6.8 KiB
IGF 2026 WS #214 Maintaining AI’s Open Foundations: A Shared Responsibility
Description
AI innovation depends on a vast, often invisible layer of open digital infrastructure: the open source software, protocols, standards and technical communities that enable interoperability, security, technological diversity and innovation across the digital economy. These shared foundations are often maintained by small teams, individual maintainers and organisations with limited long-term funding.
As governments increase their focus on AI, digital sovereignty and strategic technology capability, sustaining the open digital infrastructure on which these ambitions depend is an increasingly important public policy issue. At the same time, AI is changing the work of maintainers through increased automated contributions and vulnerability reports, new security and governance pressures. Together, these developments strengthen the case for more deliberate and sustained investment in open digital infrastructure.
This session will explore how public institutions, industry, funders and the Internet community can better recognise, fund and steward the open infrastructure on which AI and the wider Internet depend. It will draw on practical examples, including the UK Government’s Digital Standards Strategy, which positions digital technical standards as essential to innovation, resilience and international interoperability; Kenya's National Open Source Programme Office under the Open Source Ecosystem Enabler project; Nominet’s DNS Fund as a commitment to sustaining critical open-source Internet infrastructure, and public investment models such as the Sovereign Tech Agency, which frames open digital infrastructure as foundational to digital sovereignty, economic competitiveness and societal resilience.
Discussion will consider how targeted investment can address persistent underinvestment in shared digital foundations on which governments, businesses and citizens rely. It will examine how open standards and open-source technologies support interoperability, choice and resilience without contributing to fragmentation.
Participants will leave with a clearer view of the shared responsibilities governments, industry, funders and technical communities have towards open digital infrastructure and the practical models needed to sustain them in the age of AI.
Policy Question(s)
A. What are the respective responsibilities of governments, the private sector, civil society, the technical community and other funders in sustaining the open source software, Internet infrastructure and standards that AI and digital services depend on?
B. How can countries pursue digital sovereignty and strategic technology capability while preserving a globally interoperable, open Internet?
C. What practical funding, governance and skills models are needed to sustain the maintainers of critical open digital infrastructure as AI changes software development and maintenance?
Expected Outcomes
The session will produce a clearer shared understanding of open digital infrastructure as a public good and a foundation for responsible AI, digital sovereignty and Internet resilience.
Participants will identify practical models for investing in critical open source software, standards and technical communities, drawing on examples from government strategy, public funding, Internet governance and philanthropic or industry-backed initiatives.
The discussion will generate a short set of principles or takeaways on shared responsibility for maintaining open digital infrastructure, including how to align AI investment with long-term infrastructure resilience, how to support maintainers, and how to avoid sovereignty approaches that could fragment the Internet.
The session could feed into follow-up dialogue between government, Internet technical bodies, funders and open-source communities on sustainable funding models for critical digital infrastructure. This could be facilitated through the IGF policy network on open digital infrastructure.
Format
Roundtable Duration (minutes): 60 Format description: A 60-minute roundtable is best suited because the session is designed to move beyond diagnosis towards shared responsibility and practical action. The topic cuts across government policy, open-source maintenance, Internet governance, standards development and funding. A roundtable format will allow short provocations from different stakeholder perspectives, followed by structured discussion with onsite and online participants.
The session would begin with brief interventions from government, an Internet infrastructure funder, an open-source maintainer or funding body, and an Internet governance organisation.
The moderator would then guide discussion around the three policy questions, using audience input to test where responsibilities currently sit and what new models are needed. This format supports dialogue rather than presentation, encourages diverse views, and aligns with the IGF’s multistakeholder approach.
Hybrid Format
Hybrid Format: The session is an interactive hybrid roundtable rather than a traditional panel. Speakers will be asked to make short 5 minute opening contributions, focused on one practical challenge or example. We plan to run a short survey with open source maintainers on the impact of AI ahead of the session to share results. The onsite moderator will guide discussion around the policy questions, while the online moderator will actively gather questions and reflections from remote participants.
To support balanced participation, the session will use short audience prompts, live polling and a shared online note taking space. Online participants will be invited to respond to the same questions as onsite participants, with the moderator regularly bringing their contributions into the room. The session will close by asking participants to identify one practical action relevant actors could take to better sustain open digital infrastructure.
Organizers
Organizer 1: Amy O'Donnell, Nominet Organizer 2: Elaine Quinn, Nominet
Speakers
Speaker 1: Elaine Quinn, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 2: Nikita Bhangu, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 3: Paul Sharratt, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 4: Ikua Evns, Government, African Group
Moderator
Elaine Quinn, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Online Moderator
Amy O'Donnell, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Rapporteur
Amy O'Donnell, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Participant Benefits
What will participants gain from attending this session?
SDGs
4.4 8.2 9.5 9.c 16.6 16.7 17.16 17.17