Shadow C20 AI Pillars
The 2026 G20 Innovation Ministerial meeting held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina could serve as an emblem for regulatory capture. For the first time since 2013, civil society, as represented by public interest advocacy organizations, academics and independent researchers, was shut out of G20 participation entirely, making room for the interests of just one non-State stakeholder: business. Just as tellingly, human rights went unmentioned altogether in the G20 Innovation Ministerial Statement.The leaders of SpaceX, Meta, Palantir, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Anthropic enthusiastically supported the US G20 Presidency’s “light touch” approach as described in the Ministerial Statement and Carolina Principles.
These statements fail to confirm core protections for the public described in the G20’s foundational AI Principles adopted in 2019, which established that the technology “must be built on trust among all stakeholders including governments, civil society, international organizations, academics and businesses through sharing common values and principles including equality, justice, transparency and accountability.” The 2026 G20 set no binding obligations on the most powerful companies in the world, which are leveraging our personal data and natural resources toward their own interests, while attempting to shape and dominate humanity and our planet.
While the G20 has tried to shut out the public, the Shadow C20 has created a space to put forward civil society’s real demands on AI governance. We will be releasing a preview statement establishing our own principles, calling on G20 leaders to ensure that AI governance:
Pillar 1: Centers on human rights with red lines to prohibit systems that violate human rights or evade human control
Pillar 2: Engages meaningful multi-stakeholder governance with global inclusion and participation
Pillar 3: Ensures equitable distribution of AI value across communities and geographies
Pillar 4: Safeguards privacy, security and rights-respecting digital public infrastructure
Pillar 5: Includes coordination on macroeconomic dynamics to ensure robust employment and economic development