Strategies to Govern AI Effectively

Advances in artificial intelligence are accelerating scientific discoveries and analyses, while at the same time challenging core norms and values in the conduct of science, including accountability, transparency, replicability, and human responsibility—difficulties that are particularly apparent in recent advances in generative AI. 

In early 2024, the National Academy of Sciences, the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands convened an interdisciplinary panel of experts to explore challenges posed by the use of AI in research, which led to an editorial, “Protecting Scientific Integrity in an Age of Generative AI,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The panel’s discussions and resulting editorial were informed by a series of papers detailing the development and current state of artificial intelligence technologies; the potential effects of AI advances on equality, justice, and research ethics; emerging governance issues; and lessons that can be learned from past instances where the scientific community addressed new technologies with significant societal implications. In an effort to enable further discussion of AI and governance, condensed and edited versions of those papers are presented here.