This newsletter provides practical guidance, tools and resources for the real work of governing safe, secure and lawful AI.

Newsletter 52 - February 2026

Feature Article

The Waymo Way of Adaptive Governance

By James Kavanagh

What AI Governance looks like when it's designed into a system from the ground up, and what separates it from the static governance that failed at Cruise, HireVue, and South Wales Police.

Most writing about AI governance begins with failure. This article begins with one of the most impressive safety records of any autonomous system, and asks what governance approach made it possible.

In AI governance, we spend most of our time studying what went wrong, or could go wrong. Biased hiring algorithms. Autonomous vehicles that dragged pedestrians while the company lied to regulators. Facial recognition deployed without adequate legal safeguards. But a steady diet of failure cases can leave you with the impression that governing AI well is purely about avoiding catastrophe, that the best you can hope for is to not make the news.

I don't think that's right. I believe meaningful, effective governance that accelerates safe innovation is achievable. I've been a part of making it happen. But it requires a different mindset and approach: adaptive governance. This article is about what that means, in theory and in practice.

From the Blog

AI Governance has a Culture Problem

By James Kavanagh

The Waymo article above argues that culture is the foundation governance sits on - and that Cruise's failure was ultimately a leadership culture failure, not a technology failure. This earlier article explores that idea in depth, drawing on one of aviation's deadliest disasters to show what happens when governance structures exist but the culture can't carry them.

The AI Governance Director's Brief (LinkedIn)

Accountability Without Interference

What AI Governance Has Taught Me About Being a Director

By Alexandra El-Shamy (Edition 8: Published January 28, 2026)

"The real gap between Boards and management is not trust. It's evidence." In Edition 8, we explore how the discipline of AI governance provided the language for instincts I'd held for years as a Director - and five shifts every board member can make today.

A Final Note

This Waymo article has been sitting with me for a while. I've spent most of the past year writing about what goes wrong in AI governance. Writing about what goes right - and trying to name why - felt harder and more important. Adaptive governance is the thread that connects everything I teach and everything I've learned as a practitioner. I hope it's useful to you.

If anything in this edition sparked a question, hit reply. I read every message.

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