The laws, rules, standards, and oversight that guide how AI is developed and used. Because it varies widely between countries and is often slower than the technology, governance of AI is uneven and incomplete.

The use of software, often AI, to make or heavily shape decisions about people, such as allocating benefits or flagging fraud, with little or no human involvement. It is fast and consistent but can encode bias and remove the chance to explain or appeal a decision.

Shared, foundational digital systems that a society builds public services on, such as a national digital ID, payment rails, and data-exchange platforms. It can join services up and widen access, but concentrates sensitive data and risk in one place.

The way rules and norms for cross-border issues are set through international bodies, agreements, and powerful blocs, rather than a single world authority. For digital technology it is hard, because systems cross borders instantly while laws stop at them and states can opt out.

The systematic monitoring of people's behaviour, often through digital data, by a state or company, whether or not those being watched are aware of it.