The AI Governance programme addresses the critical challenges posed by emerging technologies and their impact on global governance. We provide valuable foresight, training, expert workshops and actionable policy recommendations to navigate the complex landscape of AI in the context of global governance and corporate strategy.
Our priorities:
Governance, Regulation, and Innovation, where we explore evolving AI regulatory frameworks and international legal regimes to examine their impact on AI innovation, deployment, and cross-border cooperation.
Global Security and Geopolitics, where we investigate the implications of AI on international and economic security, including cyber threats, military applications, export controls and international cooperation in critical technology.
Human Rights and Sustainable Development, where we address the balance between AI-driven surveillance and privacy, the safeguarding of individual rights in digital environments, growing global inequalities, and the need for sustainable growth models.
Foresight Analysis, where we anticipate future trends, risks, and opportunities related to the medium and long-term impact of emerging technologies, enabling informed decision-making and strategic planning across the private and public sector.
Our services:
Across the four key research priorities, we are committed to delivering high-quality research through analyses, commentaries, policy briefs, and annual reports, as well as to fostering meaningful dialogue through conferences, trainings, and workshops.
Age of AI Podcast
The AI Governance Programme’s flagship "Age of AI" podcast, an established platform for discussions with leading practitioners, scholars, and thinkers working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and politics, law, and society, provides listeners with insight into the latest research and developments.
AI Trainings
Our suite of training programs on AI Global Governance, Global Sustainable Development, and Global Security, offers solutions for practitioners and researchers confronting a rapidly changing technological landscape.
We can also offer tailor-made programming that can be delivered onsite. Please reach out to [email protected] to find out more.
For more information, please contact:
Medlir Mema Ph.D
Head of Programme
Email: [email protected]
Team
Publications
Commentary
AI and Global Governance
AI's Fast-Forward Button: Can We Harness Innovation Without Sacrificing Safety?
In 2025, global AI innovation is like a button pressed and stuck on fast forward. As much as those within academia, R&D, PhD labs, and think tanks desire to hit pause, stopping is no longer an option.
Report
AI and Global Governance
Towards a Global Agency for Governing Artificial General Intelligence: Challenges and Perspectives
This report examines the potential benefits and challenges of an Open Agency Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) governed by a Global AGI Agency. It reviews AGI governance models, proposes a Global AGI Agency with structured transparency and democratic accountability, and identifies ten key challenges, including international collaboration, power centralization, and governance complexity. It concludes by emphasizing the critical need for effective AGI governance.
Briefing
AI and Global Governance
UN Summit of the Future and Development: The Way Forward
The UN Summit of the Future calls for bold cooperation on climate, digital equity, and responsible AI, urging unified action to harness technology for good and revive the Sustainable Development Goals. Now, governments, businesses, and civil society must turn these ambitions into results.
Commentary
AI and Global Governance
UN Summit of the Future: A Critical Moment for Global AI Governance
The UN Summit of the Future in September 2024 aims to adopt the Pact for the Future, addressing global governance challenges. Priorities include creating international AI governance frameworks emphasizing ethics, transparency, and equity while fostering collaboration to mitigate risks, reduce inequalities, and leverage AI for sustainable development and the SDGs.
Commentary
AI and Global Governance
Deepening EU-Japan-US Cooperation on Critical and Emerging Technologies
The EU, US, and Japan are enhancing cooperation to boost competitiveness in critical technologies and secure resilient supply chains, focusing on reducing reliance on China, diversifying resources, and fostering innovation amid global economic security challenges.
Briefing
AI and Global Governance
The EU AI Act: two steps forward, one step back
The EU AI Act, approved in March 2024, introduces a risk-based regulatory framework to balance AI innovation and fundamental rights protection. While it promotes transparency and accountability, concerns persist about national security exceptions and potential surveillance risks, shaping the future of AI governance.
Commentary
AI and Global Governance
The Council of Europe’s draft AI Treaty: balancing national security, innovation and human rights?
The Council of Europe’s draft Framework Convention on AI aims to set global standards for AI that align with human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. However, compromises over private companies' regulation and national security exemptions may weaken its effectiveness in protecting individuals from AI's risks.
Commentary
AI and Global Governance
What developments in AI tell us about the future of governance models
Misinformation and disinformation, amplified by AI, pose major challenges for democracy. As AI increases information production, it can enhance collective intelligence but also contribute to polarization. To combat this, institutions must regain trust through transparency and openness, adapting to new models of governance.
