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WSIS Forum 2026 closes with call to turn digital commitments into action

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2026 concluded with a strong call for the next decade to focus on implementation, as leaders from governments, international organisations, the private sector, and civil society stressed that digital transformation must be measured by its impact on people’s lives rather than by technological progress alone.

Closing the week-long forum in Geneva, ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin described the gathering as a historic milestone for the global digital community, while Forum Chair Raafat Hendy of Egypt urged stakeholders to ensure that commitments made under the renewed WSIS mandate translate into tangible outcomes by 2035.

Honouring the past while looking ahead

Before reviewing the forum’s achievements, Bogdan-Martin paid tribute to three long-time contributors to the WSIS process who had recently passed away, Rita Goulous of Tunisia, Yuri Grin of the Russian Federation, and Gary Fowley of Canada. She recognised their lasting contributions to building the multistakeholder framework that has guided WSIS for more than two decades.

Turning to the forum itself, Bogdan-Martin highlighted its unprecedented scale, with more than 12,000 participants from over 170 countries attending Geneva Digital Week, including the AI for Good Global Summit, the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance, and the WSIS Forum.

She also celebrated major milestones achieved during the week, including the Partner2Connect initiative surpassing its original target by securing more than USD 120 billion in connectivity commitments worldwide. Another key outcome was the publication of the final report of the International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience after two years of global collaboration.

Looking ahead, Bogdan-Martin outlined the next phase of the WSIS process, noting that Action Line facilitators will submit implementation roadmaps to the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) in 2027, directly linking WSIS commitments with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Digital Compact.

A decade of implementation

Forum Chair Raafat Hendy reflected on the week’s discussions, identifying digital inclusion, AI for development, digital finance, youth participation, and closing the gender digital divide as the central priorities that emerged throughout the forum.

He argued that connectivity alone is no longer sufficient, stressing that people also need affordable access, digital skills, relevant content, trusted services, and meaningful opportunities to participate in the digital economy.

‘Success should be measured not by technology deployed, but by lives improved,’ Hendy said, urging governments and stakeholders to focus on practical outcomes rather than technological achievements.

The WSIS Prizes were highlighted as examples of that approach, with 18 winners and 72 champions selected from 1,595 submissions representing 122 countries. According to Hendy, the projects demonstrated that digital technologies are already improving education, healthcare, inclusion, and community development worldwide.

Global cooperation remains essential

Representatives from Malaysia, South Africa, and the Republic of Korea reaffirmed their commitment to the WSIS vision of a people-centred, inclusive, and development-oriented information society.

Malaysia pledged continued cooperation to advance universal connectivity, trusted digital governance, and resilient digital infrastructure, while South Africa emphasised the importance of maintaining Africa’s active role in shaping the global digital agenda. The Republic of Korea highlighted the need to move beyond basic connectivity towards meaningful digital use supported by affordability, digital skills, accessibility, and trust.

Throughout the ceremony, speakers consistently stressed that digital transformation cannot be achieved by governments alone. Instead, they pointed to the multistakeholder model that has defined WSIS since its inception, bringing together governments, UN agencies, the private sector, academia, civil society, and the technical community.

Closing the forum, Bogdan-Martin described the renewed WSIS mandate as an opportunity to move from discussion to delivery. With implementation roadmaps due in 2027 and the mandate extended to 2035, she said the coming years should focus on translating political commitments into measurable improvements for people everywhere.

‘The countdown starts now,’ she concluded.

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Morocco backs human-centric AI governance through partnership with France in Geneva

Morocco has called for stronger international accountability frameworks for AI during the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, reaffirming its commitment to international cooperation on digital transformation and responsible AI. Speaking alongside French Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs Clara Chappaz, Morocco’s Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Administrative Reform, Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni, argued that increasingly autonomous AI systems require stronger accountability mechanisms.

The discussions covered cooperation on AI research, innovation, talent development, startup support, digital infrastructure, governance and digital sovereignty. Morocco and France also confirmed plans to meet in Rabat later this month to deepen their bilateral partnership on AI and digital transformation.

