BRICS Seeks to Reframe AI Governance Away from Western Standards Toward Digital Sovereignty

BRICS countries are attempting to shift the focus of AI governance from Western-led ethical standards that favour the Global North to an approach centred on digital sovereignty and development rights, according to sources including the South African Institute of International Affairs.

Shift in Language and Framing

The bloc is attempting to move away from what it characterizes as Western-centric ethical guardrails toward a framework anchored in state sovereignty and development rights. BRICS leaders have outlined a vision that links AI to development, digital sovereignty, and fairness in international cooperation. This sovereignty-first view contrasts with what the group sees as the concentration of technological power in a handful of advanced economies and multinational corporations.

Institutional Preferences and Multilateralism

BRICS is demanding that AI governance be anchored in the United Nations rather than in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development-led bodies. The group promotes a pluralistic, multipolar world order centred in institutions like the UN.

Why it matters

The outcome of this shift in framing could reshape the institutional architecture through which artificial intelligence is governed globally, potentially redistributing influence over AI rule-making from Western-led bodies to multilateral institutions and affect how development priorities are reflected in AI standards.