Knowledge Networks and RegulatingAI Unveil The AI Policy 100 (2026), Naming the 100 People Who Write the Rules of AI

Knowledge Networks and RegulatingAI unveiled The AI Policy 100 (2026), honoring the 100 influential leaders who write, enforce, and shape global AI governance.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Knowledge Networks, the Washington, D.C.-based organization behind RegulatingAI, has published The AI Policy 100 (2026), its inaugural annual ranking of the 100 individuals with the greatest influence on how artificial intelligence is governed. Knowledge Networks announced the list on August 5, 2026 at The AI Policy Summit at Ai4 Las Vegas. It identifies the regulators who draft the rules AI must follow, the legislators who pass them, the officials who enforce them, and the researchers, jurists and advocates who set the terms of the public argument. The full list, the reasoning behind each entry and the complete methodology are available at https://regulatingai.org/ai-policy-100/.

The 2026 honorees come from national governments and regulators, the U.S. Congress and state legislatures, the European Parliament and European Commission, competition, communications and data protection authorities, multilateral and standards bodies, leading universities and research institutes, civil society organizations and technology companies. Together they represent a field that now cuts across regions, sectors and disciplines. The complete list of all 100 honorees appears at the end of this release.

Why The AI Policy 100 Matters
A comparatively small number of people will decide how AI is governed this decade. Their decisions about what developers must disclose, what they must test, and what they may not build will outlast most of the systems those rules cover. Yet very little of this work happens in public. It happens in agency rule-making, committee drafting, standards bodies and technical annexes, across jurisdictions that rarely read each other's output. As a result, almost everyone has an opinion about AI policy, but very few people can say who is actually setting it.
The AI Policy 100 maps where authority over AI actually sits. Knowledge Networks publishes the list with its full method attached, so anyone can examine the reasoning and challenge it.

"The rules that will govern artificial intelligence for a generation are being written right now, and most of that work happens far from public view. The AI Policy 100 makes it visible. We publish our criteria in full, we check every claim against a primary source, and no one can buy a place on this list. We invite everyone, the honorees included, to test our reasoning," said Sanjay K. Puri, Founder and President of RegulatingAI.

Selection Criteria
The AI Policy 100 is an editorial judgement, made against criteria Knowledge Networks publishes in full and evidence it checks line by line. There is no application, no self-nomination and no nomination process of any kind. The editorial team assesses candidates from every part of the governance landscape: national regulators, legislatures, multilateral bodies, courts, academia, industry and civil society. It judges each candidate on five criteria:

• Rule-Making Influence (30%). Direct authority over rules that bind. This covers people who draft rules, pass them, enforce them or interpret them. It carries the heaviest weight because it measures the most direct form of influence over how AI is governed.
• Scope of Impact (25%). How many people, institutions and markets fall within reach of the candidate's decisions. A rule that applies across a large economy or a whole region scores higher than one with narrow reach.
• Current Activity (20%). Demonstrable activity during the edition year. Past influence does not carry itself forward, so a strong record from earlier years does not secure a place on its own.
• Cross-Jurisdiction Reach (15%). Whether the candidate's influence crosses borders, or guides how other jurisdictions approach the same question.
• Public Engagement (10%). Contribution to the public argument through testimony, published work, standards participation and advocacy.

How Influence Is Measured
The ranking runs on one hundred points, divided five ways. The editorial team scores every candidate from one to five on each of the five criteria. It then applies the fixed weights below and combines the five weighted scores into a single, comparable figure. That figure determines each honoree's position on the list.

Rule-Making Influence-30%-Direct authority over binding rules: drafting them, passing them, enforcing them, or interpreting them.
Scope of Impact-25%-How many people, institutions and markets fall within reach of the honoree's decisions.
Current Activity-20%-Demonstrable activity during the edition year. Past influence does not carry forward on its own.
Cross-Jurisdiction Reach-15%-Whether the honoree's influence crosses borders or guides how other jurisdictions approach the same question.
Public Engagement-10%-Contribution to the public argument through testimony, published work, standards participation and advocacy.
Total-100%-A single weighted score used to rank all 100 honorees.

The weights do not change between editions. Because the method stays fixed, any movement in the ranking from one year to the next reflects a real change in influence rather than a change in how it is counted.
Knowledge Networks builds the list through the same six-stage process every year, in the same order. Before publication, the editorial team verifies every name, title and claim against a primary source. The ranking rests on four principles:

• Independent. No placement is for sale. There is no entry fee, no sponsored slot and no consideration of any kind.
• Annual. One edition a year against a fixed method, so movement between editions carries meaning.
• Global. Candidates come from national regulators, legislatures, multilateral bodies, courts, academia and civil society.
• Evidenced. Every entry is checked line by line against primary sources before publication.

