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Authors: Urs Gasser & Constanze Albrecht 

AIGC Background, Mission, and Activities  

�ճ󲹾������Ի�’s was set up in 2022 by ETDA as part of a national AI capacity building effort. ETDA is a governmental agency operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and tasked with promoting and safeguarding �ճ󲹾������Ի�’s economic and societal transformation into a digital economy and society. Launched in collaboration with the Digital Asia Hub Thailand – a non-profit think tank incubated by Harvard’s – and the of the Munich School of Politics and Public Policy at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the AIGC’s core areas activities in its first year of operation included the following: 

• Community building: Among the main objectives of the AIGC is to enhance capacity in the AI governance space by building communities of knowledge and practice. Towards this goal, the AIGC launched a , bringing together local experts from different disciplines and sectors who act as “liaisons” to their home organizations, who meet regularly at the AIGC to share use cases and engage in collaborative research projects. The network of local experts is supplemented by an (IPAP), with members serving as domain experts in areas such as health, education, and entrepreneurship and as mentors or “resources” to the AIGC staff and fellows.  

• AI Ethics implementation toolkit: To support the implementation of international best practices such as the UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the AIGC members – including fellows and IPAP experts – engage in the development of actionable guidelines and toolkits. In its first year of operation, for instance, the AIGC released hands-on “,” which builds upon �ճ󲹾������Ի�’s national policies and principles and seeks to equip managers with a toolkit to operationalize principles of good AI governance in their respective organizations.  

• Life-long learning: An additional way to support the translation from AI governance principles into practice is through educational programs. In the first year of its existence, the AIGC in collaboration with local universities hosted the , which offered health care administrators a specialized introduction to the Guidelines. It was accompanied by toolkit encompassing an AI readiness assessment framework, a structure for AI application scenarios within health organizations, and practical advice for risk evaluation and mitigation concerning AI usage in healthcare. 

In addition to these initial activities, the AIGC aims to strengthen its interdisciplinary "clinical" component during the second year of operation. It offers a unique forum for participants from both the private and public sectors – ranging from start-ups to established governmental agencies – to explore real-world challenges when implementing AI governance best practices. The AIGC enables access to relevant knowledge of both local and global domain experts and facilitates the sharing of insights into the application of high-level policies, principles, and guidelines in varied contexts such as healthcare, finance, and governance. 

Some Early Insights 

From the perspective of the authors of this contribution who helped conceptualize and launch the AIGC in their roles at TUM and the Digital Asia Hub Thailand, respectively (see also ), three initial lessons learned stand out when reflecting on the incubation phase and the first year of operation. 

First, and perhaps not surprisingly, it requires both significant commitment and mutual trust to build a collaborative platform aimed at supporting the translation of AI principles into practice and facilitating multi-directional learning among diverse stakeholders. In the Thai experience, the successful launch of the AIGC has been enabled by a steadfast intellectual and resource commitment by ETDA senior leadership, preexisting collaborations and trust relationships, and a deeply collaborative approach from design to implementation.  

Second, while the AI governance space is evolving rapidly as it seeks to catch up with the fast technological developments, it may be necessary to resist the impulse “to boil the ocean” at the implementation level and prioritize among the many governance issues and potential activities according to local context and needs. In the case of �ճ󲹾������Ի�’s AIGC, for instance, healthcare and finance have been identified as initial thematic priority areas – a decision that helped to focus scarce (staff) resources, activate existing domain expertise, and leverage partnerships and networks. At the same time, the capacity to reprioritize needs to be built into any such effort, as the sudden rise of ChatGPT and generative AI demonstrated. 

Third, while the development and global proliferation of international guidance and best practices on AI ethics and governance are needed and welcome, it will require significant time (likely decades) and resources (with the “talent pipeline” to be an area of concern) to build the capacities necessary to turn high-level norms into actual on-the-ground practices, particularly in majority world countries. Strategic commitments by international organizations such as UNESCO to provide implementation guidance and engage in regional capacity building are crucial and deserve broad support. Innovative initiatives like the AIGC in Thailand – in no small parts thanks to the foresight and dedication of ETDA’s senior management team and staff – might serve as a source of inspiration how to bolster such coordinated efforts locally and a multi-stakeholder spirit. 

_{The ideas and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of UNESCO. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout the publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.}