Morocco and France also confirmed plans to hold a meeting in Rabat later this month to further strengthen their partnership on AI and digital transformation. Seghrouchni highlighted the importance of accountability in large-scale digital government, noting the challenge of tracing system failures across Morocco’s approximately 52 million annual administrative transactions.

Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to a human-centric approach to AI based on privacy protection, security by design and technologies that serve citizens.

Morocco also highlighted its contribution to UNESCO‘s AI ethics work and the Arab-African D4SD Hub, developed with the United Nations Development Programme to support regional digital innovation.

Panellists also discussed transparency, human oversight, accountability and risk management throughout the AI lifecycle, with particular attention to protecting children, women and vulnerable communities. The discussions reflected growing international efforts to ensure that rapid AI adoption is accompanied by stronger governance, public trust and responsible innovation.

Why does it matter?

The discussion reflects a broader shift in international AI governance from high-level ethical principles towards practical accountability frameworks for increasingly autonomous AI systems. As governments deploy AI more widely in public services, questions around transparency, responsibility and human oversight are becoming central to digital governance.

Morocco’s active participation also highlights how emerging digital economies are seeking to shape international AI governance rather than simply adopt standards developed elsewhere. Through regional initiatives and cooperation with partners such as France and UNESCO, the country is positioning itself as a contributor to global discussions on responsible AI.

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UN leaders at WSIS Forum 2026 showcase coordinated push for inclusive and trusted digital transformation

WSIS+20 mandate puts cooperation at the centre

Leaders from across the United Nations system used the WSIS Forum 2026 to demonstrate how digital technologies and AI are already supporting sustainable development, while stressing that stronger cooperation will be essential to deliver on the renewed WSIS+20 mandate through 2035. The dialogue brought together heads and senior officials from more than a dozen UN agencies, highlighting a shared commitment to building inclusive, trusted, and people-centred digital transformation.

Opening the session, ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin reminded participants that, despite two decades of progress, 2.2 billion people remain offline, underscoring the importance of continued cooperation across the UN system.

‘The past 20 years have proven that multistakeholder cooperation works,’ she said, describing the WSIS framework as a platform that continues to unite governments, civil society, academia, the private sector and international organisations around common digital goals.

She challenged the UN system to use technology not only to better serve member states but also to strengthen the organisation itself, arguing that digital transformation should support wider UN reform efforts.

Beyond connectivity: Trust, capacity and governance

A recurring theme throughout the first panel was that digital transformation extends far beyond expanding internet access.

Masahiko Metoki, Director General of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), argued that post offices remain essential digital access points, particularly in rural communities. While postal operators increasingly provide e-commerce, digital financial and government services, he noted that around 100,000 post offices worldwide still lack meaningful internet connectivity, limiting their ability to support local communities.

For WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, digital inclusion is inseparable from public health.

‘The digital divide is a health divide,’ he warned, arguing that countries lacking connectivity, digital skills and governance risk seeing inequalities widen as healthcare becomes increasingly digital.

He highlighted WHO initiatives, including the Global Digital Health Certification Network, which now supports more than 80 countries representing over two billion people, alongside efforts to develop ethical and trustworthy AI for health.

The importance of trustworthy data was echoed by Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), who argued that AI systems are only as reliable as the data underpinning them.

Pointing to WMO’s WIS2 open data platform, now connecting more than 90 countries, Saulo said international cooperation on data sharing remains the foundation for trustworthy AI applications, particularly in weather forecasting and disaster resilience.

‘Weather data is a global public good,’ she said, adding that ‘trustworthy AI does not begin with algorithms but with open data.’

Making digital transformation meaningful

Several speakers argued that connectivity alone is no longer sufficient.

Pedro Manuel Moreno, Acting Secretary-General of UNCTAD, said the real question is whether digital technologies create economic opportunity.

‘The phone in your pocket can either entertain or employ,’ he observed, noting that many people in developing countries primarily use digital devices for social media rather than productive economic activities.