Notice of Independence
Knowledge Networks does not offer any placement on The AI Policy 100 for sale, and never will. There is no application, no entry fee, no sponsored placement and no paid consideration in any form. Knowledge Networks funds its work through its media, events, education and research activities. No sponsorship, membership, partnership or advertising relationship influences who appears on the list or where they rank. The editorial team informs honorees after selection is complete and never consults them during it. Anyone who is told that inclusion can be bought, arranged or negotiated should write to editorial@knowledgenetworks.com.

What Honorees Receive
Recognition on The AI Policy 100 carries no obligation. Honorees do not need to respond, participate or provide anything. Every honoree receives:
• An individually numbered certificate of recognition. Honorees receive the certificate in both digital and print formats. Each certificate carries a unique number that anyone can check against the published list, which protects the recognition from misuse.
• A profile on the published list. Each honoree's entry on the list includes the reasoning behind their selection, so readers can see why they were named.
• A badge and suggested wording. Honorees who choose to share the recognition receive an official badge and suggested wording for announcements and social media.
• An invitation to the honoree network. Honorees are invited to join the AI Policy 100 honoree network and its briefings.
Honorees who find an error in their entry can write to editorial@knowledgenetworks.com with supporting evidence. The editorial team verifies every correction before publishing it.

For Press and Media
The list, the reasoning behind each entry and the methodology are public and free to cite with attribution. Journalists can request the ranked list with per-entry reasoning, breakdowns by jurisdiction, institution type and discipline, interviews with the editorial lead on method and findings, and high-resolution logos, seals and honoree assets. The editorial team will discuss how it assessed any individual entry and corrects errors publicly.

