AI Governance Library

The AI Policy Playbook: 2024 Edition

A modular toolkit for lawmakers, researchers, and advocates to shape effective, rights-respecting AI policy—built on global principles, practical levers, and tested language from 40+ jurisdictions.
The AI Policy Playbook: 2024 Edition

⚡ Quick Summary

This Playbook is field-tested guide for AI policy design. Aimed at policymakers and civil society, it translates high-level AI principles into legislative options, sample provisions, and strategic levers for advocacy. The 2024 edition adds new material on generative AI, API-level governance, and international coordination. Structured into four action areas—transparency, accountability, data stewardship, and red lines—the Playbook distills hundreds of global policy experiments into adaptable templates. It’s not a model law; it’s a modular kit to mix, match, and localize. From procurement standards to public registers, it equips readers to build guardrails where laws lag behind.

🧩 What’s Covered

The Playbook is organized around four “action areas” that define a rights-based approach to AI governance:

  1. Transparency & Explainability
    • Includes model documentation templates, audit traceability, and public disclosures
    • Offers sample provisions for algorithmic registers, impact assessments, and documentation obligations
    • New in 2024: API labeling of model capabilities, data lineage requirements for LLMs
  2. Accountability & Liability
    • Covers human oversight, appeals mechanisms, and enforcement capacity
    • Provides language for liability allocation in the AI value chain (developers vs. deployers)
    • Highlights risk-tiering frameworks and enforcement triggers
  3. Data Stewardship
    • Promotes data rights, access to training data, and participatory data governance
    • Includes sample clauses for data sharing, trust models, and data fiduciaries
    • Discusses open-source model provisions and transparency incentives
  4. Limits & Red Lines
    • Proposes policy options to prohibit certain AI uses: biometric mass surveillance, emotion recognition in public spaces, manipulative personalization
    • Includes risk escalation pathways and dynamic safeguards for generative models

Other Key Content:

  • Playbook Builder Matrix (p. 4–5): A visual index that maps action areas to policy levers
  • AI Lifecycle Map (p. 9): Aligns interventions to stages of development and deployment
  • 40+ Real-World Examples from Africa, LATAM, EU, and U.S. cities
  • How to Use It guidance for local vs. national policymakers, tech activists, and regulatory drafters

💡 Why it matters?

There’s no single recipe for AI legislation—but there are recurring ingredients that work. This Playbook gives non-experts a handle on how to turn AI principles into enforceable, adaptable laws. It empowers Global Majority actors with sample language and examples, without defaulting to EU/US paradigms. With growing pressure on lawmakers to “do something” fast, this is a rare tool that favors strategic action over knee-jerk bans or toothless principles.

❓ What’s Missing

  • Enforcement Strategies: Limited guidance on institutional setup or regulator capacity
  • Cross-border Interoperability: Few recommendations on aligning across jurisdictions
  • Technical Depth: Simplified explanations of LLM-specific risks may need bolstering for expert audiences

👥 Best For

Local and national legislators crafting first-gen AI laws

  • Advocacy groups pushing for meaningful transparency or red lines
  • Think tanks translating AI principles into public policy
  • Civil society coalitions in the Global South seeking ready-to-adapt templates
  • Policy teams in ministries, parliaments, or digital agencies

📄 Source Details

Title: The AI Policy Playbook: 2024 Edition

Author: AI & Society Program

Date: 2024

Length: 46 pages

Format: Modular guide with sample clauses, case studies, and templates

About the author
Jakub Szarmach

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