Podcast 🎧 & blog: The global conversation on AI governance feat Tallinn Cyber Diplomacy Summer School
By Federico Plantera
AI governance is under pressure to match the speed and reach of artificial intelligence as it reshapes economies, political systems, and cultural norms. No longer a future concern, AI is a present force demanding immediate and coordinated responses. In this introductory episode to this year’s Tallinn Cyber Diplomacy Summer School, we do just that with Lucia Velasco, AI Policy Lead at the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies.
Velasco says navigating geopolitical tensions and aligning regulatory practices requires a distinctive and urgent approach. And AI governance is about far more than legal frameworks. “Governance is not just regulation,” she points out. “It’s the framework that helps ensure AI is developed and used in fair, safe, and ultimately beneficial ways.”
The call is for an anticipatory governance model that is not responsive. It should be capable of shaping AI’s trajectory before its effects become unmanageable.
Why AI Governance Matters
The combination of rapid evolution and multiple layers of complexity make AI both powerful and difficult to govern. But as Velasco points out, this shouldn’t be an excuse to delay action. “It’s a governance issue first, not just a technical one.”
What makes AI governance different is its scale and the unpredictability and autonomy of AI systems. Traditional regulatory tools struggle to keep pace with how AI evolves and adapts. And yet, waiting for clarity before acting may only increase the risks. “We have to start shaping the guardrails now, even as the technology continues to evolve,” Velasco suggests.
“We’re trying to align very fast-moving developments with much slower-moving policy mechanisms. But that doesn’t mean governance has to be static.”
Drawing on her experience at the UN and in national policy, she challenges the common argument that regulation stifles innovation. “Like with cars, we didn’t stop the industry by adding seat belts or traffic laws. We built trust and made the technology usable for everyone.”
Effective governance, then, is about creating the conditions for AI’s safe, inclusive, and rights-respecting deployment. It would be misleading, instead, to frame it as a matter of limiting AI’s potential. “Governance gives direction,” she notes. “It shapes how a society embraces new technologies.”
Global Patchworks and the Role of Cyber Diplomacy
So, AI policy is advancing. However, it is doing so unevenly. Countries are moving at different speeds, with diverging priorities and standards. Velasco sees this fragmentation as one of the biggest risks because, without coordination, efforts to regulate AI may either fall short or end up creating a fractured landscape that benefits no one.
That’s where diplomacy comes in. “Cyber diplomats can help build common understanding not just about values but also taxonomies, standards, and future scenarios,” she explains. “They can act as translators between the technical and political worlds.”
At the UN, Velasco is closely involved in implementing the Global Digital Compact, including initiatives such as the global AI dialogue and creating a scientific advisory panel. These are meant to serve as bridges between countries but also across technical, political, and societal perspectives. “We want this to be a truly global conversation, which means hearing inputs from every region, not just a few.”
Within this framework, she also underlines the need for global cooperation mechanisms beyond declarations – including frameworks that enable mutual accountability and agile response to emerging developments.
“We don’t need everyone to do the same thing,” she adds, “but we need to move in the same direction. Diplomacy is about building trust and inclusion. And in AI, trust and inclusion are exactly what we need more of.”
Power in Inclusion and Shaping What Comes Next
But at its core, AI governance is also a matter of power – who gets to shape the rules and whose values inform them. For Velasco, this means ensuring meaningful participation from civil society, researchers, and underrepresented communities. Including women and voices from the Global South is not a nice to have, but a must.
That principle guides much of the work being done at the UN’s new Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies. Diversity in expertise, geography, and lived experience becomes a condition for both success and legitimacy. “You cannot have a global framework if only a few countries or actors set the tone. Instead, we must design governance with inclusion at its core.”
The resulting need is to equip public institutions with the knowledge and skills to engage with AI governance effectively everywhere. Policymakers must become fluent in both the technical and ethical dimensions of AI, and governance tools must be designed to evolve. “We need tools that are flexible enough to respond to what’s coming,” she says. The line of the horizon can’t be just today’s systems.
Success, then, means that we will have managed to be proactive. “This time, we’re talking about the societal impact of technology before it’s too late. And that’s a rare opportunity.”
AI governance is a responsibility that belongs to all of us, and the time to shape it is now. “It’s up to us,” Velasco concludes, ” not just to govern technology, but to do it in a way that reflects the kind of world we want to build.”
The Tallinn Cyber Diplomacy Summer School is part of the EU-funded Tallinn Cyber Diplomacy Programme, which promotes global cyber resilience capacity-building and aligns with the EU’s core values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. It supports the EU’s strategic commitment to inclusive multilateralism and a secure, open digital future.
The Summer School is co-organised by the e-Governance Academy (Estonia), European Commission (DG INTPA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, and ESTDEV.
