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AI policy for the Commonwealth
05 October 2024
Policymakers across the Commonwealth can now craft comprehensive government policies and strategies, drawing on global best practices while allowing them to be tailored to local needs. This has been made possible with the Commonwealth Secretariat’s launch of its StrategusAI toolkit, developed in partnership with Intel Corporation, which will allow member governments to regulate the challenges and maximise the opportunities associated with artificial intelligence (AI).
AI-driven policy tool
Championed by the Government of Rwanda, the launch of StrategusAI marked a significant milestone for the Policy Development Working Group of the Commonwealth AI Consortium. It follows months of development, testing and refining, all in an effort to bridge the digital divide and foster greater economic resilience for Commonwealth countries.
StrategusAI is a governance solution: a model to help policymakers create tailored AI policies. It provides access to expertise, with references and best practices from organisations like the OECD and World Bank, allowing for quick drafting of policies within budget constraints. It allows for customisation, adapting policies to fit local economic, social, and regulatory contexts.
Importance to the Commonwealth
The toolkit is important to Commonwealth countries for the following reasons:
- Economic impact: AI is projected to add around $15 trillion to the global economy.
- Early adoption benefits: countries that adopt AI early will have a competitive edge.
- Job landscape: AI could displace up to 800 million jobs. Tasks involving data analysis, research and creative writing are being taken over by AI, but it can also enhance roles - like allowing accountants to focus on strategic decisions instead of routine report generation.
- Increasingly, governments have published national AI strategies to create a national AI ecosystem with responsible governance.
- 50-55 countries declared they have a national AI Strategy.
- Out of that 6/7 are members commonwealth countries.
Benefits
The toolkit is intended to provide assistance, not serve as a replacement to policy-making, maintaining human oversight. Users can leverage existing expertise and best practices to inform their strategies. Traditionally, this policy development process requires a team of experts, but here, public sector leaders can tap into the global community from multiple entities, such as the OECD, World Bank and others, to ensure they use their expertise. Generative AI can synthesise and analyse vast amounts of data from existing AI Policy frameworks and other documents that the users select as an input mechanism. This allows the users to access high-quality insights, ensuring their approach is aligned with international
The tool will be piloted in Fiji and Brunei Darussalam and will then be available to all 56 Commonwealth countries.
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