Importance of Global Cooperation in AI

Powering AI Innovation Through Collaboration AI is evolving faster than ever, and open source is at the heart of this transformation. What once took months or even years to develop can now be replicated or improved upon in weeks (or even days) thanks to the power of global collaboration. Open innovation isn’t just an alternative to proprietary models, it’s what’s driving the most significant breakthroughs in AI today. Take DeepSeek AI, for example. In just a short time, it has emerged as a top competitor to industry leaders not because of massive budgets, but because it leveraged open collaboration to build on existing AI research and software. DeepSeek AI, along with many other innovators, proved that open source AI lowers barriers, increases competition, and makes cutting-edge AI accessible to a broader range of organizations. Something open source old timers :) have experienced in many industries and technology domains since the late 1990s. LF AI & Data Foundation : A Hub for Open AI Collaboration At the center of this open source AI movement is LF AI & Data (my former organisation), which has been bringing companies, researchers, and developers together since 2018. With over 100,000 active developers across 70+ active technical projects and several technical committees, LF AI & Data provides a neutral, open environment where enterprises, startups, and academics can co-create the future of AI. By removing traditional bottlenecks, LF AI & Data accelerates breakthroughs, and supports faster, more transparent and more impactful innovation cycles. Why Collaboration at Scale Matters Some of AI’s biggest challenges (model transparency, safety, bias mitigation, efficiency, sustainability, etc) are simply too complex for any single company or research lab to solve alone. Hence the criticality of open source foundations as a hub of collaboration where the real progress happens - industries, experts, and community/project members join forces, sharing resources, computing power, and diverse perspectives to tackle these issues together. LF AI & Data makes this possible by providing a governance framework and a vendor-neutral environment for shared development. Instead of working in silos and duplicating efforts, organizations can pool their expertise and drive advancements that benefit the entire AI ecosystem. Companies that embrace open collaboration gain access to a vast global network of knowledge and innovation, making them far better positioned to lead the next wave of AI advancements. The race in AI isn’t about who can raise the most money, hire the most technical talent, drive the most engaging marketing campaigns, or build the biggest model (although all of these help), it’s about who fosters the most collaborative, inclusive, scalable, and impactful innovation. The future of AI is open as in open source 🚀 . We knew this years ago and now we're living its manifestation. Credit: Photo by Skye Studios on Unsplash.

For the past year, I’ve had the privilege of co-chairing together with Carme Artigas the UN’s High-level Advisory Body on AI,which included 38 members from 33 countries. We were tasked with developing a blueprint for sharing AI’s transformative potential globally, while identifying and addressing the risks and filling the gaps that limit participation.  Following our interim report in Dec 2023, today we’re sharing our final report which outlines our key findings and recommendations to enhance global cooperation on AI governance. The report was informed by extensive consultation, including more than 2000 participants from all regions, 18 deep dives with 500 expert participants, 250 written submissions, 100+ virtual discussions, as well as research and surveys. AI has the potential to assist people in everyday tasks to their productive and creative endeavors, enable entrepreneurs and small and large businesses, transformation of sectors from healthcare to agriculture, power economic growth, advance science in ways that benefit society, and contribute to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, as with any powerful technology, it poses risks, challenges and complexities ranging from bias, misapplication and misuse, impact on work, to potentially widening global inequities. Our work highlighted many of these themes as well as key gaps in governance and the capacity for all to fully benefit from AI.  To harness AI’s potential and mitigate its risks, we need a truly inclusive and international effort – and current governance structures are missing too many voices. Our recommendations focus on these and other findings and I encourage you to read the report. Thank you to the UN’s Tech Envoy Amandeep Gill and his team, my co-chair Carme Artigas, and my fellow members of the advisory body -- from whom I learned a lot -- for their expertise and diverse views and vantage points, partnership, persistence and commitment to governing and harnessing AI’s potential benefits for all of humanity. https://lnkd.in/gFhFWWEh Carme Artigas, Anna Christmann, Anna Abramova, Omar Sultan AlOlama, @Latifa Al-Abdulkarim, Estela Aranha, Ran Balicer, Paolo Benanti, Abeba Birhane, Ian Bremmer, Anna Christmann,Natasha Crampton, Nighat Dad, Vilas Dhar, Virginia Dignum, @Arisa Ema, @mohamed farahat, Wendy Hall, Rahaf Harfoush, Hiroaki Kitano, Haksoo Ko, Andreas Krause, Maria Vanina Martinez, Seydina M. Ndiaye, @Moussa Ndiaye, Mira Murati, Petri Myllymäki, Alondra Nelson, Nazneen Rajani, Craig Ramlal, @Ruimin He, Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, Marietje Schaake, @Sharad Sharma, @Jaan Tallinn, Ambassador Philip Thigo, MBS, Jimena Viveros LL.M., Yi Zeng, @Zhang Linghan

This is Chapter 5 of a report that the UN published earlier this year — and it's one of my favorite chapters. Those who have read my latest book, Banking on Artificial Intelligence, might know why ... as it focuses on a topic that is near and dear to me. ➡️ As artificial intelligence reshapes our world, a critical question emerges: whose voices are defining this technological transformation? ⬅️ If our future is digital and AI-enabled, who is deciding AI's future? By 2024, only the G7 countries were active in all seven major governance initiatives. 75 countries were involved in at least one. But 118 nations are not involved in any; most are developing countries. This is alarming. The path forward demands more than tech innovation. It requires a multi-stakeholder global collaboration between governments and international institutions to ensure AI serves the public good, and that innovation is balanced with public safety and trust: 💬 Diverse voices to ensure that vulnerable populations are protected. 💬 A shared digital infrastructure to provide equitable access to AI. 💬 Open data and open-source models to promote innovation. 💬 A global hub to support capacity-building, knowledge transfer, and tech assistance for developing countries. Rather than asking "what can AI do?", we must ask "how can AI complement human potential?" Only then can we begin to re-imagine a different vision for AI. #AI #Inclusion #TechForGood #BankingOnAI #Innovation