ABSTRACT
The rapid development of new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has outpaced the ability of regulators in most parts of the world to put rules in place that govern its use. Without regulation of AI, its benefits are likely to flow to the few, while the many risks it poses and the harms it has already wrought will be borne by society and disproportionately so to already vulnerable communities. Many of AI’s problems are inherently global—if certain AI products, services, practices, or tools are outlawed in one part of the world, they may still be made available through companies located in other jurisdictions, thus evading meaningful regulation if regulation takes place in a loose patchwork. The authors argue that philanthropy has an urgent opportunity to quickly leverage its stores of uniquely public interest-bound “risk capital” and create the Interim International AI Institution (IIAII). While numerous efforts are underway to start conversations and study what a possible international or intergovernmental AI governance body might look like, this proposal uniquely suggests simply putting forth the funding and prototyping the organization by starting on the work today. This critically urgent work includes coordinating conversations among governments around the world that are developing potentially incompatible AI governance regulations in parallel, establishing best practices and norms for AI governance, and bringing together a critical mass of technical, legal, policy, and social science expertise and transparently sharing the fruits of its rapid and iterative AI governance prototyping efforts.
