Open @ UNGA 81: Open Infrastructure

As AI grows, so does dependence on the companies and institutions that control the infrastructure on which it runs. “Public” infrastructure can mean government-built systems or open, cross-border infrastructure maintained by nonprofit, research, commercial, or volunteer communities. This panel will discuss how these models intersect with sovereignty, drawing on analogies like natural food webs to examine when openness and shared standards genuinely reduce lock-in, what dependencies persist across cloud, compute, and skills, and how public institutions can fund infrastructure that’s adaptable and accountable without every country rebuilding from scratch.