by Editor BGF | Jul 20, 2026 | News
Humanity stands at a decisive turning point.
Artificial intelligence is becoming the most powerful technology ever created. It can help build a world of greater freedom, prosperity, creativity, and peace.
But it can also become the most powerful instrument ever developed for centralized control, pervasive surveillance, manipulation of information, and the concentration of power over individuals and societies.
For the first time in history, humanity faces the possibility that AI could shape not only what people know, but how they think, what they believe, and how they live.
This is why the present moment is historic.
The challenge before us is no longer simply technological. It is civilizational.
Will AI strengthen human dignity—or weaken it?
Will it empower citizens—or make them increasingly subject to systems beyond their control?
Will it expand freedom—or become an unprecedented instrument of control?
These questions cannot be postponed.
The Boston Commitment is an urgent call to build the Foundation for the Age of AI before these choices are made for us.
Building that foundation means strengthening trust, protecting human dignity, ensuring meaningful human responsibility, preserving freedom of thought, promoting democratic governance, and advancing international cooperation for peace and security.
The Boston Commitment is more than a declaration.
It is a commitment to act while humanity still has the opportunity to shape the future.
Together with the Boston Declaration and the future Constitution for Humanity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, it represents a historic effort to ensure that AI remains a force for humanity—not a force over humanity.
History will remember not how powerful AI became, but whether humanity had the wisdom and courage to guide it.
Download the full file here: https://bostonglobalforum.org/wp-content/uploads/Boston_Commitment_A_Historic_Call_Formatted.pdf
by Editor BGF | Jul 20, 2026 | Shinzo Abe Initiative for Peace and Security, News
The Boston Global Forum (BGF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Hon. Mio Sugita as National Coordinator of AIWS Lumina Japan and Member of the Steering Committee of the Shinzo Abe Initiative for Peace and Security.
Ms. Sugita brings more than three decades of experience in public service, including nearly twenty years in local government administration and three terms as a Member of the House of Representatives of Japan. She also served as Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, contributing to national policies on public administration, local governance, disaster resilience, and communications.
A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, Ms. Sugita participated in the Seiwa Policy Research Council (Abe Faction) led for many years by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, contributing to policy discussions on national security, constitutional affairs, and Japan’s strategic role in promoting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.
As National Coordinator of AIWS Lumina Japan, Ms. Sugita will work under the leadership of Hon. Yasuhide Nakayama, Senior Representative of the Boston Global Forum in Japan, to advance the AIWS Lumina vision throughout Japan. Her responsibilities will include fostering partnerships with local governments, universities, cultural organizations, educators, community leaders, and civil society to promote the values of Love, Creativity, Nobility, and Wisdom in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
As a Member of the Steering Committee of the Shinzo Abe Initiative for Peace and Security, Ms. Sugita will contribute to advancing Prime Minister Abe’s enduring vision of peace, democratic values, a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, and international cooperation. The Initiative seeks to strengthen dialogue and collaboration among leaders, policymakers, scholars, and innovators committed to building a more peaceful, secure, and trustworthy world in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
The Boston Global Forum warmly welcomes Hon. Mio Sugita and looks forward to working with her to strengthen Japan’s contribution to AIWS Lumina and to further the ideals of the Shinzo Abe Initiative for Peace and Security.
by Editor BGF | Jul 20, 2026 | World Leader for Peace and Security, News
As the world enters the era of AI agents, Vint Cerf—one of the fathers of the Internet, a World Leader in AIWS, and one of the America 250: AI Pioneers—is once again helping shape the digital future. Following his retirement from Google, Cerf is now advising an initiative to develop open standards that will allow AI agents to identify themselves and interact securely across the open Internet, echoing the foundational role that TCP/IP played in connecting the world.
His latest work reinforces a principle that has guided his remarkable career: the next generation of AI must be built on open, interoperable, and trustworthy infrastructure that serves humanity rather than closed systems of control. It is a vision that resonates strongly with the Boston Declaration and the AIWS Trust Infrastructure.
Read more: Vint Cerf Is Working on a Plan to Unleash AI Agents on the Open Internet.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/15/vint-cerf-is-working-on-a-plan-to-unleash-ai-agents-on-the-open-internet/
by Editor BGF | Jul 20, 2026 | News, Shaping Futures
On July 14, 2026, in an exclusive interview with Axios and in a newly published framework on frontier AI governance, Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, called on the United States to lead the creation of a global institution capable of overseeing the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence systems.
His proposal comes at a moment of growing concern that artificial general intelligence may be only a few years away, while existing national regulations remain fragmented and inadequate. Hassabis argued that the world now needs a more systematic form of oversight: an industry-funded body staffed by leading technical experts, accountable to the U.S. government, and empowered to test frontier models before release and coordinate an industry-wide slowdown if serious dangers emerge.
