Introduction

On April 14, the World Internet Conference’s Asia-Pacific Summit forum on “Smart Benefits for People, Co-creating a Better Life” was held at the Hong Kong International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Government officials, international organization representatives, leading corporate executives, and authoritative experts gathered to discuss strategies for bridging the digital divide, exploring innovative paths for smart governance, and researching global AI collaborative governance solutions.

During the forum, eight reports from the World Internet Conference’s think tank collaboration plan were released, with five focusing on the theme of AI governance. These reports provide systematic references for using AI to serve people’s livelihoods and empower high-quality social development from five dimensions: bridging the digital divide, content governance, legislative collaboration, inclusive sharing, and intelligent governance.

Evolution and Governance of the Global Digital Divide

The Zhijiang Laboratory’s Intelligent Social Governance Laboratory released a report titled “Evolution Trends, Multidimensional Impacts, and Cooperative Governance Paths of the Global Digital Divide.” The International Communication Research Center of Zhejiang University and the Wuzhen Digital Civilization Research Institute jointly published a report on “The Evolutionary Trends and Inclusive Paths of the Global Digital Divide.” Both reports address the core issues of the digital divide and propose corresponding governance paths.

The report on the evolution of the global digital divide reveals its trends, multidimensional impacts, and systemic risks. It suggests that the international community should abandon zero-sum competition and build a cooperative governance framework of “five-in-one”: constructing open and shared infrastructure, creating sustainable international public goods, nurturing an open-source ecosystem, establishing a composite talent cultivation system, and improving multilateral collaborative governance mechanisms to ensure AI benefits all humanity.

The report on the evolutionary trends of the global digital divide points out that AI has become a cognitive infrastructure reshaping production relations, but imbalanced distribution of benefits has led to a more concealed and systematic digital divide. The root cause lies in the “impossible triangle” of technology, capital, and politics, leading to the risk of a “next major bifurcation” in global AI development. The solution is to use technological innovation as an engine to reshape AI as a globally shared “intelligent public good” through five paths: supporting globally accessible open-source models, enhancing developing countries’ participation in rule-making, promoting dual-track development of soft and hard infrastructure, strengthening fair design in high-risk scenarios, and constructing regional data spaces to build an inclusive governance framework for a fair new order.

Bridging the AI Divide: From Content Governance to Legislative Collaboration

The Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Renmin University of China released a report on “Content Governance in the Era of Generative AI,” focusing on new risks brought by generative AI in online information content and proposing a governance system suitable for the new era.

The report argues that generative AI reshapes the logic of online content production, with AIGC becoming the mainstream content production method. However, it presents three significant challenges to the existing governance system: first, information disorder, as AI-generated content is difficult to identify and distinguish between true and false; second, platform revolution, where new AIGC platform rules are lacking, rendering traditional post-event governance ineffective; and third, the responsibility dilemma, where multiple parties involved complicate the allocation of content damage responsibilities. In line with global regulatory trends, the report proposes three governance directions: promoting the coordinated development of content identification technology and systems; constructing new platform governance rules to shift platforms from post-event handling to full-process prevention; and improving responsibility allocation rules to clarify the boundaries of responsibilities among developers, platforms, and users, forming a closed-loop governance system oriented towards AIGC.

The Competition Law and Policy Research Center of Wuhan University, the Law School of Xinjiang University, and the Internet Governance Research Institute of Wuhan University jointly released a report titled “Legislative Observations on Global AI Governance: Experiences and Prospects,” comparing major global AI governance models and clarifying future legislative directions.

The report outlines the three typical AI governance models of the United States, the European Union, and China, highlighting the need for global AI governance to break through four theoretical propositions: legal subjects, algorithmic power, data legal rights, and human-machine ethics. It emphasizes that scientifically moderate regulation is key to ensuring AI benefits people’s livelihoods, balancing innovation vitality with risk prevention, and promoting the coordination of global governance rules.

Empowering Governance with Digital Intelligence: Constructing Evaluation Index Systems

The Network Society Governance Research Center of Nankai University released a report on “Digital Intelligence Empowering Government Governance Evaluation Index,” establishing a standardized assessment framework based on the global transition of digital government to intelligent governance.

The report systematically reviews the practices of international organizations and major economies in data governance, intelligent applications, and institutional construction. It constructs an index system across four dimensions: digital intelligence empowering social governance, public services, institutional guarantees, and public participation, forming a comparable and adjustable capability identification tool.

This index provides quantitative references for countries to assess their digital governance capabilities and facilitate exchanges and mutual learning, helping governments enhance their AI application levels and better serve people’s livelihoods through digital transformation.

Conclusion

The forum gathered global wisdom and released reports related to AI governance that are grounded in reality and precisely targeted. They cover core areas such as bridging the digital divide, online information content governance, legislative collaboration, and intelligent governance. These reports systematically identify risks and issues in global AI development while proposing targeted and actionable governance paths, forming a comprehensive outcome from risk identification to governance paths, and from technological inclusiveness to institutional innovation. Looking ahead, all parties will turn consensus into action, working together to promote the benevolent development of artificial intelligence, ensuring that technology truly serves humanity and benefits the public, and collectively writing a new chapter in “Smart Benefits for People, Co-creating a Better Life.”