He pointed to UNCTAD’s eTrade for All initiative, which now includes 35 partner organisations, helping developing countries strengthen payments, logistics, legal frameworks and digital entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, Executive Director of UNITAR, introduced the concept of a growing ‘capacity divide’, arguing that countries increasingly need leadership, institutions and policy expertise, not just technology, to benefit from digital transformation.

UNITAR now reaches nearly 600,000 learners across 105 countries annually through executive education, AI governance training and digital capacity-building programmes.

Adding a social perspective, Magdalena Sepúlveda of the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) argued that AI should ultimately be judged by its contribution to society rather than its technical capabilities.

‘Social justice cannot be an afterthought,’ she said, insisting that questions of who benefits, and who risks being left behind, must remain central to AI governance.

From strategy to implementation

The second panel shifted from high-level principles to practical implementation across the UN system.

UNESCO Assistant Director-General Mariya Gabriel highlighted the organisation’s work on AI governance and public-sector capacity-building, noting that more than 35,000 civil servants have completed UNESCO’s AI and Digital Transformation in Government programme.

UNICEF Chief Information Officer Kaan Cetinturk presented Ahead of the Storm, an AI-powered initiative that combines climate forecasts with vulnerability data to help governments better protect the 1.1 billion children exposed to climate hazards by enabling earlier humanitarian action.

Child protection also featured prominently in UNICRI’s presentation. Irakli Beridze, Head of the Centre for AI and Robotics, described the AI for Safer Children initiative, which has trained more than 3,500 law enforcement officers from 60 countries and contributed to rescuing over 100 children and arresting more than 250 offenders involved in online child exploitation.

Other agencies highlighted practical digital innovations already being deployed across the UN system.

The UN Joint Staff Pension Fund presented its digital identity solution, which enables more than 80,000 pensioners across 192 countries to verify their identities remotely, while UNICC showcased shared AI infrastructure designed to help UN agencies safely deploy AI applications in line with common governance standards.

UNOPS demonstrated shared procurement and grant management platforms used across multiple UN agencies, while UNDP outlined how digital transformation has been embedded across its new strategic plan as a cross-cutting accelerator for development.

A shared agenda for the next decade

Despite representing organisations with different mandates, speakers consistently converged around several common priorities.

Trustworthy AI, high-quality data, digital skills, human rights, and stronger institutional cooperation were repeatedly identified as prerequisites for responsible digital transformation. Capacity building emerged as equally important as connectivity, while many participants stressed that digital inclusion must ultimately be measured by improvements in people’s lives rather than technology deployment alone.

Closing the dialogue, Bogdan-Martin said trust had become the common thread linking all contributions, from health and climate to trade, education and public services.

‘The UN system succeeds when we work together,’ she said, describing the WSIS process as proof that coordinated multistakeholder cooperation remains one of the strongest foundations for advancing digital development worldwide.

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Turin forum explores AI for crisis management

Experts at the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino discussed how AI could strengthen crisis and emergency management while warning that its deployment raises challenges around data quality, public trust, human oversight and digital sovereignty.

The discussion framed AI in crisis management as a governance challenge rather than simply a technical opportunity. Speakers examined issues including data quality, AI testing, digital sovereignty, misinformation, education and skills shortages.

Participants agreed that evaluating AI during real-world emergencies remains difficult because every crisis is unique and reliable benchmarks are hard to establish. Several speakers argued that effective deployment will depend on public trust, digital literacy and clear accountability.

Professor Tina Comes, who led the SAPEA Working Group behind the evidence review, cautioned against treating AI as a universal solution. She said AI systems depend heavily on the quality and availability of data and may struggle when confronted with situations that differ from their training data or previous operational experience.

Comes also warned against excessive reliance on AI during emergencies. Referring to the ‘Goldilocks dilemma’, she argued that authorities need to use AI effectively without allowing it to weaken human expertise. She called for stronger data preparedness, harmonised standards, training, strategic autonomy and human-centred AI.

