A Practical Multilevel Governance Framework for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems

TL;DR

This paper proposes a practical multilevel governance framework for autonomous and intelligent systems, addressing challenges of unpredictability, transparency, and rapid development by mapping actors across six decision-making levels and providing tools for effective oversight.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive framework for multilevel governance of AIS, enabling better mapping of actors and development of governance tools to improve oversight and regulation.

Findings

Framework maps actors across six decision levels.

Tools for guiding actor behavior are identified and developed.

Enhances agility and effectiveness of AIS governance.

Abstract

Autonomous and intelligent systems (AIS) facilitate a wide range of beneficial applications across a variety of different domains. However, technical characteristics such as unpredictability and lack of transparency, as well as potential unintended consequences, pose considerable challenges to the current governance infrastructure. Furthermore, the speed of development and deployment of applications outpaces the ability of existing governance institutions to put in place effective ethical-legal oversight. New approaches for agile, distributed and multilevel governance are needed. This work presents a practical framework for multilevel governance of AIS. The framework enables mapping actors onto six levels of decision-making including the international, national and organizational levels. Furthermore, it offers the ability to identify and evolve existing tools or create new tools for guiding the behavior of actors within the levels. Governance mechanisms enable actors to shape and enforce regulations and other tools, which when complemented with good practices contribute to effective and comprehensive governance.