The Oxford AI Diplomacy Lab works to build the diplomatic capacity, relationships, and institutional continuity that effective international governance of frontier AI will require.
The governance of frontier AI is increasingly shaped through diplomacy, including the AI summit series and a growing set of bilateral and multilateral processes. The Oxford AI Diplomacy Lab, a new program within the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative (AIGI) at the University of Oxford, explores how diplomatic practice and capacity can be strengthened to address the governance challenges of frontier AI. The primary themes of this work include the structure and focus of multilateral fora such as the AI summit series, the engagement and support of officials who conduct AI-related diplomacy, and the conditions under which future AI agreements may be reached.
Diplomacy on frontier AI faces challenges. The officials asked to negotiate on advanced AI often lack the support systems available in older policy fields such as nuclear security, climate, or trade: trained practitioners, strong expert and stakeholder networks, regular informal exchange, and institutional memory.
The Lab responds through direct engagement, convening, and research. It offers neutral, flexible support to governments leading diplomatic processes on AI, helping to preserve knowledge and momentum across cycles and handovers. It works with senior diplomats, foreign-affairs officials, and security practitioners through private roundtables and dialogues, tailored briefings and research, and peer networks that connect officials with one another and with technical expertise, giving them context and space to consider policy options before issues reach formal negotiation. And it examines what workable international agreements on AI might look like and what would be required to reach them.