The proposal is modeled partly on the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and reflects a wider movement among leading AI executives toward stronger international governance of frontier AI. It also follows recent discussions at the G7 about a U.S.-led coalition to coordinate global AI rules and standards.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/deepmind-ceo-calls-for-an-independent-standards-body-to-regulate-frontier-ai/
Hassabis’s intervention is significant because it recognizes that the most advanced AI systems can no longer be governed solely by individual companies or isolated national laws. Their capabilities may affect cybersecurity, biology, national security, economies, and societies across borders.
A U.S.-led initiative could help establish global standards grounded in transparency, independent evaluation, accountability, and meaningful human command. But its legitimacy would depend on protection from corporate capture, political manipulation, and domination by any single center of power.
Hassabis’s call reinforces the urgency behind the Boston Commitment to Build the Foundation for the Age of AI. Technical oversight is essential, but it must rest upon a broader human and constitutional foundation that protects dignity, freedom, responsibility, and peace.
The world is no longer merely debating how powerful AI may become. It is beginning to decide who will govern that power, according to which principles, and in whose service.
https://www.axios.com/2026/07/14/demis-hassabis-ai-regulation-google-deepmind
by Editor BGF | Jul 20, 2026 | Global Alliance for Digital Governance
A FOUNDER OF HUMAN-CENTERED AI
PRESENTS THE BOSTON DECLARATION
Professor Ben Shneiderman Introduces the Boston Declaration
in his 161st NOTE on Human-Centered AI
Fifty stars for fifty pioneers — the flag of America 250: AI Pioneers, honored alongside the Boston Declaration on July 4, 2026.
On July 17, 2026, the Boston Declaration on the Primacy of the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence entered one of the world’s most influential intellectual communities on Artificial Intelligence when Professor Ben Shneiderman devoted the 161st edition of his widely respected NOTE on Human-Centered AI to presenting its principles to the global Human-Centered AI community that has grown around his long-running series.
Professor Shneiderman is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Maryland and the founding director of its Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, he has profoundly shaped how humanity works with computers — from the principles of direct manipulation and the highlighted selectable link to the treemap and the classic textbook Designing the User Interface. His book Human-Centered AI (Oxford, 2022) became a defining charter for the field, advocating technology that amplifies, augments, empowers, and enhances human performance while always keeping humans in control. When the founder of that tradition examines a new declaration on the future of AI, the global Human-Centered AI community listens.
Professor Shneiderman’s assessment of the Boston Declaration — proclaimed by the Boston Global Forum on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of American independence, under the leadership of Governor Michael Dukakis, Nguyen Anh Tuan, and Professor Thomas Patterson — was both thoughtful and encouraging. He described the Declaration as “well-aligned with human-centered thinking” and introduced his readers to its Ten Principles of Human Primacy: the inviolable dignity of the human person; moral judgment as a uniquely human capacity that can never be delegated to a machine; meaningful human authority over advanced AI systems — the right to understand, to refuse, and to intervene; creativity as the engine of civilization, sustained by compassion, empathy, and care; and human responsibility that “cannot be transferred to an algorithm.”
With the candor of a distinguished scholar, Professor Shneiderman also expressed one preference — for the word “tool” where the Declaration uses “partner.” The Boston Global Forum welcomes this observation as the beginning of a thoughtful dialogue between two complementary traditions: the Human-Centered AI movement’s enduring emphasis on meaningful human control, and the Boston Declaration’s broader vision of technology in service of human flourishing.
Most significantly, Professor Shneiderman concluded with a call to action:
“Each of you can help by spreading news about the Boston Declaration in your communities.”
He also placed the Boston Declaration alongside the Cannes Declaration on the Sovereignty of Mind of February 12, 2026, recognizing the emergence of a growing family of international documents dedicated to protecting human cognitive autonomy and human dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
Professor Shneiderman’s decision to introduce the Boston Declaration to the global Human-Centered AI community marks an important milestone in the Declaration’s international journey. It opens a meaningful dialogue between one of the world’s most influential traditions of Human-Centered AI and a broader effort to build the constitutional, institutional, and trust foundations for Humanity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
The Boston Global Forum and AIWS express their deep gratitude to Professor Shneiderman. That the founder of the Human-Centered AI tradition has presented the Boston Declaration to the very community he helped build — and invited that community to carry its message forward — is among the Declaration’s most significant early milestones.
This is how foundational ideas travel: from one trusted community to another, inspiring dialogue, strengthening partnerships, and ultimately shaping the future of humanity.
Download the full file here: https://bostonglobalforum.org/wp-content/uploads/Ben_Shneiderman_161st_NOTE_Boston_Declaration_Article.pdf
