The Athens Roundtable on AI and the Rule of Law, co-founded in 2019 by The Future Society (TFS), has established itself as a global forum dedicated to fostering international dialogue and collective action on artificial intelligence and the rule of law. Grounded in the principles of international coordination and cooperation, evidence-based decision-making, and democratic governance, The Athens Roundtable serves as a crucible for collective intelligence on pressing topics related to AI governance.

The Athens Roundtable has gathered over 5,500 AI actors from 130 countries. Previous editions have been held under the Patronage of the Hellenic Republic. Each edition has been co-hosted by a series of prominent intergovernmental organizations including the OECD, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the World Bank, the European Parliament, as well as civil society and academic partners including IEEE, NIST-NSF, Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS), NYU Center on Civil Justice, Stanford HAI, the George Washington University’s Institute for International Science and Technology Policy (IISTP), Sciences Po, the Center for AI and Digital Policy, and more. The Roundtable has been financially supported by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation as well as law firms (e.g. Arnold and Porter, Paul Weiss) representatives from industry (e.g. Microsoft, Amazon Web Services), and civil society (e.g., Fathom).

The Roundtable’s key objective is to advance the democratic order, the rule of law, and human wellbeing in the age of AI.

Collective Action

In addition to the annual convening, The Athens Roundtable builds and promotes coalitions among policymakers, AI developers, civil society leaders, academics, and actors from legal, judicial, and compliance systems to advance AI governance collectively. Check out our collective action.