Vilas Dhar is President and Trustee of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a global, $1.5 billion philanthropy that aims to advance the frontiers of artificial intelligence, data science and social impact. A trained computer scientist and lawyer, Dhar has been appointed to the United Nations High-Level Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence by the Secretary General, and serves as an expert contributor to OECD.AI, co-chair of the Global AI Action Alliance at the World Economic Forum, advisor to MIT SOLVE, and member of the Global Future Council on AI. He previously served as a senior fellow of the Berggruen Institute, the Gleitsman Fellow on Social Change at Harvard University, a practitioner resident on AI at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, and an entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Illinois. Vilas holds a JD from New York University School of Law, a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and dual Bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering and computer science from the University of Illinois. He is currently completing his doctoral dissertation at the University of Birmingham, on novel approaches to economic and policy infrastructure for a data enabled society to support and empower vulnerable populations. Dhar is scheduled to speak during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this month on the role of philanthropy in leveraging AI for public purpose, collaborative approaches to global AI governance, and new innovative solutions and systems to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities that AI offers. Under his direction, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation has collaborated with Deloitte and the Forum on the creation of the Centre for Trustworthy Technology in Austin, Texas. Dhar recently spoke to The Innovator about the importance of ensuring that AI is used for public good.
Q: What is top of mind for you as we enter 2025?
VD: Conversations about our AI future were once limited to a small circle of experts, but my focus is on expanding this into a whole-of-society dialogue – one that involves economists, moral philosophers, theologians and more. We can’t wait for ethical AI to evolve by chance. That’s why we’re investing in building a framework rooted in the best of human values—one that brings together not just technologists but also global institutions, policy leaders, consumer advocates, and a clear system of accountability.
Q: How does that work in practice?
VD: The critical part of this whole story is to demonstrate how AI can create a better world, amplify human dignity and become a force for good. When you look at the amount of investment that has gone into consumer facing products compared to investment for AI for humanity it is not even close. We need to accelerate financing for public use AI. 2025 is going to be a critical year for that.
We believe that by investing in AI solutions grounded in human values we can harness technology’s immense potential to benefit communities and individuals. In December the foundation announced that it is investing $73.5 million in AI for Humanity. Our investments are focused on three strategic areas: partnerships with 144 non-profit, academic and governmental organizations worldwide, the development and delivery of AI solutions built for long-term societal benefit and the creation of institutions designed to address the opportunities and challenges of the AI era.
Q: Beyond these investments how does the world move from proclamations and resolutions to making a difference in the way AI is used in everyday life?
VD: We need to move away from building products that are designed to keep people on a platform and engage in commercial transactions. Instead, we need to build public purpose and public welfare into the design of private products to give people tools that work for them too: tools that advance their interests, make them more creative, make them feel inspired and help them do things they couldn’t do before. In the academic side of our work, we are looking at what happens when AI content and capacity and product are based on new economic models and people can use these products to express agency and autonomy and become not just consumers but co-creators. An important part of the agency argument is to invest to make sure people are AI literate so they can influence the development of products. That is why the Patrick McGovern foundation is investing heavily in education and digital literary around AI. We do work with teachers but also groups – including corporate leaders and non-profit leaders- and have conversations around that we can take back from their world. The idea is to to give them agency and power not just around technical issues but broader social decisions. We need to change how we train people for the future. There is often a very narrow focus on the workforce. What that misses is training people to express their economic interest out in the world. We need to widen that focus. We are going into small coastal villages that are being threatened by the ocean rising due to climate change and speaking with indigenous people in rain forests to determine what AI can do for them: things like giving them more than five minutes notice that a flood or a landslide is coming or providing them with a tool to predict where illegal loggers will go next so they can go and find them. When you look at AI through the lens of a community it gives a richness and depth that comes from representing the interests of people.
Q: There are many different organizations working on AI governance and AI for Good, including the United Nations, OECD and World Economic Forum . How does the Foundation’s work fit with these initiatives?
VD: I served as a member of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence. In September, the board made proposals for how to govern AI for humanity in a report. Among other things the report recommends:
- Establishing an International Scientific Panel on AI, to provide impartial, reliable scientific knowledge about AI;
- Launching a new policy dialogue on AI governance at the UN, with intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder meetings, to foster common ground and regulatory interoperability rooted in human rights;
- Setting up an AI standards exchange, involving representatives from standards organizations, tech companies, and civil society, to ensure technical interoperability of AI systems across borders;
- Creating a global AI capacity development network to boost AI governance capacities, offering training, resources, and AI datasets to researchers and social entrepreneurs;
- Establishing a global AI fund to address gaps in capacity and collaboration, empowering local efforts to further the SDGs;
- Fostering a global AI data framework to standardize data-related definitions, principles, and stewardship, ensuring transparency and accountability in AI systems; and
In supporting the work of the Global Digital Compact and in issuing this report, my hope is to support a new sustained commitment to shared principles of AI equity and fairness, while building technical capacity through regional collaboration and shared compute resources. For example, we supported UNESCO and ministers from 18 Latin American countries to convene and deliver the Montevideo Declaration to advance regional cooperation on compute infrastructure. Often, the key isn’t unlimited power, but access to just enough computing to meet local needs. That’s why we’re advocating for smaller, more efficient AI models, open-source solutions, and safety-by-design principles that make AI development more inclusive and sustainable. The adoption of the Global Digital Compact, which incorporates these recommendations, marked a significant step toward equitable and collaborative AI governance.
Additionally, our work with the World Economic Forum – through Global Future Councils and through our Center for Trustworthy Technology – advances public-private partnerships that drive responsible AI innovation. The Forum’s multi-stakeholder approach complements the UN’s work by incorporating industry perspectives and scaling sustainable solutions. Together, these collaborations are creating a unified global approach—one that positions AI as a tool for progress, built on a foundation of transparency, inclusion, and shared purpose.
Q: What do you expect from France’s Global AI Summit, which will take place February 10 and 11 with the stated goals of creating a digital commons, a coalition for sustainable AI and an initiative to “clarify” global AI governance.
VD: In the wake of the Global Digital Compact, we’ve seen a growing commitment—not just in funding, but in partnerships—to re-imagine how we direct and govern AI development. France’s Global AI Summit builds on that momentum, providing a platform to shift the narrative from fear-driven debates about the risks of AI to a more inclusive, solutions-focused conversation. It’s an opportunity to emphasize how AI can be shaped to deliver on real human needs by bringing civil society, local communities, and policymakers into the same room as technologists and governments. I’m optimistic that this summit will advance more than dialogue—it can lay the groundwork for a coalition that steers AI development responsibly, clarifies governance structures, and promotes a shared digital commons designed to serve humanity as a whole.
Q: What keeps you up at night?
VD: AI will shape our world for generations, but my deepest concern is that too few will have the power to shape the technology itself. We need decentralized technical capacity and to build AI for public purpose, which is going to require governments to deeply invest. In 2025 all the elements are emerging to make this necessary. The good news is we are seeing real champions step forward on responsible and ethical practices. We see it at the national level and in company boardrooms across the world. The challenge will be sustaining and building on that momentum.
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