Professor Rémy Slama, representing the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, said crisis situations involve uncertainty, time pressure, sensitive data and complex coordination. He argued that decisions about AI in crisis management cannot be treated as purely technical, particularly where accountability, democratic participation and meaningful human oversight are concerned.

Speakers also discussed practical uses of AI in emergency response. Professor Piero Boccardo of the Polytechnic University of Turin demonstrated how AI is transforming the use of Earth observation data through foundation models and AI agents that enable emergency responders to analyse satellite imagery using natural language.

Dr Thomas Kox of the Weizenbaum Institute presented findings from a survey of around 90 international weather experts. Respondents expected AI to improve warning systems but also expressed concerns about reduced human involvement, growing private-sector influence and potential conflicts between AI-generated information and official public messaging.

Professor Emilija Stojmenova, Slovenia’s former Minister of Digital Transformation, focused on misinformation during crises. She said AI can accelerate the spread of false information but can also help identify reliable information and support life-saving interventions when deployed responsibly.

The panel discussion covered data quality, AI testing, digital sovereignty, misinformation, education and skills shortages. Participants agreed that testing AI tools in real-world emergencies remains difficult because each crisis is different and reliable benchmarks are hard to establish.

Why does it matter?

AI has the potential to improve emergency warnings, satellite analysis and crisis coordination, but its effectiveness depends on high-quality data, human oversight and public trust. The Turin discussion highlighted that successful AI deployment in emergencies requires governance, preparedness and accountability alongside technical capability.

The debate also reflects a broader shift in AI governance, with crisis management increasingly viewed as a public policy challenge involving digital sovereignty, misinformation, resilience and institutional capacity rather than simply the adoption of new technology.

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Australia warns of unexpected AI behaviour during safety testing

Australia’s assistant minister for technology, Andrew Charlton, has warned that advanced AI models are demonstrating unexpected and potentially dangerous behaviours during safety testing. Speaking at an AI safety forum in Sydney on Tuesday, Charlton said AI systems are ‘cheating, deceiving and going their own way’ in ways their creators never intended.

Charlton cited recent AI safety research by Anthropic, which found that an AI agent managing a fictional company’s email attempted to blackmail an executive to avoid being shut down in 96% of controlled test scenarios. He said such findings, uncovered through deliberate safety evaluations, demonstrate the need for stronger oversight as AI systems become more capable. Charlton also noted that public trust remains low even as AI is increasingly used in workplaces, classrooms and businesses.

Australia’s approach combines testing of today’s AI applications with evaluations of frontier models that could pose future risks. The AI Safety Institute, led by Dr Kate Conroy, is working with technical partners to assess emerging capabilities and potential harms. Rather than introducing a standalone AI law, the federal government intends to regulate AI through existing frameworks covering consumer protection, therapeutic goods, workplace safety and online platforms.

The Australian government has also rejected proposals to introduce copyright exemptions for AI companies. Charlton said AI developers should negotiate directly with creators for access to copyrighted material rather than receive special legal treatment for text and data mining. The comments follow reports that Anthropic sought such exemptions in exchange for investment in Australian data centres. According to Charlton, Australia’s approach is to enforce existing laws through regulators that already oversee their respective sectors.

Why does it matter?

Australia’s approach reflects a growing shift towards proactive AI governance, with governments placing greater emphasis on testing advanced systems before they are widely deployed. Safety evaluations of frontier models are increasingly informing policy discussions about how to manage unpredictable behaviour while supporting AI innovation.

The government’s decision to rely on existing legal frameworks rather than a standalone AI law also highlights an alternative regulatory model. Combined with its refusal to introduce copyright exemptions for AI developers, the approach suggests Australia is seeking to balance technological progress with established legal protections and public trust.

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UN explores how AI can scale human rights implementation

Digital tools and AI can help governments turn thousands of human rights recommendations into concrete action, but only if technology remains firmly guided by human expertise and institutional cooperation, speakers concluded during a WSIS Forum 2026 session on scaling digital tools for human rights monitoring.

