The Artificial Intelligence (AI) has often been termed as a disruptive technology as it has potential to fundamentally transform all aspects of human activities. The AI has ability to transform the industrial production processes by automating complex tasks, produce new business models, disrupting labour markets, cognitive domains like teaching-learning, analysis and reasoning and research, and medicines and healthcare services as well as many other domains of human activities. This transformation may occur with unprecedented speed and reach. AI covers abroad spectrum of technologies and their future potentials. UNESCO’s Paper ‘Ethics of AI Governance’ defines AI broadly ‘as systems with the ability to process data in a way which resembles intelligent behavior (UNESCO: 2021). Noted Scholar Girasa (2020) identifies three types of AI: artificial narrow intelligence whereby robots or comparable substitutes are able to perform singular tasks well; artificial general intelligence whereby AI seeks to emulate human intelligence and capabilities; and artificial superintelligence which is futuristic whereby AI mechanisms are superior to human intelligence. The increasing use of this comprehensive set of available and emerging AI technologies is not just a smooth process as it raises many social, ethical economic and security issues.
The AI, being a dual use technology, has raised both hopes and worries at the same time. Hopes rest on its huge potential to increase productivity, speed up work, analysis, information and language processing, and research in all fields of life. In a way it has potential to ease human life in all possible manner. But at the same time, there are worries of losing work due to automation, threat to privacy, misuse of technology for manipulation like deep fake or ethical issues involved in the use of AI. Due to increasing automation under AI led production process, the fear of worker displacement has been raised as it will require workforce with new types of skills. Its unprecedented potential for information procession, memory and pattern recognition has raised the question of AI dominating human mind. These concerns have been raised by none other than Geoffrey Hinton, who is known as Godfather of AI. Hinton (TOI:2025) warns that as the updated version of AI comes in when machine surpass human intelligence, the AI would be beyond the control of human beings. He argues that the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a system that can perform any intellectual task a human being can do, will arrive in next five to 20 year. Toward off such possibility of AI dominating human beings, Hinton suggests the framework of ‘Maternal AI’, in which AI technological structures would be designed in a manner to serve human beings in way Mother takes care of child. Thus, on the one hand the AI is a boon for socio-economic development, but it is also a cause for concern on the other. This creates a unique dilemma among policymakers between its promotion and use and its regulation.
AI can also be a potential threat to human privacy as well as security threat to nations. Thus, no country can leave it totally unregulated. It also involves ethical issue as it claims to replace the human mind in many aspects like fast calculation, memory and search. Thus, the question of governance of AI essentially involves the issue reconciliation between the needs of promotion of AI and the one hand and regulation on the other. Also, the reach of AI is not confined to national boundaries. It has global reach. Hence, we must make efforts for global governance of AI.
Why we need Global Governance of AI?
We need a global governance Model for the AI because of the following reasons:
1. The AI is a ‘disruptive technology’ affecting all aspects of human lives from economy to medicine and education. No society can remain unaffected by AI. Thus, societies need a robust mechanism of governance to ensure its smooth transition and utilization.
2. The AI has potential for misuse also as it may threaten human privacy and national security. In addition, it has potential for replacement of human labour from many activities and huge need of skilling and re-skilling. This may cause disruption in economy and employment market in coming days. Thus, we need a gradual transition to AI through proper governance model. AI can also be a potential threat to human privacy as well as security threat to nations. Thus, no country can leave it totally unregulated. It also involves ethical issue as it claims to replace the human mind in many aspects like fast calculation, memory and search. Thus, the question of governance of AI essentially involves the issue reconciliation between the needs of promotion of AI and the one hand and regulation on the other.
3. The reach of AI is global and we need not just governance but a global model of governance. The AI application has no national borders. It is global in nature. The High-Level Advisory Body on AI constituted by the UN in 2023 has remarked that globally coordinated AI governance is the only way to harness AI for humanity while addressing its risks and uncertainties as AI-related services, algorithms, computing capacity and expertise become more widespread internationally.
4. At present, the AI technology is monopolized by few American and Chinese companies. The moot question is how to ensure equitable sharing of benefits of AI technology. Thus, issue of equity with respect access to AI between the nations as well as within a community needs to be addressed effectively. This can be done only by effective governance and regulation. India has raised the slogan of AI for All, not monopolized by the few. The digital divide among nations may subject many countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America to a new for form of digital colonialism.