The AI Policy 100 (2026): Full List of Honorees
View the full list, with the reasoning behind each entry, at https://regulatingai.org/ai-policy-100/.
1. Michael Kratsios, Director / U.S. AI Policy Lead, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
2. Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, European Commission
3. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
4. Yoshua Bengio, Scientific Director, Mila, Quebec AI Institute
5. Lucilla Sioli, Director, European AI Office, European Commission
6. David Sacks, AI & Crypto Policy Advisor, White House
7. Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce
8. Ted Cruz, Senator; Chair, Senate Commerce Committee, U.S. Senate
9. Amandeep Singh Gill, UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology, United Nations
10. Gavin Newsom, Governor, State of California
11. Fei-Fei Li, Co-Director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI)
12. Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft
13. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), India
14. Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, UAE Office of Artificial Intelligence
15. Josephine Teo, Minister, Singapore Ministry of Digital Development and Information / IMDA
16. Sriram Krishnan, Senior Policy Advisor for AI, White House
17. Scott Wiener, State Senator, California State Senate
18. Roberto Viola, Director-General, European Commission, DG CONNECT
19. Liz Kendall, Secretary of State, UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
20. Brando Benifei, MEP; Co-rapporteur, EU AI Act, European Parliament
21. Ian Hogarth, Chair, UK AI Safety Institute
22. Zhuang Rongwen, Director, Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)
23. Wojciech Wiewiorowski, Supervisor, European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)
24. Anu Talus, Chair, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
25. Karine Perset, Head, OECD.AI Policy Observatory, OECD
26. Jay Obernolte, Representative and Co-chair, House AI Task Force, U.S. House of Representatives
27. Ted Lieu, Representative, U.S. House of Representatives
28. Jared Polis, Governor, State of Colorado
29. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, State of California
30. Wael William Diab, Chair, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42
31. Stuart Russell, Professor and Director, UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI)
32. Martin Heinrich, Senator, U.S. Senate
33. Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs, Google
34. Evan Solomon, Minister, Canada, Ministry of AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work
35. Kai Zenner, Policy Advisor, European Parliament / CEPS
36. Helen Toner, Director of Strategy, Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), Georgetown University
37. Brendan Carr, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
38. Arvind Narayanan, Professor, Princeton University, Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP)
39. Ivana Bartoletti, Global Chief Privacy and AI Governance Officer, Wipro
40. Alex Bores, Assemblymember, New York State Assembly
41. Phil Weiser, Attorney General, State of Colorado
42. Ignasi Belda, Director, Spanish Agency for Artificial Intelligence Supervision (AESIA)
43. Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Professor, Brown University, Data Science Institute
44. Christina Montgomery, Chief Privacy and Trust Officer, IBM
45. Todd Young, Senator, U.S. Senate
46. Ken Paxton, Attorney General, State of Texas
47. Paolo Benanti, Franciscan Friar and Vatican AI Ethics Advisor, Pontifical Academy for Life
48. Matt Clifford, Advisor, UK Frontier AI Taskforce
49. Alondra Nelson, Former Deputy Director and Scholar, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) / Institute for Advanced Study
50. Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director, Stanford Cyber Policy Center
51. Dragos Tudorache, Former MEP and AI Act Co-Rapporteur, European Parliament
52. Luciano Floridi, Professor, Oxford Internet Institute
53. Dean Ball, Research Fellow, Mercatus Center
54. Anu Bradford, Professor, Columbia Law School
55. Chi Onwurah, Member of Parliament, UK House of Commons, Science and Technology Committee
56. Gillian Hadfield, Professor, University of Toronto / Vector Institute
57. Andrea Renda, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
58. Natasha Crampton, Chief Responsible AI Officer, Microsoft
59. Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, Assemblymember, California State Assembly, Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection
60. Amba Kak, Co-Executive Director, AI Now Institute
61. Bosun Tijani, Minister, Nigeria Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy
62. Abeba Birhane, Assistant Professor, Trinity College Dublin, School of Computer Science
63. Laura Caroli, Policy Advisor, EU AI Act negotiations / CEPS
64. Kanishka Narayan, Member of Parliament, UK Cabinet Office / Parliament
65. Karsten Wildberger, Federal Minister, German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport
66. Axel Voss, MEP, European Parliament, Legal Affairs Committee (JURI)
67. Paula Ingabire, Minister, Rwanda Ministry of ICT and Innovation
68. Audrey Tang, Minister of Digital Affairs, Taiwan Ministry of Digital Affairs (moda)
69. Sandra Wachter, Professor, Oxford Internet Institute
70. Rumman Chowdhury, CEO and Founder, Humane Intelligence / Parity
71. Vilas Dhar, President, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
72. Gail Slater, Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division
73. Arielle Roth, Policy Advisor, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee / FCC-adjacent policy circles
74. Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO
75. Miriam Vogel, Chair and CEO, National AI Advisory Committee (NAIAC) / EqualAI
76. Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic Leader, U.S. Senate
77. Mike Rounds, Senator, U.S. Senate, Committee on Armed Services
78. Amy Klobuchar, Senator, U.S. Senate
79. John Thune, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate
80. Xue Lan, Dean, Tsinghua University, Institute for AI International Governance
81. Yutaka Matsuo, Professor and Government Advisor, University of Tokyo / METI advisory bodies
82. Melanie Dawes, Chief Executive, Ofcom
83. Markus Anderljung, Director of Policy, Centre for the Governance of AI (GovAI)
84. Ha Jung-woo, Chairman, Presidential Committee on the Digital Platform Government, South Korea
85. Lacina Koné, Director General and CEO, Smart Africa Secretariat
86. Daniel Ho, Professor, Stanford Regulation, Evaluation, and Governance Lab (RegLab)
87. Doug Matty, Chief Digital and AI Officer, U.S. Department of Defense, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO)
88. Andrew Ferguson, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
89. Carme Artigas, Co-Chair, UN High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence
90. S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), India
91. Inioluwa Deborah Raji, Fellow and Researcher, Mozilla Foundation
92. Pasquale Stanzione, President, Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, Italy
93. Aleid Wolfsen, Chairman, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, Netherlands
94. Jade Leung, Head of Safety and Trust, OpenAI
95. Kate Crawford, Co-Founder and Research Professor, AI Now Institute
96. Clara Chappaz, Minister and Secretary of State for AI and Digital Affairs, France, Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial Sovereignty
97. Marie-Laure Denis, President, Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), France
98. Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
99. Abdullah Alghamdi, President, Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA)
100. Kathy Hochul, Governor, State of New York

About The AI Policy 100
The AI Policy 100 is an annual ranking of the 100 individuals with the greatest influence on how artificial intelligence is governed worldwide. Published once a year by Knowledge Networks, the organization behind RegulatingAI, it identifies the regulators drafting AI rules, the legislators passing them, the officials enforcing them, and the researchers, jurists and advocates who set the terms of the argument. The list is an editorial judgement made against five published, fixed-weight criteria: Rule-Making Influence, Scope of Impact, Current Activity, Cross-Jurisdiction Reach and Public Engagement. The editorial team verifies every entry against primary sources. No one can apply, self-nominate or pay to appear, and there is no nomination process. The inaugural 2026 edition was announced on August 5, 2026 at The AI Policy Summit at Ai4 Las Vegas. Inclusion recognizes influence over AI policy and does not signal endorsement of any honoree's views, organization or activities. Learn more at https://regulatingai.org/ai-policy-100/.

About RegulatingAI
RegulatingAI is the AI governance platform of Knowledge Networks, a Washington, D.C.-based organization founded by Sanjay K. Puri. RegulatingAI brings together policymakers, researchers and executives who are working to build AI governance frameworks that work for everyone. Through the RegulatingAI Podcast, global events, its Advisory Board, an expert network, FlashCast, PolicyOra and an online community, RegulatingAI connects leaders across government, industry, academia and civil society on the standards and safeguards that will define the AI era.

Upasana Das
Knowledge Networks
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
X