This week we present an except from the G20 South Africa Presidency Concept Note, focusing on Task Force 3 - Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance, and Innovation for Sustainable Development. This task force is a key component of South Africa's 2025 G20 Presidency, which began on 1 December 2024. We trust our readers will find it of much use during 2025, as the task force gathers momentum.
Full text:
The transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely acknowledged, providing unprecedented economic and social opportunities, accompanied by new policy and regulatory challenges. AI technologies, exemplified by advanced systems like generative, interactive and multimodal AI platforms, have demonstrated their capacity to enhance productivity, foster innovation and analyse large volumes of data to help solve complex problems in many areas of human life. The capabilities of AI are continually advancing, offering new possibilities, and posing new challenges.
The rapid evolution and integration of AI technologies into everyday life have also raised significant ethical, security and governance concerns. These technologies serve as a wake-up call to the inherent risks and potential harms arising when AI is developed and deployed without strict ethical guidelines, rigorous security measures and robust governance frameworks. Issues such as privacy breaches, algorithmic bias, the use of unrepresentative or inappropriate data sets, harmful content, misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, racial and gender violence and the exacerbation of social inequalities highlight the urgent need for effective governance and regulation.
The digital inequality divide is more pronounced in the global South than ever. According to the UN's International Communications Union (ITU), an estimated 2.9 billion people globally – approximately one-third of the world's population – remain without internet access, facing significant barriers to participation in and benefitting from the digital economy. Where digital access is present, the global South risks becoming a site of data extraction and contributing to cheap, unskilled digital labour into global digital value chains while importing finished digital products.
The current landscape of AI policy is evolving from discussions of principles and guidelines to concrete actions, policy implementation, and capacity building. This transition requires robust ethical AI and data governance to ensure that AI technologies are developed and deployed for the benefit of all and made accessible across diverse global communities. In 2024, two UN General Assembly resolutions, A/RES/78/265 and A/RES/78/311, were adopted, emphasising the importance of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI systems and international cooperation on AI capacity-building initiatives.
The newly adopted Global Digital Compact highlights fairness, accountability and human oversight in AI governance while calling for action through existing mechanisms.
It is imperative for the G20 to contribute to the international discourse on AI, as the multilateral system, regional organisations, multi-stakeholder structures, and other bodies seek to identify the optimal responses to address the impact and realise the developmental potential of AI technologies.
So far, discussions on AI at the G20 have primarily occurred through the Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG). In 2019, during the Japanese Presidency, the G20 adopted the “Principles for the Responsible Stewardship of Trustworthy AI” and in 2023, the Indian Presidency highlighted "Harnessing AI Responsibly for Good and All" as a provision of the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration.
The DEWG, under the 2024 Brazilian Presidency, has gained additional momentum with the UNESCO-supported “Enabling resources for the development, deployment and use of AI for good and "for all”, which was attached as an annex to the Ministerial declaration. The São Luís Declaration on Artificial Intelligence (a joint declaration from the Think 20, Women20, Labour20 and Civil Society20 in 2024) is a meaningful contribution to this area of policy development.
South Africa’s G20 Presidency presents a unique opportunity to build on the achievements of previous presidencies and to advocate for Africa’s priorities by fostering a global AI landscape that emphasises human rights, ethical governance, multi stakeholder collaboration, closing the gap on digital technology’s ownership, capacity building and inclusive growth.
South Africa thus proposes the establishment of a G20 Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance and Innovation for Sustainable Development. This Task Force will ensure that regional perspectives are integrated into the international discourse on an inclusive digital transformation.
Addressing connectivity issues and advancing gender equality and cultural diversity will be central themes to ensure that AI serves all. It can also serve to rally support among development partners to support the implementation of the AU’s Continental AI Strategy.
Through the task force, South Africa will leverage the G20 platform to highlight the barriers to AI readiness and opportunity facing developing countries, including unequal, disproportionate access to digital infrastructure; market concentration of AI and digital technologies; the limited pool of AI talent, skills, expertise, and capability; the potential impact of AI on employment; limited research and institutional capacity; and major shortfalls in data and AI governance, regulatory frameworks and implementation.
The task force seeks to address digital transformation challenges in a holistic and comprehensive manner, bringing together AI and data governance across both the Sherpa and Finance Tracks.
Effective global data governance would promote the ethical sharing and governance of data for the collective benefit of society, shifting away from the individualistic, exploitative model of data ownership towards one that emphasises collaboration, community control and the equitable distribution of data’s value. Data is the foundation of AI systems and consensus is required on data governance principles, such as diversity, quality and personal data protection. This would lay the basis for trustworthy data governance practices that generate significant public value.
Deliverables:
Key deliverables will include the launch of an "AI for Africa" initiative to accelerate the implementation of the AU Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy. This initiative will address critical gaps in talent cultivation, employment, digital and computer infrastructure, ethical policy implementation and capacity building. It will be supported by voluntary and in-kind commitments from G20 members and the private sector, alongside backing from international organisations such as UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the ITU, the ILO, and the World Bank.
A second deliverable will be the creation of a Technology Policy Assistance Facility to support the development of national strategies, policies and laws for G20 members and the global South more generally. This acknowledges the opportunity for the G20 to advance a collaborative and multilateral approach in AI governance in a manner that supports the SDGs and promotes equality.
A third deliverable will be to host two high-level workshops. The first will entail a Data Governance Dialogue to strengthen the debate on data governance issues and highlight convergent understandings between members of relevant engagement groups, Sherpa and Finance tracks. The second will demonstrate ethical applications of AI for Sustainable Development with ITU, UNESCO, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), South African AI hubs and other role players with a resulting report on best practices.
Finally, the task force will reflect on relevant outcomes emerging from across the Working Groups where AI and data governance is being addressed in specific contexts (including employment, the environment, education, cultural industry, research and innovation, information integrity, the digital economy, trade, agriculture and the finance track) for incorporation into a high-level statement on AI, Data Governance and Innovation for Sustainable Development. This declaration will commit the G20 to developing and disseminating ethical, sustainable, accessible, resource-efficient, and environmentally friendly AI technologies.
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