5. The AI operations involve not only huge investments in new infrastructure, but it also is prone to huge energy consumption. Thus, the high energy needs involved in AI operation has caused concern for climate change and environment pollution. The nations have to ensure that the Ai does not derail the global efforts for clean energy transition.
What is AI Governance?
AI governance, whether at national level or at the global level is aimed ensuring the maximum benefits of AI technology, but at the same time avoiding its negative impacts by greater transparency, safety and accountability. In simple terms, AI governance involves a set of policies, frameworks, and practices that ensure AI is used ethically and responsibly. It helps to minimize risks, promote fairness, and protect human rights.
According to IBM (2025), AI governance refers to the processes, standards and guardrails that help ensure AI systems and tools are safe and ethical. AI governance frameworks direct AI research, development and application to help ensure safety, fairness and respect for human rights.
The Tech Target defines Artificial intelligence governance as the legal framework for ensuring AI and Machine Learning technologies are researched and developed with the goal of helping humanity adopt and use these systems in ethical and responsible ways. AI governance aims to close the gap that exists between accountability and ethics in technological advancement.
Another website Erwin.com defines AI governance as a ‘framework or collection of practices that describe and guide the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) in an enterprise or society’. AI governance aims to guarantee that AI is ethical, responsible, transparent, fair, and in compliance with legal and regulatory norms. AI governance enables stakeholders and organizations to trust and benefit from AI-driven automation and decision-making.
On the basis of above definitions of AI governance, the following elements of AI governance can be identified:
1. AI governance is set of rules, norms and procedure to regulate its use and application.
2. AI governance norms ensure the responsible, safe and ethical development and use of AI technologies.
3. AI governance strikes a balance between its promotion and application on the one hand and its responsible use on the other.
4. AI governance generates trust between the AI and its various stakeholders mainly people.
Principles of AI Governance
There is in unanimously approved list of principles followed in the AI governance, but we can infer certain principles and norms on the basis of practice of AI and regulations by various countries. The online media platform, Duality Technologies (Wachstock :2024) has identified the nine principles of AI Governance: Transparency, Accountability, Fairness, Safety, Security, Explain ability, and Protection of privacy of individuals, Human-Centric design, and respect for human rights.
The Organization for economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a pioneer in the global AI governance, has identified five vale-based principles of AI governance in 2019 and updated in 2024; which aim to promote the use of AI in a manner which is innovative and trustworthy and respects human rights and democratic values. According to OECD, more than 70 countries are following these principles till May 2023. The five AI governance principles given by the OECD (Russo, L: 2023) are discussed below:
1. Inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being:
AI should be used for augmenting human capabilities, advancing inclusion of underrepresented populations, reducing economic, social, gender and other inequalities, sustainable development.
2. Human rights and democratic values, including fairness and privacy
AI actors should respect the rule of law, human rights, democratic and human-centered values throughout the AI system lifecycle. These include non-discrimination and equality, freedom, dignity, autonomy of individuals, privacy and data protection.
3. Transparency and Explainability
AI Actors should commit to transparency and responsible disclosure regarding AI systems. To this end, they should provide meaningful information, appropriate to the context, and consistent with the state of art:
4. Robustness, security and safety
AI systems should be robust, secure and safe throughout their entire lifecycle so that, in conditions of normal use, foreseeable use or misuse, or other adverse conditions, they function appropriately and do not pose unreasonable safety and/or security risks.
5. Accountability
AI actors should be accountable for the proper functioning of AI systems and for the respect of the above principles, based on their roles, the context, and consistent with the state of the art.