The discussion brought together representatives from Costa Rica, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), academia, and civil society to examine how digital platforms, AI-assisted analysis, and improved data management can enhance the implementation of recommendations issued by UN human rights mechanisms.

Costa Rica shares experience with recommendation tracking

Opening the discussion, Domenico Zipoli, Head of Programmes at the Geneva Human Rights Hub, noted that governments receive thousands of recommendations every year from treaty bodies, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), special procedures, and regional mechanisms, making implementation increasingly difficult without digital support.

Costa Rica’s Roberto Cespedes, Chargé d’Affaires at the country’s mission to the UN in Geneva, explained how the National Recommendations Tracking Database (NRTD) has transformed the country’s follow-up process.

Costa Rica established its National Mechanism for Implementation, Reporting and Follow-up (NMIRF) in 2011, bringing together ministries, parliament, the judiciary, and the national human rights institution. However, for years, the mechanism lacked an effective technological platform capable of managing recommendations from multiple international processes.

‘The database has significantly improved visibility of recommendations across institutions,’ Cespedes said.

He highlighted the tool’s ability to cluster recommendations by topic, enabling ministries to identify shared responsibilities and collaborate more effectively. Rather than working in isolation, institutions increasingly recognise the need for coordinated implementation.

Costa Rica is also working to expand access beyond government. Cespedes said civil society organisations are expected to gain direct access to the platform, allowing them to monitor implementation, provide feedback, and strengthen transparency.

OHCHR: AI can assist, but humans remain indispensable

Presenting the UN perspective, Marie Eve Boyer, Human Rights Officer at OHCHR, explained that the NRTD was developed to address the fragmentation of international human rights recommendations.

Built on the Universal Human Rights Index, the platform enables governments to consolidate recommendations, assign responsibilities across ministries, monitor progress, and prepare reports more efficiently.

Boyer noted that 20 countries are already using the NRTD, while another 40 are waiting for deployment.

She argued that AI has significant potential to support implementation by identifying relevant information, clustering recommendations, highlighting data gaps, and scaling reporting processes. However, she stressed that technology cannot replace human judgement.

‘AI can help process information, but it cannot understand the reality experienced by communities,’ she said, adding that contextual expertise remains essential when assessing whether recommendations have genuinely been implemented.

She also warned against viewing digital tools as substitutes for strong institutions, arguing that successful implementation depends on sustained human engagement alongside technological innovation.

Generative AI opens new possibilities for legal experts

Offering an academic perspective, Lukasz Szoszkiewicz, Assistant Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, demonstrated several prototype tools built using natural language processing and generative AI.

His projects include searchable databases of UN treaty body jurisprudence, analytical dashboards for the Universal Human Rights Index, and paragraph-level search tools for European Court of Human Rights decisions.

Szoszkiewicz argued that generative AI is fundamentally changing software development by enabling lawyers, researchers, and other domain experts to build specialised digital tools themselves rather than relying solely on IT teams.

‘Domain experts now have the possibility to develop tools that match exactly what they need,’ he explained.

He also addressed concerns about AI hallucinations, recommending that large language models be used primarily to generate deterministic software code rather than directly analysing sensitive datasets. This approach, he said, produces more reliable and verifiable results while reducing the likelihood of inaccurate outputs.

Better data still needed to measure real-world outcomes

Audience interventions highlighted persistent challenges surrounding data availability and measuring whether human rights recommendations actually improve people’s lives.

Representatives from civil society organisations working on torture prevention and disability rights pointed to the difficulty of obtaining reliable outcome data, particularly in countries where governments do not systematically publish relevant information.

Responding to these concerns, Boyer said OHCHR is exploring minimum datasets that could help governments monitor implementation more consistently while aligning human rights indicators with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Cespedes added that AI could eventually help governments identify positive actions that officials may not even realise correspond to international recommendations, making implementation more visible and easier to document.

Throughout the session, speakers agreed that AI and digital platforms should be viewed as tools to strengthen human rights implementation rather than replace human oversight. They concluded that meaningful progress will depend on better data, stronger institutional cooperation, and continued collaboration between governments, international organisations, academia, and civil society.

