GRF · AI and Digital Governance
Decision-rights context
Many actors hold decision rights over AI and digital systems: legislatures, regulators, the public bodies that deploy systems, the developers that build them, courts that review them and the people affected by them. This page locates these decision-makers, explains how responsibility is divided along the value chain and sets out the boundary of the platform, which convenes and compares but decides nothing. It complements discipline and institutional issues.
- STEM methods
- 4
- Canonical methods this field applies
- Topics
- 8
- Subject pages in the field
- Counterparts
- 10
- Platforms in shared fields across the network
- Report series
- 2
- Reports series it contributes to
Public decision-makers.
Laws and mandates
Decide what uses of AI and data are permitted, prohibited or conditioned, and create supervisory bodies.
Supervision
Data protection authorities, sector regulators and, where they exist, AI supervisors enforce rules.
Use decisions
Public agencies decide whether and how to use a system and remain accountable for decisions made with it.
Field overview.
The screen a team would use to follow this subject: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Who decides on an AI system.
| Decision | Holder |
|---|---|
| Deploy in a public service | The deploying authority |
| Enforce data protection | Data protection authority |
| Enforce AI Act duties in the EU | Market surveillance authorities and the AI Office for general-purpose models |
| Review a contested decision | Courts, tribunals, ombudsman |
Responsibility is shared, not transferred.
- 01
Developers
Responsible for the design, documentation and known limits of the systems they build or supply.
- 02
Deployers
Responsible for choosing appropriate uses, monitoring performance and providing human review and remedies. A public body cannot contract away its accountability for decisions made in its name.
- 03
Courts and ombudsmen
Review decisions, interpret rights and provide redress.
- 04
Affected people
Hold rights to information, objection and remedy, and communities can shape decisions through participation.
What dialogue adds, and where it stops.
AI and Digital Governance brings evidence, comparison and options to those who decide. It does not take decisions, issue recommendations with binding force, speak for any authority or represent any party. GRF convenes and governs programmes. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify, and hosting or sponsorship confers no authority over findings.
How the three institutions divide the work.
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) studies AI and digital systems as science, for example at Digital Public Infrastructure. GRF convenes on governance. Global Risks Alliance (GRA) builds shared industry understanding for finance, for example at Payments and Market Infrastructure. None of them regulates.
Where this page’s references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Questions and answers.
If a public body uses a vendor’s AI system, who is responsible?
Can the platform resolve a complaint about an AI decision?
Does GRF make decisions on AI policy?
Where do affected communities fit?
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Legal documents.
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