In addition, the OECD has also issued the following five guidelines for the development and use of AI by its member countries:
1. Investing in AI Research and Development
2. Fostering an Inclusive Ai-enabling ecosystem
3. Shaping an enabling interoperable governance and policy environment for AI
4. Building human capacity and preparing for labour market transformation
5. International cooperation for trustworthy AI.
Global Efforts towards AI Governance
Besides national efforts to develop AI governance framework, International efforts have also been made in this direction. The members of international community including the global organizations like UN, UNESCO, and other organizations World Economic Forum and others have initiated various measures to articulate some common elements for the global governance of the AI. Some of these efforts are listed below:
A. Efforts by the UN: The United Nations formed the High-Level Advisory Body on the A I in 2023. It has already established a dedicated UN office for Digital and Emerging technologies. UN has also published a White paper on AI which calls for the promotion as well as safe use of AI (UN:2023). The UNESCO (2021) has also published document ‘Ethics of AI’ for responsible AI.
B. OECD: The OECD is pioneer in AI governance. It has launched Global Partnership on AI (GAPI) in 2020. The GPAI seeks to bridge the gap between theory and practice by supporting research and applied activities in areas that are directly relevant to policymakers in the realm of AI (OECD:2025). At present, it has 44 partner countries including India. India in 2023 under the GPAI initiative has organized the “GPAI Summit 2023” on 12-14 December, 2023 in New Delhi, India as Lead Chair of AI in 2024 has also organized Global Conference on AI in New Delhi on 3-4 July, 2024.
C. World Economic Forum (WEF): The WEF has launched the AI Governance Alliance in June 2023; which brings together top leaders from industry, government, academia, and civil society. The Alliance aims to drive innovation and growth by the development and deployment of AI systems that are transparent, inclusive, and ethically sound. The Alliance is committed to establishing global standards for AI governance. Now the Alliance has over 603 members from more than 500 organizations globally (World Economic Forum:2023).
D. Global Summits
A series of global summit are in progress to arrive at consensus among countries some common principle to be incorporated in the global governance of AI.
1. Bletchley Declaration: This declaration was signed in November, 2023 during the first ever AI Safety Summit organized by the UK at Bletchley Park, London. The declaration pleads that the AI should be designed, developed, deployed, and used safely. This Declaration is signed by 28 countries including India (Bletchley Declaration:2025).
2. AI Seoul Summit: This Summit was organized in May 2024 in South Korea. It was built upon the Bletchley Declaration. It resolved to move towards implementation of a network of AI Safety Institutes and voluntary commitments from major tech companies on risk management in the use of AI.
3. AI Action Summit: India Prime Minister has Co-Chaired with French President, the AI Action summit organized by France on 10-11 February, 2025 in Paris. The primary aim of this summit was to collectively establish scientific foundations, solutions, and standards for a more sustainable and ethical development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and working towards collective progress and the public interest. Due to its slack regulations of AI, the US has not signed the final declaration of AI Action Summit.
4. India-AI Impact Summit: This summit is being organized by India on 19-20 February, 2026 with focus on three components People, Planet, and Progress. It aims at three broad goals- People: AI must serve humanity in all its diversity, preserving dignity and ensuring inclusivity; Planet: AI innovation must align with environmental stewardship and sustainability; and Progress: AI’s benefits must be equitably shared, advancing global development and prosperity. Besides these broad goals the summit has identified seven areas for global cooperation known as ‘Seven Chakras’: AI for social and economic development; developing human capital; inclusion for social empowerment; Safe and Trusted AI; development of AI science; Resilience, Innovation and Efficiency; and Democratization of AI Resources (AI Impact Summit:2026).
Challenges to Global Governance of AI: Divergent Approaches
In spite of above sustained global efforts, the global governance of AI faces many challenges. The need for global governance of AI needs no emphasis. However, the leading players in the filed of AI technology have adopted divergent approaches to regulate or manage the artificial intelligence, which makes it difficult to find a common set of principle for global governance of AI (Guest and Wei:2024). Some of these divergent approaches are discussed below:
A. The United States: Market Driven Approach
This Approach is based on assumption that markets provide the best incentives for innovation, technological progress and economic growth, whereas state intervention only impedes such progress. It is followed by the US. The US wants to emerge global leader in AI technologies in comparison to China. China’s Deepseek model has posed a challenge for the US companies. In response, the US AI companies led by the OpenAI and supported by the Trump administration have announced on 21 January, 2025 a $ 500 million AI development project known as ‘the Stargate Project’. Britain’s light-touch approach also falls in this category where in only some aspects of AI are regulated and other are left as market-driven.
