AIxMultilateralism: Public AI - The New Multilateralism? with Jacob Taylor & Joshua Tan

About this episode

The episode discusses the concept of Public AI as a new form of multilateralism aimed at serving the common good through shared AI infrastructure.

This is AI x Multilateralism, a mini-series on The Next Page, where experts help us unpack the many ideas at the nexus of AI and international cooperation. Today, the majority of AI development and deployment is controlled by a small number of powerful firms. If this path continues, the next generation of digital infrastructure underpinning our societies will be privately owned and unaccountable to the public interest. Is there another way, one where where AI serves the common good? In this episode, Jacob Taylor (Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Sustainable Development and a 2025 Public AI Fellow) and Joshua Tan (Co-Founder and Research Director at Metagov) make the case for Public AI: shared, open AI infrastructure (much like highways, electricity grids, and public broadcasting), that is publicly responsible and harnessed to solve collective problems. Drawing on their article Public AI is the New Multilateralism and Metagov's Public AI White Paper, they argue that building public AI infrastructure can become a new form of multilateralism, where states, academia and civil society co‑create accessible, accountable AI systems that can be shared and re-purposed to…

People in this episode

Guests: Jacob Taylor, Joshua Tan

Topics covered

• AI
• multilateralism
• public good
• international cooperation
• digital infrastructure
• accountability

Keywords

• Public AI
• multilateralism
• AI infrastructure
• international cooperation
• accountable AI
• digital infrastructure
• collective problems

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Brookings Institution, Metagov

Books & works: Public AI is the New Multilateralism, Metagov's Public AI White Paper

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