President Trump Signs Executive Order to Block State AI Regulations
December 14, 2025
The Birth of the Social Contract for the AI Age (2019–2020)
A milestone in the history of global AI governance emerged from the collaboration between the World Leadership Alliance–Club de Madrid (CdM) and the Boston Global Forum (BGF), culminating in the development of the Social Contract for the AI Age—a foundational framework for ethical, human-centered digital governance.
In 2019, CdM and BGF jointly called for a new social contract to guide societies through the profound transformations brought by artificial intelligence. This vision took shape through a series of high-level dialogues and was further advanced at the Transatlantic Policy Lab (September 16–18, 2020), where former heads of state, leading scholars, AI experts, and policymakers examined the urgent need for shared norms, values, and institutions for the AI era.
The resulting Social Contract for the AI Age proposes:
- a “digital TCP/IP” for international cooperation,
- principles of justice, equity, transparency, and human dignity,
- mechanisms to monitor and evaluate AI practices,
- a global Democratic Alliance for Digital Governance, and
- the creation of AIWS City as a practical model of the new digital society.
The initiative marked a historic step toward responsible AI governance and solidified BGF’s leadership in shaping a humane digital future. It remains one of the seminal moments in the evolution of AI ethics and global policy.
The final report is here:
