G20 ministers agree "Carolina Principles" on emerging technology at a US-hosted meeting
Ministers from China, Russia and the EU joined the consensus statement, whose six pillars include intellectual-property policy for AI; South Africa was absent from the attendance list.
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G20 ministers ended a two-day innovation ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a consensus statement and a set of “Carolina Principles for Emerging Technologies”, the White House said. The meeting was hosted by the US Department of Commerce and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Besides the US hosts, the White House listed delegations from 19 G20 members and unions, including China, Russia, the European Union and the African Union, and from Poland. South Africa, a G20 member, was not on the list.
The statement set out shared principles under six headings: pro-innovation policy frameworks; technology for opportunity and prosperity; technical workforce development; intellectual-property policy for artificial intelligence; “AI for standards and standards for AI”; and industrial innovation and supply-chain investment. The Carolina Principles call on countries to invest in foundational research, strengthen paths to commercialisation, and enable “trusted technology adoption and deployment”.
The White House presented the result as an endorsement of its own approach. Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, said G20 countries had recognised “that flexible policy frameworks crafted to promote innovation will drive economic growth and prosperity”, and called that “the spirit of the Carolina Principles”. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the consensus “a historic moment of unity”. The programme included onstage conversations with Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, Elon Musk and Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown.
The statement and principles are voluntary and set no binding commitments. Neither the release nor the principles’ summary refers to AI safety or risk; the emphasis throughout is on research, commercialisation and adoption.