Theme:- UN Democracy Day National Session, Jaipur-2025

Importance of Artificial Intelligence as a tool for Good Governance.

 

Ensuring effective governance of AI at all levels

This year’s theme for the International Day of Democracy is focused on the importance of Artificial Intelligence as a tool for good governance.

AI has the potential to enhance public participation, equality, security, and human development but warns that if “left unchecked” its dangers “could have serious implications for democracy, peace, and stability”.

Effective governance of AI at all levels, including internationally, is crucial, recalling that the High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence recently released a report “with recommendations on harnessing AI benefits while mitigating risks”.

 

Recommendations: AI tools must be available for everyone

The report identifies the following principles that should guide the formation of new global AI governance institutions:

Inclusivity: all citizens, including those in the Global South, should be able to access and meaningfully use AI tools.

Public interest: governance should go beyond the do-no-harm principle and define a broader accountability framework for companies that build, deploy and control AI, as well as downstream users.

Centrality of data governance: AI governance cannot be divorced from the governance of data and the promotion of data commons.

Universal, networked and multistakeholder: AI governance should prioritize universal buy-in by countries and stakeholders. It should leverage existing institutions through a networked approach.

International Law: AI governance needs to be anchored in the UN Charter, International Human Rights Law, and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Analyzing the impact of AI in democracies

Similarly, UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence is the first global policy framework for AI, focusing on its impact on political life and democracy. The report delves into the current and potential impact of AI on democracy and the benefits of digitalization for collective decision-making

 

Organized around four key themes - democratic expectations and disappointments of digitization, the new digital public sphere, the democracy of data, and democracy as a form of political decision-making - it offers recommendations for the democratic governance of artificial intelligence to mitigate negative impacts and promote a more democratic approach to AI governance.