Legal infrastructure for transformative AI governance

G Gillian K. Hadfield (School of Government and Policy and Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University)

Abstract

Most of our AI governance efforts focus on substance: What rules do we want in place? What limits or checks do we want to impose on AI development and deployment? But a key role for law is not only to establish substantive rules but also to establish legal and regulatory infrastructure to generate and implement rules. The transformative nature of AI calls especially for attention to building legal and regulatory frameworks. In this Perspective, I review three examples: the creation of registration regimes for frontier models; the creation of registration and identification regimes for autonomous agents; and the design of regulatory markets to facilitate a role for private companies to innovate and deliver AI regulatory services.

Article Details

Volume / Issue Vol. 123, Issue 30
Published July 28, 2026
ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher National Academy of Sciences

Authors (1)

G

Gillian K. Hadfield

School of Government and Policy and Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University