Taking Standards Seriously: The Case for a Private Standards-Based Approach to AI Governance
Abstract
The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) across industry verticals and other domains of social and economic life is forcing policymakers to confront an urgent challenge: how to govern AI systems effectively without stifling innovation or beneficial deployment. This Article argues that private standards-based governance–the adoption of voluntary consensus standards developed through open, multistakeholder processes–offers the most promising “second-best” approach in a world where practical constraints make ideal governance unattainable. Drawing from the successes of standards in governing past digital technologies, the Article highlights how private standards can serve as a regulatory modality for AI by embedding expectations and constraints directly into technological design and organizational practice. Through comparative institutional analysis, it demonstrates how standards-based governance outperforms traditional regulation across four key dimensions: governance architecture, technical expertise and inclusive participation, adaptability to rapid change, and global scalability. At the same time, the Article confronts a number of tradeoffs and challenges such as the non-binding nature of standards and their susceptibility to industry capture. These challenges and tradeoffs, however, can be managed more efficiently through thoughtful institutional design and strategic government support. The Article ultimately contends that, although standards are not a cure-all, they represent a vital opportunity to build a sustainable, responsive, and highly effective AI governance ecosystem-provided that stakeholders approach their development with the urgency and intentionality the moment demands.
Read the full piece at SSRN.