CSIS Launches AI Council

October 26, 2022

WASHINGTON, October 26, 2022: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is pleased to announce the formation of the CSIS AI Council. Comprised of 17 distinguished global leaders, the council is an international effort co-chaired by Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO of Accenture, and Brad Smith, President and Vice Chair of Microsoft.

“AI is transforming the global economy and has the potential to contribute enormously to the development of a more innovative, prosperous, and sustainable world. The CSIS AI Council brings together an extraordinary group of leaders to etch out what corporate responsibility, international collaboration, and effective governance on AI looks like not only in principle, but in practice,” Smith said.

Governments around the world are embarking on major AI policy and legislative initiatives that will have significant implications for the future of global growth and innovation. Over the next year, there is a critical window of opportunity for leading democracies to create a collaborative framework for global AI governance, ensure a future of responsible AI consistent with democratic values, and prevent a fractured AI regulatory landscape. Seizing this opportunity will be a major challenge, and the CSIS AI Council aims to provide an actionable way forward for international cooperation. This includes advising and supporting individual governments, as well as multilateral forums such as the Group of Seven (G7), through their work on this critical topic.

“As organizations around the world continue to advance AI at scale, there is an opportunity for leading governments to coordinate their approaches to regulation, so that everyone can realize the promise of AI responsibly,” Sweet said. “Through meaningful dialogue and cooperation, business and governments can foster the development and use of AI that is effective, fair, secure and respects every individual.”

The work of the CSIS AI Council seeks to provide vital insights on translating AI principles into practice, establishing common standards for AI safety and security measures, and accelerating global regulatory interoperability and coherence. This work is underpinned by three guiding principles: commitment to safe and responsible AI, promotion of AI in service of society, and the support of a global AI regulatory environment that fosters international collaboration. In addition to direct government and public engagement, the council will publish three white papers that make detailed, actionable, and prudent recommendations to the global AI policy community.

Gregory C. Allen, Director of the CSIS AI Governance Project, will serve as the Executive Director of the CSIS AI Council.

Members of the CSIS AI Council represent a diverse and distinguished group of senior leaders from across the global AI ecosystem. They include eminent AI researchers and academics, former senior government officials with direct experience developing and implementing AI policy, and chief executives from leading global corporations.

Julie Sweet (Co-Chair), Chair and CEO, Accenture
Brad Smith (Co-Chair), President and Vice Chair, Microsoft
Genevieve Bell, Distinguished Professor and Director, Autonomy, Agency & Assurance Institute, Australia National University (ANU)
Albert Bourla, CEO, Pfizer
France Cordova, President, Science Philanthropy Alliance; Former Director, National Science Foundation
Yuko Harayama, Former Executive Director, RIKEN; Former Executive Member of the Council for Science, Tech, and Innovation, Cabinet Office of Japan
Frank Heemskerk, Secretary General, European Round Table for Industry (ERT); Former Executive Director, World Bank
Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Visa
Antonio Krüger, CEO, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
Fei-Fei Li, Sequoia Professor and Denning Co-Director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University
Cedrik Neike, CEO, Siemens Digital Industries
L. Rafael Reif, President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Jun Sawada, Chairman, NTT Corporation
Roger Taylor, Former Chair, Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (UK)
Emma Walmsley, CEO, GSK
Adrian Weller, Programme Director for Artificial Intelligence, The Alan Turing Institute; Director of Research, Machine Learning, University of Cambridge
Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Group Corporation

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The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s greatest challenges.

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