United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued an urgent call for global AI governance at the inaugural UN Global Dialogue in Geneva.
He argued any agreement must be "worthy of global trust" and put safety first, especially for children. He proposed an "AI Child Safety Pledge" requiring developers to prove their tech is safe, with zero tolerance for generating child sexual abuse material.
Guterres highlighted AI's dual nature: it could be the "great equalizer" or cause catastrophic harm. He warned that without international alignment on testing and responsibility, "a patchwork of incompatible rules... protects no one."
A major priority is narrowing the digital gap. He noted private AI funding dwarfs public investment in developing nations, calling the latter "a rounding error." He announced a new UN-supported Global Network for AI capacity building.
The Secretary-General also demanded transparency, calling for all major AI companies to disclose their full environmental footprint-carbon, water, and land-and power data centers with renewable energy by 2030.
A second Global Dialogue is scheduled for 2027 in New York.