Our 2025 winter Buffett Symposium on AI and Geopolitics convened leading strategists, researchers, and policymakers to discuss the transformative opportunities and profound challenges that AI poses in geopolitics. The event was co-organized by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, ⁠Northwestern Security & AI Lab (NSAIL)⁠, and ⁠Insight Centre at University College Cork⁠.

The daylong program's final panel discussion focused on the role of international cooperation in advancing the development, regulation, and application of AI through shared expertise, collaborative research, and ethical governance. Through partnerships such as the 2023 US-EU Administrative Arrangement on Artificial Intelligence for the Public Good, scientific and technological cooperation can leverage AI to tackle grand challenges in healthcare, education, disaster management, and public service delivery. Through this agreement, the US and EU aim to share findings and resources with international partners, which is critical to efforts to bridge the digital divide.

Panelists included:

• Daniel Byman, Professor and Director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University, and Director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Juha Heikkilä, Adviser for Artificial Intelligence, European Commission

• Romain Murenzi, Professor of Physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and former Rwandan Minister of Education, Science and Technology, and Information Communication Technologies

• Moderator V.S. Subrahmanian, Buffett Faculty Fellow and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering, and Director of NSAIL

Key Takeaways

• Unequal access to broadband and electricity, prerequisites for leveraging AI effectively, is a significant barrier to entry for countries in the Global South. Murenzi noted that, during the AI boom in 2023, developing countries were rebuilding their economies and education infrastructure post-COVID-19. International cooperation, through funding programs and partnerships, is essential to ensure technologies are tailored to local contexts and don’t further exacerbate disparities.

• Expertise and innovation predominantly lie within private corporations, emphasizing the need for public-private partnerships and ethical oversight. The private sector possesses the resources, talent, and computational power necessary to drive innovation, placing them at the forefront of AI advancement. However, this concentration of expertise creates a dependency on private entities for progress, potentially sidelining public interests and societal goals.

• Effective collaboration between private companies, governments, and academia is necessary to create synergies and build local capacities, particularly in developing nations. Byman explained that university researchers play an important role in developing AI technologies and safety protocols that are beneficial to society but have less value commercially and thus are not likely to be pursued by the profit-driven private sector.

Read the symposium synthesis report >>