AI Governance Architecture Must Include Global South Stakeholders

Gist As global tech leaders propose international mechanisms for Artificial Intelligence governance, emerging markets are largely excluded despite being the biggest users and data providers. To address this asymmetry, experts propose establishing an International Institute for Regulatory Development IIRD to integrate the Global South into AI, finance, and climate risk management. For a civil services aspirant, this highlights India's strategic push to reshape global regulatory architecture, leveraging its leadership in the Global South to prevent technology-governance monopolies by advanced economies. Background The current global financial and institutional architecture is largely governed by Bretton Woods institutions and bodies like the Financial Stability Board FSB , which acts as a coordinating umbrella for global financial rules. However, AI governance is currently being designed by a handful of Western tech corporations and governments. During India's 2023 G20 presidency , the idea of an IIRD was initially proposed to "tropicalise" rules—adapting them for fast-growing emerging economies. As AI creates cross-border risks affecting labor, sovereignty, and climate, there is an institutional vacuum for emerging markets, whose data and labor power these AI models but who…