Abu Dhabi's government and OpenAI have launched what they call a Machine-Readable Government initiative. It was announced Monday morning in Abu Dhabi, after Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed met Sam Altman. A set of government policies and regulations is being rewritten in a form AI systems can read, so those systems can help officials run routine compliance checks, such as the ones behind permits and certificates.

The first pilot is already live at the emirate's agriculture and food safety authority, on food imports. Each assessment traces back to the rule behind it, and officials keep the final decision and the accountability for it. The models run on GPUs in UAE data centres. Three more deals came the same day: ADNOC putting OpenAI models across its operations, Mubadala using them for investment analysis, and a five-year agreement with Inception42. If you apply for permits in the emirate, a machine may read your application against the rule before a person does. (Abu Dhabi Media Office; The National)

Australia is writing down who holds the off switch. On Friday, the Digital Transformation Agency published an AI Reference Architecture and a companion guide, a voluntary blueprint to help federal agencies design, buy and govern AI systems. It builds accountability into the links between data, software, suppliers and people, instead of adding it after a service is live.

The agency says people should be able to monitor, pause, change or stop an AI system within suitable timeframes, and agencies are asked to judge how much they depend on outside suppliers. Deputy chief executive Lucy Poole said using it is voluntary and does not replace existing requirements. Vendors selling into Canberra should expect to show how a person stops their system. (Policai; IDHUS Institute)

Qatar's lawmakers are taking up AI rules. On Sunday, the Shura Council's committee on health, public services and environment met again to study a request from members for a general debate on regulating and governing AI in Qatar.

The committee heard from the president of the University of Doha for Science and Technology and from Qatar University's technology lead and its head of public law, then agreed to finish its study at a later meeting. No bill yet, but companies running AI in Qatar should follow the committee's next session. (Shura Council)

Governments are also paying for the hardware. On Monday, South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung asked the National Assembly to pass a 2027 budget of 820.9 trillion won, about 614.5 billion US dollars, up 12.8 percent and the largest on record.

It sets aside 21.3 trillion won for a chip manufacturing hub, data centres, physical AI and wider AI use, plus 4.6 trillion won to acquire a sovereign AI model. Much of the increase rests on expected tax revenue from record chip profits. State buyers will be bidding for the same chips and data centre capacity as your own AI plans. (Yonhap)

Already filed, if you want the run-up: The Levy (Germany debating a tax on AI revenue), The Disclosure (the SEC examining what AI companies tell investors) and The Shareholder (Canada taking a stake in an AI company, with conditions).

Also on the shelf: The Spare (India's markets regulator weighing its own AI model), The Model Card (US health regulators dropping required AI model cards) and The Penalty (Japan weighing penalties in its AI law). Read today beside The Levy. Berlin is asking how to tax AI's gains. Abu Dhabi is putting AI inside the permit office.

Rewriting the rulebook has been done before. Before 1804, France had no single set of laws. Law was mostly local custom, written down region by region. In August 1800 a commission of jurists began drafting one civil code, with Napoleon chairing many of its sessions.

The code took effect on March 21, 1804. Its stress on clearly written, accessible law helped end the old patchwork, and it shaped legal systems far beyond France. It is still in force, amended many times. The 1804 rewrite was for citizens. Abu Dhabi's is for software. (Napoleonic Code)

Put these to management. Which permits, licences or certificates do we renew most often, and would our filings pass a check that reads the rule word for word?

Then the controls. For every AI system we run, who can pause or stop it, how fast, and have we tested that? Which of our AI plans depend on chips and data centre capacity that governments are now buying too?

The Move

Abu Dhabi is turning its rules into code that AI checks applications against, and Australia wants a person able to stop any government AI. Seoul is putting billions behind the chips.

Ask the general counsel to pick our three most frequent government filings and test them against the exact text of the rule, then report any gaps to the board within 30 days.

Clean up the filing before the machine reads it.

Seven bullets. One move.