Join as a State

A case for states to join as partners of the Coalition for a Baruch Plan for AI.

The Problem

On their own, nearly all states stand completely powerless in the face of AI developments in the next few years. They are unable to avoid its immense risks for human safety and for concentration of power and wealth, and unable to realize its astounding opportunities for their citizens. This is the case even for nearly all large states or large regional intergovernmental organizations.

On their own, even superpowers are unable to tackle the immense safety risks of AI because mitigating the proliferation and safety risks of AI is expected to be much harder than nuclear, requiring wide global adherence and compliance.

Awareness is mounting. Over 28 states, accruing to 80% of the world population, recognized last November in the Bletchley Declaration the risks for both concentration of power and human safety, including "loss of control". Over 55% of citizens surveyed in 12 countries were "fairly" or "very" worried about "loss of control over AI.

Yet, while the heads of state of the US, China, the UK have publicly warned of enormous risks for human safety and called for international cooperation, their initiatives are very far in scope and inclusivity from what is needed, and few other world leaders have yet come public with their concern, due to the uncertainty and shocking immensity of the risks, and the lack of plausible and proportionate solutions - so far.

The Coalition

Amidst such a dire situation, there is an opportunity for pioneering states to join a critical mass of other globally diverse states and NGOs in a coalition to do what they can’t do alone. 

Via our Coalition we propose an bold and effective strategy and roadmap, centered on a structured summit series, meetings at UN conferences and AI governance conference, bilateral and multilateral meetings in Geneva and beyond, participant states can join a critical mass of other NGos and states to foster a truly multilateral, participatory and effective treaty-making process for the creation of a new open global intergovernmental organization for AI to jointly build and share the most capable safe AIs, and reliably ban unsafe ones.

The US and China are most welcome to participate at any stage, together, to ensure neutrality. Such an organization may be called International AI Development Authority, recalling the International Atomic Development Authority foreseen by the Baruch Plan.

An Opportunity to Co-Lead and Benefit

Starting mid-September 2024, we’ll be offering states to:

  • Join as a State Member of the Coalition by signing a simple non-binding Letter of Interest to join up to six more states as initial co-lead and steering controllers of the proposed intergovernmental treaty-making vehicle and process and take a co-lead in the creation and exploitation of a shared Global Public Benefit AI Lab. To ensure neutrality in funding of the coalition, membership will require an yearly contribution of ranging from $20,000 to $100,000, in proportion to their GDP.

  • If interested but not ready to sign yet, you can learn more about the Coalition and engage with other interested parties by:

    • Joining us in closed-door bilateral and multilateral meetings in Geneva or via videoconference

    • Participating in the 1st Harnessing AI Risk Summit, planned for this November in Geneva, or its 2nd Pre-Summit (which follows our hybrid Pre-Summit Virtual Conference, held on June 12th along the G7 Summit in Italy). “Observer status” or remote participation is also possible, as well as participation as "against the Coalition's aims and/or core methods" in dedicated debate sessions.

    • Sponsoring or hosting the 1st Summit, future editions, or related events.

Benefits of Membership

  • Enjoy exceptional economic development, sovereignty, safety, and civil rights advantages from the joint control and ownership of the foreseen Global Public Benefit AI Lab and the ability to invest in it via their sovereign funds. This ensures reliable long-term access and control over the most advanced, safe AI systems for their governmental and private sector needs while preventing AI risks and ensuring the application of the subsidiarity principle.

  • Radically mitigate the immense risks to human safety and AI’s extremely unaccountable concentration of power and wealth. Co-lead in shaping AI's ethics, limits, privacy, security, safety and accountability to realize its potential to bring astounding benefits to your citizens and humanity in a mutually advantageous way for all.

  • Increase leverage and negotiation power vis-a-vis other global governance and infrastructure initiatives for AI by leading states and firms.

Traction So Far with States

Over the last six months, we have held bilateral and multilateral meetings with several interested states, especially from Africa and Europe, including a number of ambassadors to the UN in Geneva. We have received formal interest from the mission of the largest regional intergovernmental organization to the UN. Furthermore, since December, we have had ongoing, highly preliminary discussions with three of the top five AI labs regarding their participation in a Global Public Benefit AI Lab, as many of them have called for something similar. Details are available on qualified request.

Additional Benefits for the first 7 Member States

While it is paramount that the first seven states ensure strong global diversity and representation, it is also important that they be granted additional and substantial political and economic benefits, albeit temporarily, to incentivize their leadership in such a geopolitically sensitive domain.

  • Political advantages

    • Political prestige and other related concrete benefits

    • Be more prominently included in the Summits and the Coalition webpages, communications, and summit agendas. 

    • Be considered as a potential host of the Harnessing AI Risk Summit series. 

  • Economic advantages

    • Enjoy vast economic benefits for the first three years with respect to all fees, quotas and contributions - towards the treaty-making process, the foreseen IGOs and its global AI lab - that will be required of participating states and their sovereign wealth funds with respect to other states with a similar profile. These will amount to 50% for the 1st to the 2nd state, 35% for the 3rd to the 4th state, and 20% for the 5th to the 7th state.

Benefits of Participation in the Summit 

  • Learn more about the coalition, its plans, and the current initiatives and prospects of global AI governance, AI safety, and the Coalition.

  • Participate in co-designing a treaty-making process for a proper global, federal, democratic and expert-led governance of AI.

  •  Early state participants will be accorded privileged visibility, guaranteed a speaking slot on day one and more prominently displayed. 

Contacts

Contact us to join the coalition, join the Summit, receive more information or schedule an online or remote meeting to learn more:

Rufo Guerreschi, Convenor, Coordinator and Spokesperson of the Coalition
Email: cbpai@trustlesscomputing.org  — Tel: +393289376075