Guterres urges global AI rules as risks outpace regulators

Antonio Guterres warned Monday that artificial intelligence is advancing at “runaway speed” as the United Nations opened its first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, pressing governments to build rules that can keep pace with systems already reshaping work, elections, security and education. He said any future agreement must be “worthy of global trust” and protect people from digitally generated manipulation and abuse, especially children.

The two-day meeting at the Palexpo International Convention Centre is the first UN General Assembly-mandated platform to put all 193 member states and other stakeholders in the same room on AI governance. It is being held alongside the International Telecommunication Union’s AI for Good Global Summit and the World Summit on the Information Society Forum.

The dialogue is not intended to produce a treaty. Instead, it is meant to establish a common starting point for broader rules, with delegates reviewing a preliminary report from the UN-backed Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, a 40-member group that released its first findings on July 1. The panel’s next annual report is due to inform the second Global Dialogue in New York in May 2027.

Guterres framed the challenge as more than a question of technical safety. He argued that AI must be governed rather than left to evolve without guardrails, and the UN has tied the process to accessibility for the billions of people who still cannot use the technology. The secretary-general has also separately pushed companies to disclose their environmental impacts and commit to clean power by 2030.