Towards Equitable Post-AGI Futures: The Imperative for Multimodal AI Assurance in the Global South

The rapid advancement of innovations towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and advanced multimodal AI systems marks a transformative shift in computational capabilities, with profound implications for global equity, governance, and societal development. While AGI research has traditionally focused on technical benchmarks, its impending deployment in the Global South introduces complex challenges that necessitate a fundamental rethinking of AI assurance frameworks. The Multimodal AI Assurance framework, introduced in this paper, integrates technical robustness, participatory governance, and adaptive policy mechanisms to ensure that AGI systems are equitable, transparent, and accountable in low-resource and culturally diverse settings. We detail the technical and policy dimensions of MAIA, providing a roadmap for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to operationalize equity-centered AGI assurance.