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🎬 Back from the Paris AI Action Summit, Melody Musoni, PhD shares her main takeaways for the future of AI governance. "Although the summit was branded as an action summit, it wasn't clear which actions who should do what or when. Especially when it comes to addressing AI risks. Given the prevailing attitude of break things, innovate and regulate later, I was left wondering if solving AI risk is a top priority for Big Tech." Our interactive tool for digital and AI governance in Africa 👉 https://bit.ly/3C8Si28

📬 The weekly compass is in your inbox! Catch up on the latest international cooperation and development publications here, or subscribe to get full newsletter straight to your inbox 👉 https://bit.ly/3CLjWQU This week: 🇪🇺 Global health is in the EU's interest 🚨 USAID on hold - now what? 📈 One year on from the ECOWAS split 📅 Events and more!

📝 The dismantling of USAID is a game-changer with broad implications not only for vulnerable people and US soft power, but also the EU’s foreign and development policy goals. The question is: what now? Andrew Sherriff argues that the EU should grab this opportunity to distinguish itself if it wants to strengthen its global relevance and prove itself a more useful and reliable partner. Otherwise, the EU may find itself lumped into "the West" and blamed for a US-created crisis. The EU must respond quickly, strategically, and above all, together. Read the commentary 👉 https://bit.ly/4gH5b22

🔔 Following the freeze of USAID and with a lingering uncertainty of who will fill - and pay for - the development gap, European development ministers met in Poland yesterday. What does the future of EU development look like? In a closing press conference, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela summarised the trajectory of EU development cooperation in the near future: ➡️ Disappointed with results for itself and partners as the largest provider of official development assistance (ODA), the old model of EU development is ending ➡️ ODA will better align with EU foreign policy - lots of talk of "impact" ➡️ EU member states are encouraged to incubate their own development offerings with EU assistance ➡️ The European Investment Bank and private development finance will play greater and greater roles, with a nod to the Financing for Development (FfD4) conference later this year While much of this is expected - we've heard similar from him before and the focus on investment return follows predictably from his background in banking - it's interesting to note a more explicit line than usual on ODA as a foreign policy instrument, as well as what was not said: any practical response to the upheaval of USAID and where that leaves mutual partners for e.g. health, civil society etc. So far an explicit response is mainly seen in draft documents, which echo the Commissioner's main points while expressing the need for the EU to avoid becoming "the donor of last resort." The promise of greater private development finance may be a silver bullet or last gasp in addressing escalating development demands as key global deadlines for sustainable development goals approach. The upcoming FfD4 should be an extremely important milestone, which we will follow closely. How the EU can use FfD4 to strengthen international partnerships 👉 https://bit.ly/4hpvD1z

🎬 What is India Stack and how can international partnerships on tech benefit Europe's drive for digital sovereignty and economic competitiveness? Chloe Teevan, Raphael Pouyé and Gautam K. argue the EU should expand discussions on digital infrastructure and engage in "digital diplomacy" with key partners to develop a democratic framework for sovereign digital infrastructure and achieve mutual goals of sovereignty and growth. Read the full paper 👉 https://bit.ly/4aMSUYE

