On July 17, 2026, the Fudan Report Series, Global Artificial Intelligence Governance Trends: Observations Since the Global AI Governance Action Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Report), was officially released at the Global AI Governance and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Responses forum during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 (WAIC 2026).
Jointly released by the Center for Global AI Innovative Governance and the Fudan Development Institute, the Report was led by Yao Xu, Secretary-General of the Center for Global AI Innovative Governance and Associate Professor at the Fudan Development Institute. The project team brings together more than ten researchers from the Center for Global AI Innovative Governance, the Fudan Development Institute, and the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University.
The Report is structured into four sections. The first section outlines the current landscape of global AI governance, covering new developments in global AI governance frameworks, competitive dynamics among major powers, existing challenges, governance paradoxes, and the outlook for global AI governance. The second section focuses on AI safety risks and response strategies, analyzing technical safety risks, application-related risks, and societal risks stemming from technology spillovers, while proposing corresponding mitigation pathways. The third section explores global AI governance and North-South cooperation, examining the widening global "AI divide," the significance of and practical constraints on North-South AI cooperation, and viable paths forward to promote such collaboration. The fourth section investigates China's role in global North-South AI cooperation, mapping out China's practical approaches to fostering this cooperation and its latest practices in building international public goods for artificial intelligence.
The Report highlights that since the inception of the Global AI Governance Action Plan at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in 2025, global AI governance has transitioned from a phase of principled initiatives to a new stage characterized by institutional implementation, capacity building, and project execution. Crucially, global AI governance is entering a new phase that places equal emphasis on development and security; while safety and security risks remain baseline issues that the international community must safeguard, capacity building, inclusive development, industrial applications, and technological accessibility are emerging as more prominent agendas. At the same time, the "AI divide" is becoming a new form of structural inequality following the digital divide, where imbalances in computing power, data, algorithms, language models, talent, and application scenarios leave the Global South facing deeper technological dependency and passive rule-taking in the AI era. Moreover, major-power competition is exacerbating the fragmentation of global AI governance, as export controls, technology alliances, and standard divergence risk constraining the policy space of small and medium-sized nations, driving up the costs of cross-border cooperation, and undermining the supply efficiency of global public goods. Ultimately, the focus of North-South cooperation should shift from "technology transfer" to "joint capacity building," focusing on long-term efforts centering on local computing infrastructure, data governance capabilities, talent cultivation frameworks, low-resource language models, industry application scenarios, and safety assessment tools to help developing countries foster sustainable and autonomous capabilities for AI development.
The Report contends that China's provision of international public goods for AI is becoming a vital variable in global governance. In alignment with the Global AI Governance Action Plan, China is leveraging multilateral mechanism alignment, open-source model provisioning, capacity-building projects, digital infrastructure cooperation, and industrial scenario applications. Through these efforts, China is steering AI technology from a competitive resource monopolized by a few nations and corporations into a development tool that is accessible, participatory, and transformable for a wider range of countries.
Looking ahead, the key to global AI governance lies in forging a more open, inclusive, and sustainable cooperation network. By continuing to ground its efforts in genuine multilateralism, lowering technological thresholds through open-source initiatives, solidifying development foundations via capacity building, and addressing livelihood needs through scenario-based cooperation, China has the potential to deliver more practically significant international public goods. This will contribute substantially to narrowing the global AI divide, enhancing the governance capabilities of developing countries, and steering AI development toward the common good.
As part of the Fudan Report Series, this Report aims to provide policy references for constructing a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable global AI governance framework.
Orginal link: 
Global Artificial Intelligence Governance Trends: Observations Since the Global AI Governance Action Plan.pdf
