The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, known as GPAI, was launched on 15 June 2020 by a joint statement from its founding members. The fifteen founders were Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. The members committed to supporting “the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI in a manner consistent with human rights, fundamental freedoms, and our shared democratic values.”
GPAI was designed to bridge the gap between high-level principles and practical work. Its activity is organized around themes including responsible AI, data governance, the future of work, and innovation and commercialisation, supported by centres of expertise originally established in Montreal and Paris. The secretariat was hosted by the OECD in Paris, tying GPAI closely to the OECD AI Principles agreed a year earlier. The first plenary meeting was hosted by Canada in December 2020.
Membership grew steadily after launch, passing two dozen countries within a few years. In 2024 GPAI and the OECD merged their efforts into an integrated partnership, consolidating the two main international venues for cooperation on trustworthy AI under one roof and reducing the duplication that came from running parallel bodies.