The Algorithmic State: Sovereignty, Safety, and the Governance of Public Sector AI

 

What happens when the operating system of government begins to change?

 

In the decade ahead, the states that use AI well may not only move faster; they may out-govern, out-administer, and out-compete those that do not. The real question is no longer whether governments will use AI, but whether public institutions can build the capacity to govern, procure, and deploy these systems on terms that serve the public interest.

 

As frontier AI moves closer to the core of defense, health, education, regulation, and democratic administration, this becomes more than a technology story. It becomes a question of state capacity, sovereignty, and public trust: who sets the terms, who bears the risk, and whether democratic institutions can modernize without losing control of the systems they increasingly rely on.

 

This webinar brings together Dean Ball and Shu Yang Lin, two globally respected leaders in public-sector AI, to examine what serious adoption actually requires: smarter procurement, clearer accountability, stronger safeguards, deeper internal capacity, and a more practical understanding of sovereignty in a world of globally developed AI systems. The discussion will be moderated by Jaxson Khan, CEO of Aperture AI and Senior Fellow at the Munk School, whose work sits at the intersection of AI adoption, institutional readiness, and public-sector transformation.

 

Together, they will explore how governments can move from scattered use cases to whole-of-government capability without losing legitimacy, resilience, or democratic control: What will separate governments that merely experiment with AI from those that genuinely build capacity with it? How should democratic states procure and govern systems they may not fully build, own, or control? And what must public institutions do now to ensure that AI strengthens state capability, rather than quietly hollowing it out?

 

 

Hosted by: International Telecommunications Society, Munk School, and TELUS

 

📩 Submit questions in advance to: joe.rowsell@telus.com