What happened
CSIS's Wadhwani AI Center (Christopher Collins and Aalok Mehta) published this report on September 21, 2026, arguing that the United States is now "in an institutional race to lead global AI governance." It maps three competing governance visions that took concrete shape within six weeks this summer: the US State Department's second Pax Silica Summit, the UN's Global Dialogue on AI Governance, and the Shanghai agreement in which 29 countries signed a Chinese-led World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO). The authors contend China's offer targeting the Global South fills a genuine gap in global AI governance, citing the UN AI Advisory Body finding that 118 countries, "overwhelmingly lower- and middle-income countries in the Global South, 'were not parties to any of the significant international AI governance initiatives.'" Ahead of the September 24 Trump-Xi meeting, they urge US policymakers to pursue a focused AI-safety agenda at the summit, treat verification as a technical program rather than a diplomatic issue, and build a domestic model of AI governance worth exporting.
Why it matters
Provides the analytical frame for the US-China AI summit and WAICO's emergence as a competing governance pole — essential context for executives and policy leads tracking how global AI rules will be set.
Action needed
Use the report's three-tier map (US, UN, WAICO) to anticipate post-summit shifts in AI governance and market-access rules, and brief your government-affairs team ahead of the September 24 talks.