About
What Plures is.
Plures is a nonprofit widening the public conversation on AI governance, so that countries beyond the AI frontier can help shape how AI is governed and be ready for the changes it brings.
The problem
The decisions are being made without most of the world.
Over the coming decade, AI may become core infrastructure for economies, security, and public life. The decisions being made about it now, by a handful of companies and governments, will reach everyone.
The risks travel too. Harm from a misused or poorly controlled system does not stop at the border of the country where it was built: disruption to jobs in one economy ripples through trade and migration, and attacks on critical infrastructure can halt activity far beyond their target. Preparing for advanced AI is a problem for every country, not only the few building it.
Our focus
The countries missing from the conversation.
Countries outside the AI frontier will live with AI’s consequences, and many of them hold real leverage over how it is governed: diplomatic weight, strategic resources, large markets, and seats at the tables where international rules are written.
Yet in most of these countries, AI governance is barely part of the public debate. Few people work on it, little is written about it in the local language, and policymakers have limited support when they want to act. When a window of opportunity opens, good decisions will depend on the people, research and public understanding already in place.
What we do
We work on three fronts.
Grow local talent
We run university-level essay contests in local languages, inviting thousands of people to think seriously about how their country should prepare for advanced AI, and we connect the strongest participants to courses, mentors and careers in the field.
Raise public awareness
We work with partners and the media to carry the contests and their best essays into public debate, so AI governance becomes part of the national conversation.
Strengthen the ecosystem
We document what works and share it: contest blueprints, lessons learned, and connections between the people and organizations working on AI governance in different countries, so each new effort starts further ahead.
Where we are
The first pilot is live.
Our first essay contest is running now in Brazil: the 1º Concurso de Ensaios - Brasil, in Portuguese, open to university students and early-career professionals across the country.
Since announcing Plures, people and organizations in more than a dozen countries have reached out about bringing the contest to where they live. We are documenting everything we learn in Brazil to make that possible.
Meet the team ↗