoting awareness: AIxGEO intends to educate a broad audience about the driving forces behind the AI cold war narrative and encourage critical questioning.
This project is directed by Verity Harding.
