The Athens Roundtable on AI and the Rule of Law, co-founded in 2019 by The Future Society (TFS), has established itself as the premier international forum on the intersection of artificial intelligence and the rule of law. Centered on three main principles - international coordination and cooperation, evidence-based decision-making, and democratic governance - the Roundtable facilitates collective intelligence on pressing topics related to AI governance.
The Athens Roundtable has gathered over 4,000 senior leaders from 120 countries. Past editions have been held under the Patronage of the Hellenic Republic and co-hosted by institutions such as the OECD, UNESCO, the World Bank, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, IEEE, NIST-NSF Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS), NYU Center on Civil Justice, Stanford HAI, the George Washington University’s Institute for International Science and Technology Policy (IISTP), the Center for AI and Digital Policy, and more. They have been financially supported by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation as well as law firms (e.g. Arnold and Porter, Paul Weiss) and companies (e.g. Microsoft, Amazon Web Services).
The forum’s key objective is to advance the democratic order, the rule of law, and human wellbeing in the age of AI. Specifically to:
Foster pragmatic dialogues to enhance understanding of AI risks and exchange knowledge on emerging AI governance measures, including national and international laws, regulations, and standards.
Build and promote coalitions among policymakers, AI developers, civil society leaders, academics, and actors from legal, judicial, and compliance systems to advance AI governance collectively.
Working Groups
In addition to the annual convening, The Athens Roundtable brings together institutional partners under shared AI challenges. Through dedicated working groups with experts in AI governance and the rule of law, we co-design operational solutions for increased safety and trustworthy AI governance at a global scale. These have included:
an Online Course on AI and the Rule of Law: Through our partnership with UNESCO and the support of our working group on judicial and legal AI capacity-building, we have developed and launched a massive open online course on AI and the Rule of Law. The course has trained over 4,500 judicial operators around the world, with a strong representation from the global south.
a Manifesto In Defense of Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Age of AI: Through our Transatlantic Reflection Group on Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Age of AI, we launched a first manifesto, in 2021, laying out the foundational principles for trustworthy AI governance, with 150 signatories.
a Manifesto on Enforcing Law in the Age of AI: Through our Transatlantic Reflection Group on Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Age of AI, we have published a second manifesto, in 2022 with 10 actionable recommendations and a call for effective and legitimate enforcement of laws governing AI systems on both sides of the Atlantic.
a set of ongoing programs of open AI benchmarks: Through our transatlantic working group on AI benchmarks and measurers, we bring together actors from major standards organizations and technical communities, including the U.S. NIST, CEN-CENELEC, IEEE, LNE, and VDE. The group is currently working on a set of guidelines for responsible AI development, proposing an institutional, interoperable, and ongoing AI benchmarking program, set for publication in 2023.