Capacity to Build Upon the Emerging Global AI Governance Architecture

Determine whether any actor is capable of building upon the fragmented, overlapping, and evolving global AI governance architecture.

Background

The paper characterizes global AI governance as an emerging architecture shaped by technology, law, and institutional choice rather than as a system designed by a single architect. Although states retain sovereignty and public authority, many consequential decisions about frontier artificial intelligence are increasingly made by private firms whose resources, incentives, and time horizons do not align easily with domestic or international law.

The unresolved issue is whether any actor—states, private firms, or other governance participants—can effectively build upon this existing architecture despite fragmented authority, concentrated private power, and divergent incentives. The paper presents this as a concluding question rather than resolving it.