Passengers in Flight: AI Governance Capacity in the Global South

The rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) raises profound governance questions for all societies. However, the discourse on AI governance thus far has been led by a small number of countries that are the leaders in AI technology. Little research has been done on how Global South countries can enhance their AI governance capacity. Are the countries of the Global South simply passengers in flight – passive adopters of AI technology, norms, and governance practices developed elsewhere? How much priority should Global South countries give to AI governance in light of the numerous other challenges they face? This article argues that the Global South passengers do have the ability to take meaningful steps to improve their AI governance capacity. The first step is to have a conceptual framework for AI governance. The framework recognizes AI as a general purpose technology whose impact will extend over a multi-decade period, and understands that the distributional outcomes of AI will be determined primarily by the choices societies make, not the technology itself. Hence the pressing challenge of governing AI is not primarily the search for today’s most comprehensive regulation, but rather a long-term process of taking practical, proactive local steps to generate knowledge and gain experience over time. To apply the framework, the article recommends several specific areas of governance for consideration by government, academics, enterprises and civil society in the Global South.