The Athens Roundtable on AI and the Rule of Law, co-founded in 2019 by The Future Society (TFS), has established itself as the premier international, multi-stakeholder forum on the intersection of artificial intelligence and the rule of law. Following three main beacons—international coordination and cooperation, evidence-based decision-making, and democratic governance—the convening promotes track II diplomacy and collective intelligence in forefront topics related to AI governance.

The Athens Roundtable has gathered over 3,600 senior leaders from 120 countries, including a diverse community of policymakers, lawmakers, AI developers, thought-leading academics, civil society leaders, and actors from legal, judicial, and compliance systems. The past four editions have been proudly organized under the patronage of the Presidency of the Hellenic Republic, and co-hosted by the following multilateral institutional partners: OECD, UNESCO, the European Parliament, and the Council of Europe. Previous editions have also benefited from the support of leading AI institutions and civil society organizations, including the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, NYU Center on Civil Justice, Stanford HAI, IEEE, Amazon Web Services, George Washington University’s Institute for International Science and Technology Policy (IISTP), and the NSF Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS). 

Given the transformative power of AI and its increasing progress, The Athens Roundtable aims to:

• Foster awareness and collective foresight by sharing knowledge on AI's latest legislative, regulatory, and standards developments across the Atlantic and beyond. 

• Design cross-stakeholder dialogues to enhance understanding of AI risks and responsible innovation among policymakers, legal actors, civil society, and other stakeholders, and build coalitions. 

• Promote future-proof policies, effective implementation, and enforcement across jurisdictions while upholding fundamental rights, the democratic order, and the rule of law.

• Build a robust evidence base for AI governance, including a set of adoptable benchmark frameworks and protocols, to empower stakeholders and impacted people with the necessary tools for AI uptake and oversight.

• Spur and co-produce initiatives with real-world practical impact for the private and public sectors at a global scale (see ‘Track Record’).

Working Groups

In addition to the annual convening, The Athens Roundtable brings together institutional partners under shared AI challenges. Through dedicated working groups with experts in AI governance and the rule of law, we co-design operational solutions for increased safety and trustworthy AI governance at a global scale. These have included:

• an Online Course on AI and the Rule of Law: Through our partnership with UNESCO and the support of our working group on judicial and legal AI capacity-building, we have developed and launched a massive open online course on AI and the Rule of Law. The course has trained over 4,500 judicial operators around the world, with a strong representation from the global south.

• a Manifesto In Defense of Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Age of AI: Through our Transatlantic Reflection Group on Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Age of AI, we launched a first manifesto, in 2021, laying out the foundational principles for trustworthy AI governance, with 150 signatories.

• a Manifesto on Enforcing Law in the Age of AI: Through our Transatlantic Reflection Group on Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Age of AI, we have published a  second manifesto, in 2022 with 10 actionable recommendations and a call for effective and legitimate enforcement of laws governing AI systems on both sides of the Atlantic.

• a set of ongoing programs of open AI benchmarks: Through our transatlantic working group on AI benchmarks and measurers, we bring together actors from major standards organizations and technical communities, including the U.S. NIST, CEN-CENELEC, IEEE, LNE, and VDE. The group is currently working on a set of guidelines for responsible AI development, proposing an institutional, interoperable, and ongoing AI benchmarking program, set for publication in 2023.