B. European Union: Risk-based Approach
The Risk based approach, also known as Right-based approach focuses on the fundamental rights of users and citizens, as well as the potential risks AI technologies pose on those rights. According to this approach, innovation and technological progress should not come at the expense of citizens’ fundamental rights. For this, separate rules are made. The European Commission follows this approach. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and AI Act of 2023 are based on Risk-based approach.
C. China: State Driven Approach
In this approach, the state (government) is the primary actor guiding economic policies, including the planning, development, and regulation of technology and innovation. It prioritizes common prosperity under state guidance to maintain social, economic, and political stability and security of the state. China’s Regulations on Deep fake technologies, 2022 and Regulations of Generative AI, 2023 are the examples of state-driven approach.
D. Indian Approach to AI Governance: AI for All
India’s AI governance is evolving. The National Cyber and AI Centre (NCAIC) , a government agency has brought out A National Policy Report titled ‘AI Governance Framework for India, 2025-26’, which has identified eight foundational principles for AI governance in India (NCAIC:2025): Human-Centric Approach, Risk Proportionality; Privacy and Design, Security and Design; Transparency and Explainability; Inclusiveness and fairness; Accountability and Traceability; and Continuous Assurance. The implementation of India’s governance approach to AI so far highlights the following points:
1. Promotion of AI ecosystem in India-AI for All: India supports the development of AI in India, so that its potential benefits are fully harnessed for socio-economic development of the country. For the promotion of AI, India has launched IndiaAI Mission in 07 May, 2024, with investment of 10000 Rs crores. This mission consists of seven components and covers the entire cycle of development and use of AI. These seven components of AI are: IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre (IAIC), IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe and Trusted AI.
The mission aims to bolster India’s global leadership in AI, foster technological self-reliance, ensure ethical and responsible AI deployment, and democratize the benefits of AI across all strata of society. India has also launched the ‘AI for All’ programme, which is a self-learning online platform designed to raise public awareness about Artificial Intelligence in India.
2. Safe and Trusted AI: India wants to ensure that the development and application of AI in India should be trusted and safe. However, India has not enacted any separate law for the regulation of the AI. The safe and trusted use of Ai would be ensured through the existing legislation like Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. The safe and trusted AI is also one of the seven components of the IndiaAi mission.
3. International Cooperation
India’s AI governance approach involves international cooperation particularly in two aspects:
a. To secure advance AI technologies through partnership with advance countries and platforms. For example, one of the components of India-US iCET initiative launched in 2023 is the cooperation in the field of AI, among other critical technologies. This has been replaced by a new framework called TRUST (Transforming Relationship by Utilizing Strategic Technologies) in February 2025, when Indian PM visited the US during the second Trump regime.
b. Participating in Global AI governance Model- India is actively involved in global conferences and dialogue to develop a global model of AI governance. For example, India is founder member of the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), launched by the OECD in 2020.
In 2020, India has setup NEST (New Emerging and Strategic Technologies) Division in the Ministry of External Affairs to implement and coordinate the global cooperation in this field.
These divergent approaches create more complexity and barrier for cooperation due to underpinning elements like strategic and geopolitical competition for dominance among leading nations, their ideological differences and level of economic and technological development.
Conclusion
The AI has come to our door steps. AI is a dual use and disruptive technology deeply affecting different aspects of human life like economy, research, education medicine, security and others. It has potential for positive use in the above fields. But at the same time, it has potential for misuse threatening privacy, inbuilt bias and breach of human rights. The reach of AIU is global. Hence, we need a global approach to address the new opportunity as well as challenges posed by the AI. There are various efforts to develop norms and guidelines for global AI governance by the UN, OECD, World Economic Forum and countries like UK, France and India. But due to divergent approaches the development of global governance of AI faces many challenges. The divergence of approaches is underpinned by different levels of economic and technological development (China/US/EU vs India and others), ideological differences (US vs China/Russia) and strategic competition among nations as AI dominance is viewed as a new level of power at present like nuclear weapons in the past. There is a need for focused approach to strengthen global governance of AI so that AI has a trustworthy, safe, unbiased and inclusive framework, useful for development and safety of all. The risk of non-cooperation in developing a global framework are mote pronounced than the promised benefits of AI.
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