Governance and Legislation
AI innovation in the UAE: Strategic use of AI-specific regulatory sandboxes
(Siddharth Yadav – Observer Research Foundation) Ever since the breakthrough launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, every major economy globally has incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its national strategy. Apart from the United States and China, the usual suspects in tech development and innovation, emerging players like the United Arab Emirates and India are placing heavy bets on AI. – https://www.orfonline.org/research/ai-innovation-in-the-uae-strategic-use-of-ai-specific-regulatory-sandboxes
India’s AI Imperative: Building National Competencies in a New World Order
(Observer Research Foundation – 20 January 2025) Applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) could add trillions of dollars to economies globally in the coming years. By 2027, AI adoption is expected to help India achieve its ambitions of becoming a US$26-trillion economy—the world’s third largest.[1] Projections also indicate that up to 2027, India’s AI market could grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25-35 percent, with generative AI comprising 33 percent of the market share.[2] Indeed, AI is already propelling transformations across a broad spectrum of domains such as health, education, agriculture, and smart cities. – https://www.orfonline.org/research/india-s-ai-imperative-building-national-competencies-in-a-new-world-order
Social media as it should be
(Robin Berjon – ASPI The Strategist – 20 January 2025) Mathematician Cathy O’Neil once said that an algorithm is nothing more than someone’s opinion embedded in code. When we speak of the algorithms that power Facebook, X, TikTok, YouTube or Google Search, we are really talking about choices made by their owners about what information we, as users, should see. In these cases, algorithm is just a fancy name for an editorial line. Each outlet has a process of sourcing, filtering and ranking information that is structurally identical to the editorial work carried out in media—except that it is largely automated. – https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/social-media-as-it-should-be/
The TikTok boomerang
(Angela Huyue Zhang – ASPI The Strategist – 20 January 2025) Few predicted that TikTok users in the United States would flock to the Chinese app RedNote (Xiaohongshu) in defiance of a US government ban. And yet in the space of just two days this week, RedNote became the most downloaded app in the US, gaining 700,000 users—most of them American TikTok refugees. Since US data security was the rationale for the TikTok ban, American users’ migration to other Chinese apps only amplifies those concerns. Unlike TikTok—a platform that does not operate in China and is not subject to Chinese law—RedNote is a domestic Chinese app bound by strict Chinese regulations. Moreover, while TikTok says that it stores US user data exclusively within the US, with oversight by a US-led security team, RedNote stores its data entirely in China. – https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-tiktok-boomerang/
For AI to make government work better, reduce risk and increase transparency
(Valerie Wirtschafter – Brookings – 16 January 2025) Democracies around the world face a fundamental challenge: their citizens do not believe they can deliver results. Recent surveys of the countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show declining trust in government, driven in part by the perception that public institutions are neither responsive nor transparent. And a series of Pew Research Center polls show a clear decline in satisfaction with democracy across 12 advanced economies, including in the United States. To improve perceptions of the U.S. government among a subset of voters, the incoming Trump administration has promised to rein in waste and promote greater efficiency. What that means in practice is unclear, but the goal of making government better serve the people—while not new—is important across democracies. With a new wave of government advisers, many of whom come from the “techno-optimist” space, it seems inevitable that technological advances, including the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI), will be part of any proposed solution. – https://www.brookings.edu/articles/for-ai-to-make-government-work-better-reduce-risk-and-increase-transparency/
Shifting the UK’s AI Focus: Labour’s Ambitious AI Action Plan
(Natasha Buckley, Pia Hüsch – RUSI – 16 January 2025) Labour’s ambitious AI Opportunities Action Plan sets a strong vision to leverage AI technologies for UK economic growth. How realistic are these plans, and do they come at the cost of AI safety, the previous government’s priority? – https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/shifting-uks-ai-focus-labours-ambitious-ai-action-plan
The case for consent in the AI data gold rush
(Courtney C. Radsch – Brookings – 16 January 2025) The use of publicly available but copyright-protected data to build the new generation of advanced AI models has prompted both governments and standards bodies to consider how to address the tension between AI companies and the publishers, content creators, and website owners whose data they depend on. The demand for text data has ended the symbiotic relationship between text mining bots and publishers, in which most legitimate bots respected publisher-specified access permissions while publishers received referral traffic. Requiring explicit opt-in consent for AI training would reinforce traditional copyright interpretations related to consent, underscore the principle that content creators have ultimate authority over how their work is used, and compel tech companies to develop systems that respect these rights. – https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-case-for-consent-in-the-ai-data-gold-rush/