Perry World House Hosts Conference on the Future of AI Governance and International Politics

On October 6-7, Perry World House hosted its annual security conference. This year’s topic, The Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance and International Politics, brought together world-leading experts and thinkers to discuss the impact of AI on US-China competition, the use of AI in the military domain, how advances in frontier AI towards artificial general intelligence (AGI) could shape the international security environment, and avenues for international cooperation. Over the course of the two days, participants also brought up key areas for the future of ethical, social scientific,  policy, and technical  research in the field. Key points addressed throughout the conference included how countries and militaries are grappling with adopting a technology being driven by private sector breakthroughs, the opportunities and risks of existing AI systems for militaries, and whether AGI will yield transformational change in international politics. Participants also addressed the deep obstacles for countries to cooperate on AI development given a changing and challenging geopolitical landscape, and if shared interests between countries in preventing accidents and miscalculation could be a building block for cooperation.