American School of Milan

A successful first Global Dialogue on AI Governance would establish a genuinely inclusive and ongoing framework for international cooperation that brings together governments, educators, technical communities, civil society, and creative sectors in a meaningful and sustained way. Success would involve moving beyond fragmented or purely national approaches to AI governance and creating space for shared discussion around the social, cultural, educational, and economic impacts of AI systems across different regions and industries. An important outcome would be ensuring that perspectives from underrepresented regions and sectors are actively included in governance conversations, particularly in contexts where AI adoption is occurring rapidly despite uneven infrastructure, limited governance capacity, or dependence on externally developed technologies. The Dialogue would also be successful if it helps promote practical collaboration in areas such as AI literacy, transparency, capacity-building, cultural and linguistic diversity, and equitable access to the benefits of AI systems. More broadly, the Dialogue has the opportunity to build trust and shared understanding across different stakeholders and governance traditions, while recognising that AI governance is not only a technical challenge, but also a societal and cultural one. Its long-term success will depend on whether it can support a more pluralistic and globally representative AI ecosystem in which a wide range of communities can meaningfully participate in shaping how AI systems are developed and used.

• AI capacity-building
• Social, economic, ethical, cultural, linguistic and technical implications of AI
• Protection and promotion of human rights
• Transparency, accountability, and human oversight

My selection reflects a focus on the cultural, educational, and societal dimensions of AI systems, particularly how they shape language, creative practice, and equitable participation in AI-mediated knowledge systems. Through my work in international media education and recent research with filmmakers and creative practitioners, particularly in African contexts, I have observed how AI tools are creating both opportunities and tensions within creative industries. AI-driven translation, voice synthesis, and localisation technologies can expand access to international audiences and reduce longstanding production and distribution barriers. At the same time, they also raise concerns around linguistic flattening, cultural representation, and the reshaping of performance and storytelling traditions for dominant-language global markets. These concerns are intensified by uneven representation within training data and model development, where dominant languages and cultural norms often shape how AI systems interpret, generate, and prioritise meaning. The social, cultural, linguistic, and ethical implications of AI are central to understanding how AI systems increasingly influence not only communication, but also cultural memory, identity, and representation. AI capacity-building is equally important, particularly in relation to AI literacy, local governance expertise, and critical understanding of AI systems within educational and creative sectors. I also prioritise transparency, accountability, and human oversight because AI-mediated tools can alter voice, language, and performance in ways that are often opaque to users, raising questions around authorship, authenticity, and cultural agency. Finally, the protection and promotion of human rights includes safeguarding cultural and linguistic diversity within increasingly AI-mediated environments.

Yes. One emerging cross-cutting issue that is not fully captured by the listed themes is the role of AI systems as cultural infrastructure that actively reshape language, performance, and meaning-making, particularly in creative and audiovisual contexts. Creative tools can expand access and reduce historical barriers to distribution, but they also risk standardising linguistic expression and reshaping culturally embedded forms of storytelling in ways that are not always visible to users or policymakers. Addressing this requires integrating cultural practitioners, educators, and creative industries more directly into AI governance discussions, and recognising cultural and linguistic diversity as a core governance concern.

A key challenge is that AI tools are rapidly entering film, media, and education contexts without a shared framework for understanding their cultural and linguistic impacts. In practice, this means that translation, voice synthesis, and generative tools are being used to reach global audiences and reduce production barriers, but often without sufficient awareness of how they reshape language, performance, and authorship. This is particularly significant in multilingual contexts, where creative work is frequently adapted for dominant-language international markets. Another major challenge is the uneven distribution of governance capacity and technological infrastructure. This creates tensions between expanded access and long-term technological sovereignty, particularly where local expertise in data stewardship, AI literacy, and regulatory oversight remains limited. Despite the challenges, there are also significant opportunities. AI is used to bypass infrastructure and financing limitations, enabling more agile production workflows and expanded access to international audiences. Local developers are also adapting platforms to add nuance and incorporate local languages (e.g., 'Naira wrappers'). Other practitioners are creating their own LLMs to preserve cultural memory and storytelling traditions, including oral history initiatives and digital reconstructions of heritage sites.

The most important contribution would be to move beyond fragmented national approaches and instead support a shared understanding of how AI systems are affecting societies in practice. This includes their impact on education, communication, cultural production, and access to knowledge across different regions. Another important role is ensuring that diverse regional and sectoral perspectives are meaningfully included in global governance discussions. This is particularly important in multilingual environments, where AI systems may already be influencing how language and cultural expression are mediated for international audiences.

UNESCO's work on AI ethics, education, and cultural diversity provides an important global reference point, particularly in relation to AI literacy and the protection of linguistic and cultural expression. The added value of the AI Dialogue would be its ability to connect existing initiatives (like AUDA-NEPAD's Make Africa Digital campaign) whilst aligning priorities and reducing duplication of work.

Different stakeholders can contribute most effectively by bringing grounded, practice-based perspectives that reflect how AI is being implemented across sectors and regions. In terms of structure, the AI Dialogue would benefit from a format that supports sustained exchange rather than one-off statements. This could include thematic working groups that focus on specific areas, such as education, with opportunities for iterative feedback over time.

Current global discussions on AI governance tend to overrepresent technical, legal, and policy-oriented perspectives from high-income countries, while underrepresenting those who are directly engaging with AI as a cultural, educational, and everyday communicative tool. This is particularly notable given that some of the most active and rapidly growing AI user communities are in the Global South, including countries such as Kenya and Brazil, where AI tools are being widely adopted in education, creative industries, and informal digital economies. Educators, particularly at the secondary level, remain underrepresented in broader AI governance discussions relative to their central role in shaping AI literacy and mediating its real-world impacts in learning environments.

Scenario-building workshops could be used to explore the future implications of AI systems in different cultural and economic contexts. These formats might encourage collaborative problem-solving and help surface tensions between innovation, regulation, and cultural preservation.

At a regional level, the African Union's emerging AI and data policy frameworks, including related digital transformation strategies, provide an important example of efforts to develop locally grounded governance approaches. These initiatives emphasise digital sovereignty, capacity-building, and African-led development of AI systems, which are critical in addressing structural inequalities in data access and infrastructure. Programmes that support teachers and students in understanding how AI systems function, including issues of bias, authorship, and representation, help translate governance principles into everyday contexts of use.