Paris AI Action Summit: My Key Takeaways 1. Geopolitical competition is intensifying Everyone has been talking about the AI race and justifying tech competition and tech sovereignty. Though US and China are neck to neck in the AI race, others don’t want to be left out. The co-hosts both emphasised why they need to develop their own genAI models, President Macron marketing Mistral AI, while PM Modi promised an Indian genAI in the coming few months. 2. Opposing views on the role of regulation in AI development Most actors are pushing for and prioritising innovation first and regulation later. In most of the conversations, they kept citing the good old excuse that ‘regulation stifles innovation’. I was quite happy at the side event organised by OECD - OCDE where DPAs were pushing back and reminding the everyone that carefully crafted regulatory frameworks promote responsible, safe, secure and ethical AI development. 3. There will be more losers in this AI race Due to the current trajectory to develop AI in the absence of regulatory safeguards, you and I will be the ultimate losers. I didn’t really learn what solutions companies have to address AI risks. Given the prevailing attitude of ‘break things, innovate, and regulate later’, I was left wondering if solving AI risks will be a top priority for big tech. 4. The future of AI governance looks bleak The ultimate outcome of the summit was the signing of the Paris AI Declaration. Both the US and UK refused to sign the declaration for completely different reasons. Reports say the UK was concerned about national security interests and global governance, while the US cited regulatory red tape. 5. Serious gatekeeping Without inclusive global AI governance, those leading the AI race may act as gatekeepers making it difficult for others to acquire the same innovation capabilities. VP Vance sent a stern warning to world leaders that may want to restrict US tech companies with global footprint. 6. Investments in AI The European Commission announced plans to mobilise €200 billion in investments to support European AI initiatives. France and the UAE investing up to $50 billion in AI. 7. Global south countries in the periphery Though India was co-host and the summit itself centered around inclusivity, I still didnt get a sense that tech companies are prioritising AI development in the global south. Because AI development is framed as a race, global north countries and their companies are prioritising rapid advancement of their economies first, making collaboration with global south countries a lower priority. 8. Africa's position CEO Lacina Koné of Smart Africa, made a case why Africa should not talk the talk but ‘run the talk’. He announced a new initiative, Africa AI Council to support collaboration on AI development in Africa. African ministers agree that Africa need to take its rightful place in the AI race. #ParisAISummit #AIGovernance Clarisse Girot, Marc Rotenberg, ECDPM 🌍

Interesting knowledge exchange with data protection commissioners from France, Korea, United Kingdom and Ireland.

🎬 How can partnering with countries like India and South Africa accelerate the EU's drive for competitiveness and digital sovereignty? Europe seeks sovereignty over its digital infrastructure, but will need to work with international partners to develop it efficiently. Partnering Europe's regulatory expertise with digital trailblazers like India will be key to the success of the "EuroStack." Chloe Teevan, Raphael Pouyé and Gautam K. argue the EU should expand discussions on digital infrastructure and engage in "digital diplomacy" with key partners to develop a democratic framework for sovereign digital infrastructure and achieve mutual goals of sovereignty and growth. Read the full paper 👉 https://bit.ly/4aMSUYE

🎉 We're excited to welcome Laure Blanchard-Brunac as an associate in the economic recovery and transformation team! Laure is an expert in development finance and blended finance, with over 20 years of experience across leading institutions such as AFD, EBRD and EDFI, and the European Commission (DG CNECT, DG ECFIN). She has a proven expertise in EU and outside EU financial instruments, budgetary guarantees and investment-related policies and regulations, and is currently a member of the #InvestEU Investment Committee. Bio 👉 https://bit.ly/4jSKNhl

📝 The AI Action Summit starts today in Paris (ECDPM's Melody Musoni, PhD and Raphael Pouyé in attendance!) as European leaders attempt to improve the EU's digital competitiveness and lead global discussions on AI governance. From tech sovereignty to election regulation, we've long argued the need for international cooperation to keep up with both emerging applications and opportunities of rapidly developing technology, and are happy to see the international component of the summit pushed to the forefront. Our recent work: - Current blocks to the African AI ecosystem 👉 https://bit.ly/3YbPIA4 - The EU may look to India for the EuroStack 👉 https://bit.ly/4aMSUYE - The state of AI governance in Africa 👉 https://spoti.fi/3CN6MFG This will also be a chance for the EU to distinguish itself from US competition: happy to source data by any means necessary (it's alleged that Meta has illegally ingested over 80 terabytes of literature into its AI - likely all available digital books), unphased by the democratic consequences of deep fakes or advanced voter fraud, and unconvincing participants in the global task of how to make AI work for societies. We will be sharing our takeaways of the summit later this week - much remains to be seen.