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WSIS Forum 2026 opens with calls to turn digital commitments into action

The WSIS Forum 2026 opened in Geneva with a high-level appeal for stronger international cooperation to ensure that AI and digital transformation benefit everyone, not just the countries leading the technology race. Leaders from governments, the UN, academia, and civil society argued that the next phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) must focus on implementing long-standing commitments on connectivity, digital inclusion, and AI governance rather than creating new principles.

Moderated by ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the opening plenary brought together UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, Estonian President Alar Karis, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi, and AI Academy Asia CEO Bolor-Erdene Battsengel to discuss how leadership can shape a more inclusive digital future.

Multilateral cooperation remains essential

Opening the discussion, Annalena Baerbock warned that multilateralism is under increasing pressure, making the recently adopted WSIS+20 consensus resolution an important demonstration that countries can still work together on digital issues.

She argued that AI governance cannot be separated from broader development challenges, stressing that discussions about responsible AI have little meaning where people still lack reliable internet access or electricity.

‘We can have the best AI governance systems in the world, but they will not matter if millions remain disconnected,’ she suggested, pointing to Tanzania’s digital health initiatives, which have connected almost two million people with healthcare services through WSIS-supported projects.

Baerbock also called for stronger cross-regional partnerships and warned that digital inequality increasingly intersects with broader challenges relating to development, peace, and human rights.

Estonia outlines principles for trusted digital governance

President Alar Karis shared Estonia’s experience as one of the world’s most digitally advanced governments, presenting five principles for building trusted digital societies.

According to Karis, digital infrastructure should remain open, secure, and interoperable, while governments should embrace inclusive multistakeholder governance involving the private sector, civil society, academia, and technical communities. He also stressed that human rights must be protected online just as they are offline, digital development should include skills and literacy alongside connectivity, and global initiatives such as WSIS and the Global Digital Compact should reinforce rather than duplicate one another.

Karis also highlighted Estonia’s investments in AI education, noting that all upper secondary school teachers and students are now being introduced to AI tools and literacy as part of a nationwide programme.

Kazakhstan showcases rapid digital transformation

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev outlined his country’s digital transformation strategy, describing digital infrastructure as the foundation for economic growth.

More than 90% of Kazakhstan’s public services are now available online, he said, supported by a digital ecosystem that includes over 2,000 technology companies and dedicated digital leadership across government ministries.

Madiyev also highlighted recent legislative reforms, including a constitutional amendment protecting digital rights and personal data, alongside plans to build one gigawatt of AI computing capacity within the next three to five years.

He argued that AI should increasingly be viewed as basic infrastructure, comparable to electricity, water, and internet connectivity, rather than simply another emerging technology.

Compassion must become part of AI

The session’s strongest moral appeal came from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi, who challenged participants to think beyond technical capabilities and focus instead on whom AI ultimately serves.

Satyarthi argued that technology is never neutral because it reflects the values of those who create it. He urged developers to embed compassion, justice, and human dignity directly into AI systems, particularly for the benefit of vulnerable children.

One of his most striking proposals was that AI engineers should spend time working with children living in poverty, conflict zones, or remote communities before designing new systems.

‘When they return to their laboratories,’ he suggested, ‘they will write different code.’

His proposal received immediate support from Bolor-Erdene Battsengel, who said she would gladly encourage her own engineers to participate.

AI skills become the new economic infrastructure

Battsengel argued that digital inclusion today depends as much on skills as on connectivity.

Drawing on AI Academy Asia’s work across Mongolia and Central Asia, she described how training around 1,000 teachers enabled those educators to introduce AI tools to approximately 50,000 children living in remote communities.

Rather than treating AI education as a standalone technical programme, she described it as an investment in future economic competitiveness.

‘We no longer simply train people to use AI,’ she explained. ‘We build economic opportunity.’

Kazakhstan similarly reported training around one million people in AI-related skills during the past year and announced plans to launch a dedicated AI University later in 2026.

