Current debates in the AI context turn to prevailing Intellectual Property (IP) frameworks and their applicability to the AI moment. Yet, this only intensifies the crisis of the knowledge commons. As experts have noted, on the one hand, copyright frameworks and their ‘fair use’ exemptions may not be fit-for-purpose to deal with questions of data/knowledge in AI-related learning systems. On the other hand, an overbroad application of trade secrets by first-mover platforms to enclose data resources in perpetuity forecloses democratic, pluralistic, and public-interest AI innovation pathways, particularly in the Majority World.
IP frameworks have therefore contributed to both the cannibalization of public domain knowledge as well as its impoverishment through private enclosures of data and knowledge resources, disincentivizing reciprocities and responsibilities vital for the protection and promotion of cultural rights and vibrant knowledge societies.
Together with UNESCO’s Global CSOs and Academic Network on AI Ethics and Policy, IT for Change convened a civil society roundtable on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit to turn the spotlight to the public domain challenge within the policy debate on AI innovation, cultural rights, and development.
The event, organized in a hybrid format, was held at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on 17 Feb 2026. It brought together 22 policy and legal experts, creators, artists, researchers, digital rights and development organizations, for a vibrant debate. The roundtable was structured around three rounds of catalyst presentations followed by open discussion, guided by the following questions:
- What are the impacts of the dominant AI innovation paradigm for cultural rights and development?
- Are existing IP regimes adequate to redirect AI development pathways towards local needs and local control of the knowledge infrastructures of tomorrow?
- How can we build an AI commons that fosters a flourishing public domain? Is IP reform a part of this agenda?
Insights from this roundtable, with due acknowledgment of participants’ contributions, will feed into a policy brief for the sub-group on IP and Culture that IT for Change co-leads under UNESCO’s global network.
Read the event report here.