Open Letter: Yes, AI Requires Independent Oversight, But We Have To Design It Right

To the leaders building artificial intelligence (and the policymakers now responsible for governing it):

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- For years, those of you building AI have told policymakers and the public, in increasingly concrete terms, that the companies building such consequential technology cannot govern it unilaterally. We agree. And now is the time to act.

The Oversight Board has worked for the last six years to protect free expression and other human rights on Meta's platforms. We have published 273 decisions and issued 364 recommendations, addressing far-ranging questions on every continent. Our work carrying out this first-of-its-kind oversight body has yielded important, hard-won lessons that can help build the AI governance ecosystem needed to protect users and their rights. Our experience offers a unique perspective to an industry considering how to erect appropriate and effective safety and governance measures.

Over the last several weeks, we have watched with interest, relief and a fair bit of skepticism as one tech leader after another has sounded the alarm about the perils of AI. They have pledged to implement forms of independent audit or oversight to keep the technologies, and the companies that produce them, from causing a range of potential crises. The scope, powers and operations of such oversight mechanisms remain unspecified. These particulars will determine whether oversight helps to achieve tech titans' promise of better and safer systems, or offers only a measure of temporary cover as the dangers they warn of grow unabated.

The Oversight Board occupies a distinct role, providing human-rights-based oversight in the form of an external actor that renders decisions independent from business and government interests. The Board is given some access to Meta's internal systems and policies. Over the last six years, we have developed a way to deliver principled guidance that is situated in operational realities, incorporates public input, and provides a detailed, published rationale that informs the public and can shape future decision-making.

While social media content moderation and AI governance are not the same, there are critical lessons from the former that should be mined for this moment and important parallels that apply to AI companies' challenges: most notably that a vigilant and principled approach will be required to continuously review and oversee the performance of AI.

While the Oversight Board is not a perfect model to emulate and operates within strict limitations, it is a worthwhile foundation to study and build upon. As participants in this experiment, we are eager to share what has worked, and what has not. Based upon learnings from the Board's strengths as well as its challenges, we suggest the following essential elements of effective independent oversight, acknowledging that independent oversight is just one component of the necessary layers of protection regarding AI's potential harms:

The reality is, with a tool that has as much potential and as much risk as AI, we will need a layered approach to governance that includes company policies, industry-adopted standards, independent oversight of those standards from a range of perspectives as well as both regulation and international coordination.

Public trust in AI is declining, as more stories about the actual and potential harms linked to it emerge. Now is the time for all of industry to come together, along with critical stakeholders and policymakers, to build lasting and meaningful governance mechanisms, and bridge the growing trust gap. As leaders of the most powerful companies in the world, we need you to put the same level of leadership energy that you are putting into developing advanced artificial intelligence into developing the trust and safety guardrails that will keep people safe and their human rights respected.

In the days and weeks ahead, we will convene conversations about meaningful and independent oversight. We look forward to engaging industry and policymakers in a dialogue around what has worked, what hasn't and what we've learned over the last six years.

Best regards,

The Oversight Board

The Oversight Board is an independent body of experts that holds Meta accountable for protecting freedom of expression and other human rights on its platforms. The Board makes binding decisions on individual content and provides policy recommendations to which Meta is obligated to respond. It is currently comprised of 20 experts from around the world, from a variety of political, cultural, and professional backgrounds. Learn more at oversightboard.com.

SOURCE Oversight Board