Commentary
AI and Global Governance
How Ukraine uses AI to fight Russian information operations
Ukraine has leveraged AI in its information war against Russia, using tools like Osavul and Mantis Analytics to detect and counter disinformation quickly. AI-supported open-source intelligence (OSINT) helps debunk Russian claims and document war crimes. However, controversial uses, like facial recognition software and AI-generated images, raise ethical concerns.
Commentary
AI and Global Governance
Got trust? Global governance of emerging technologies
Emerging technologies, particularly AI and quantum tech, present both opportunities and risks. The U.S. and NATO have emphasized balancing innovation with regulation to maintain competitiveness and address societal challenges. However, these technologies also create vulnerabilities, such as AI-driven disinformation, requiring new frameworks for global cooperation and governance.
Commentary
AI and Global Governance
Last minute national objections to the EU’s AI Act are a mistake. Here’s why
The EU's AI Act faced delays after France and Germany opposed regulating general-purpose AI models like GPT-4, fearing overregulation could harm Europe's AI competitiveness. Despite challenges, the EU must prioritize digital rights and proactive regulation to address AI risks, aiming for a balance between innovation and accountability.
S8E1: Cool New Things You Can Do with AI or: How YD Learned to Start Worrying and Love Long Context Windows
For our season opener, Young Diogenes has a chat with Chris and Medlir about some cool new things large language models can now do for us. Specifically, why some companies, like Google with Gemini, are choosing to concentrate on increasingly larger context windows (i.e., the size of the text, music, video prompt, etc., that the AI can parse). And why being able to load an entire book, a movie, or your entire life into the prompt and then have a conversation about these things, might be useful.
S7E8: Misinformation and Disinformation in the age of AI with Lukas Andriukaitis
Medlir asks Lukas Andriukaitis, Board member of Lithuania-based Civic Resilience Initiative (CRI), what it means to work and live at the frontier of the new misinformation / disinformation space. They discuss the current atmosphere in the region and beyond, in terms of threat of misinformation/disinformation. They consider both the benefits and the drawbacks of AI-enabled technologies as billions across the world prepare to cast their votes in 2024.
S7E7: The EU AI Act with Luca Bertuzzi
Luca Bertuzzi joins Medlir for a discussion on the EU AI Act passed by the European Parliament on March 13th. Among other things, they discuss the likely impact of the law on innovation and governance within the EU and abroad, as well as criticisms that the act fails to address concerns regarding human rights and civil liberties.
S7E6: The Politics and Governance of Big Data and AI with Andrej Zwitter and Oskar Gstrein
Andrej Zwitter and Oskar Gstrein share with Chris what they will be keeping an eye out for in the AI regulatory space in 2024. They also discuss their latest work on the politics and governance of big data and artificial intelligence and their newly published Handbook on the Governance Politics and Governance of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. In this discussion Andrej and Oskar explore the EU AI Act and challenges that datafication and algorithmic logics pose for governance, privacy, and human agency, and ponder the question: what does it mean to stay human in the age of AI?
S7E5: AI and Military Technologies with Raluca Csernatoni and Marijn Hoijtink
Medlir sits down with Dr. Raluca Csernatoni and Dr. Marijn Hoijtink to discuss the escalating ‘innovation race’ among corporate giants. They discuss AI’s contribution to the rise in power of the private tech sector vs. the state, as well as the ‘existential threat’ and ‘superintelligence’ narratives around foundational AI models and how these shape specific socio-technical imaginaries of the future. They also dive into AI’s impact on geopolitical and military power, including Sino-American competition, and the rise of AI ‘nationalism’ or ‘sovereignty’.
S7E3: The Birth of Digital Human Rights with Rebekah Dowd
This week Medlir and our guest Rebekah Dowd, an academic, scholar, and author of The Birth of Digital Human Rights: Digitized Data Governance as a Human Rights Issue in the EU, explore how and why the EU became a leader in the realm of digital human rights.
S7E2: AI, Digital Humanities and Virtual Memory Spaces with Arnaud Kurze
In this episode Chris talks to Arnaud Kurze of Montclair State University, currently a Digital Studies Fellow at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. Arnaud has carried out groundbreaking research in digital humanities, memory studies, and transitional justice and offers his insights into AI and virtual memory spaces, accountability.
S7E1: Introducing AI Global Governance with Joachim Koops
Medlir and Chris speak with Dr. Joachim Koops of the Global Governance Institute and Leiden University to discuss the launch of the AI Global Governance program. They further discuss the challenges associated with the question of governance more broadly.
