Against this backdrop, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) convened the Democracy, Digital Rights, and Governance in the AI Era Workshop in Taipei, Taiwan on July 6, bringing together civil society leaders, researchers, business representatives, technologists, journalists, and policy experts to examine one of the defining governance challenges of our time: how democratic societies can harness the benefits of AI while safeguarding freedom, accountability, and public trust.
About the Event
The workshop examined how AI and digital technologies are shaping democratic resilience and the information landscape. The cancellation of RightsCon (the world’s largest conference focused on human rights in the digital age) served as an important starting point for discussion about the future of digital rights and growing geopolitical competition over digital governance.
The workshop had two core objectives:
- Examining how authoritarian governments and state-backed technology are shaping norms around AI, surveillance, and digital governance.
- Identifying collaboration opportunities among civil society, researchers, business stakeholders, and policymakers to strengthen democratic responses.
Featured Speakers
- Audrey Tang, Cyber Ambassador and Former Digital Minister
- Andrew C. Wilson, Executive Director, CIPE
- Jane Hsu, Former President, Taiwanese Association for Artificial Intelligence and Director, AI and Advanced Robotics Center
- Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang, CEO, Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology
- Catherine Tai, Director, China in the World, CIPE
- Michael Caster, Head of Global China Programme, ARTICLE 19
- Oluseyi Olufemi, Nigeria Country Director, Dataphyte
Discussion Summary
Civic AI and Democratic Resilience
The opening session focused on AI governance and democratic agency. A central theme was that democratic societies should not simply seek to adopt AI more quickly than their adversaries but should instead build systems that are open to inspection, contestation, switching, and repair. Keynote speaker Audrey Tang highlighted the importance of Civic AI: technology that supports public correction, strengthens partnerships, and helps institutions respond more effectively to emerging harms.
Drawing on Taiwan’s experience with civic technology, Tang emphasized that the defining feature of democratic AI is not whether a model is open or closed source. Rather, it is whether citizens have meaningful avenues for transparency, oversight, correction, and recourse when systems fail.
A Global Contest of Governance Models
Throughout the workshop, participants framed AI governance as more than a technical or regulatory issue. Increasingly, it represents a competition between democratic and authoritarian visions of how tech-enabled societies should be governed.
Discussions explored how AI systems can shape transparency, accountability, and privacy as AI is deployed in new institutions, platforms, infrastructure, and public-sector initiatives.
The workshop connected AI governance to CIPE’s broader work on constructive and corrosive capital. Like capital flows, technology systems can create dependencies when their governance, ownership, or underlying incentives are not well understood. Many organizations are still in the early stages of AI adoption, creating an opportunity to shape how AI is developed, adopted, and governed.
Trusted Technology Ecosystems and Local Agency
Several sessions underscored the importance of local context, language, and values in AI development and deployment. Participants highlighted the risks posed by open-weight models, surveillance-enabled infrastructure, and concentrated platform power when adopted without transparency or appropriate safeguards. At the same time, participants noted that AI can be used constructively when communities can adapt tools to their needs and reflect local priorities, languages, and values.
Taiwan’s role in the global AI hardware ecosystem also featured prominently. Speakers emphasized the importance of understanding the full AI stack, from hardware and data centers to AI models and governance frameworks, to help identify chokepoints, security gaps, dependencies, and areas for collaboration.
Practical Responses from Civil Society, Business, and Policymakers
Breakout discussions focused on translating democratic principles into practical solutions. Participants explored how AI could help civil society organizations analyze public data, increase transparency, and strengthen accountability. They also discussed the need for organizations to develop responsible AI policies that clarify when and how AI tools should be used.
Another recurring theme was the need to bridge the AI and digital divide. Participants highlighted the importance of locally grounded models, local-language representation, and community expertise in ensuring that AI tools are relevant and accessible. Collaborative approaches that draw on expertise from government, civil society, academia, finance, and technical communities help ensure AI solutions reflect local needs and priorities from inception.
Multistakeholder Governance and the Future of Digital Rights
Participants examined the future of digital rights and multistakeholder governance following the cancellation of RightsCon. Discussions focused on the growing influence of authoritarian technology governance models and the need for stronger collaboration among civil society, policymakers, businesses, and technical experts to shape and coalesce around democratic alternatives. Speakers also stressed the importance of raising awareness of digital governance challenges at both national and local levels.
Looking Ahead
A clear message emerged from the workshop: AI governance is not only about frontier AI models but a defining challenge for democratic resilience.
Participants identified several priorities for action, including investing in civic AI capacity, strengthening trusted technology ecosystems, and building cross-sector networks capable of responding to authoritarian influence. Ultimately, sustaining democratic resilience in the AI era will require more than managing technological risk. It will depend on public trust, practical collaboration, and governance systems that give citizens a meaningful role in shaping the technologies that affect their lives, livelihoods and our shared future.
Published Date: September 28, 2026