This is the first time the event is being held in the Global South, which raises even greater expectations for countries such as Brazil. The Brazilian government is expected to send a large delegation, including representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Management, Innovation and Public Services; and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Industry. In addition to President Lula himself, who is expected to combine the Summit with a state visit, a move that could influence South-South positioning on the related-topics.

However, all editions of the AI Summits to date have been marked by low levels of institutionalization and a lack of concrete outcomes, generating significant uncertainty even among participating actors. The Summit’s agenda does not provide clear mechanisms for non-state participation, limiting the effective engagement of civil society and academics in the debates or in the text to be negotiated as the event’s final declaration. The private sector generally enjoys greater space, as it sponsors a large portion of the event, which also raises concerns about transparency and influence.

As a result, a large part of global civil society and academic institutions organize parallel events, where these organizations have more autonomy to shape the agenda. The aim is not only to critically debate issues related to AI governance and how different regions and communities are affected by this technology, but also to collectively consolidate positions and engage government representatives in these discussions so that they can listen, participate, and ideally take these considerations to the negotiation table. Data Privacy Brasil, as part of the Global South Alliance, is expected to participate in some of these events, and all events organized by Alliance members are listed in this blog post.

Among our main expectations for this edition are: a) greater coordination with ongoing initiatives for global AI governance, such as the UN Independent Scientific Panel and the Global Dialogue, whose first edition is expected to take place in July; b) a revision of the understanding of “AI Safety,” so that it addresses the impacts of AI already unfolding, and not only potential risks, also including a broader discussion around “AI Red Lines”; and c) a debate on data governance that considers data’s public value and how the benefits of its processing are returned to the population itself. 

Civil society discussions ahead of the Summit have also stressed the need to interpret “safety” as a sociotechnical concept, one that includes structural and already observable harms, and to create more meaningful avenues for dialogue with governmental delegations, particularly from the Global South/developing countries, given the limited opportunities to participate in or influence the outcome document.

Overall, we hope the Summit can address these and other issues from a Global South perspective. To quote last year’s BRICS Declaration on the Global Governance of AI, “the proliferation of governance initiatives and the diverging views in multilateral coordination at the international level may aggravate existing asymmetries and the legitimacy gap of global governance on digital matters.” Since India is hosting and Brazil is actively engaged, we can expect some convergence with the goal of reducing asymmetries.

Veja também

Veja Também