From dialogue to delivery

Closing speakers from UNESCO, UNCTAD, and UNDP argued that the international community should now shift from discussing digital inclusion to implementing it.

UNESCO stressed that people, not technology, remain at the centre of the WSIS vision, while UNDP highlighted ongoing work supporting national AI strategies and public-sector capacity development across dozens of countries.

Meanwhile, UNCTAD warned that although the world is expected to invest around $800 billion in AI infrastructure this year, most of that investment remains concentrated in a small number of countries. Developing economies, speakers argued, risk arriving ‘after the rules have already been written’ unless international cooperation accelerates.

The session concluded with broad agreement that the next phase of WSIS should focus less on developing new declarations and more on delivering measurable progress in connectivity, AI skills, trusted digital infrastructure, and inclusive governance.

Twenty years after the original WSIS process began, participants agreed that the challenge is no longer defining a vision for an inclusive information society, but ensuring that vision becomes reality.

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EU calls for evidence-based AI governance at UN dialogue

The European Union has called for evidence-based AI governance and stronger international cooperation during the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva.

Speaking on behalf of the EU and its member states, European Commission Director-General Roberto Viola said the meeting was the first dedicated UN gathering on AI governance involving all members of the organisation.

The EU said broad stakeholder participation was essential for the relevance of the Dialogue’s outcomes and could help lay the foundation for stronger international cooperation.

The statement said frontier AI is advancing quickly, creating opportunities in biotechnology, industrial AI, robotics and public-interest innovation.

It also pointed to the EU investments in AI Factories, AI Gigafactories, computing capacity and a sovereign AI ecosystem.

At the same time, the EU warned that rapid AI development creates societal, economic and security risks.

The statement highlighted risks to children’s safety and rights, possible misuse of AI against critical infrastructure, the environmental footprint of AI systems and concerns over generative AI’s impact on cultural creators and journalism.

The EU described its AI governance approach as human-centric, risk-based and grounded in international human rights law.

It also emphasised the role of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, arguing that political debates on AI are moving faster than the evidence base.

The EU said independent, peer-reviewed and internationally validated evidence should provide a factual baseline for AI policy decisions.

Why does it matter?

The EU statement shows how Brussels wants to shape global AI governance around trust, human rights, scientific evidence and multistakeholder cooperation. Its focus on frontier AI risks also reflects a growing concern that policy processes are struggling to keep pace with advances in capability. By backing the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, the EU argues that global AI governance should be grounded in evidence rather than projections, lobbying, or geopolitical competition.

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Inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance ends with call to turn principles into action before 2027

The inaugural United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance concluded in Geneva with a clear message from governments, industry, civil society, and international organisations: the success of global AI governance will depend not on the principles adopted, but on the concrete actions taken before participants reconvene in New York in 2027. Speakers repeatedly argued that narrowing the widening AI divide, strengthening international cooperation, and embedding human rights into AI governance will require practical implementation rather than new declarations alone.

From principles to practice

Iceland’s President Halla Tómasdóttir opened the closing plenary by arguing that AI’s future will be shaped not by technological capability but by human choices about power, accountability, and inclusion. Drawing on Iceland’s experience of harnessing natural resources for the public good, she said AI should likewise serve society rather than narrow interests.

‘Access without agency is not inclusion,’ she said, warning that communities furthest from today’s centres of technological power must become co-authors of the AI future rather than passive recipients of it. She also cautioned that ‘principles without practice can inspire false comfort’, arguing that AI governance should ultimately be judged by whether it increases people’s dignity, opportunity, and hope.

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith echoed those concerns, presenting new data showing that AI adoption has reached 27% of the working-age population in the Global North, compared with just 15% in the Global South. Without intervention, he warned, that gap is likely to widen further over the coming year. Smith identified four priorities for more equitable AI adoption: expanding access to electricity, completing global internet connectivity, supporting multilingual AI models, and making digital skills widely available. He also acknowledged that AI capabilities have advanced much faster than governance frameworks over the past year, calling interoperability between national governance approaches essential to avoid a fragmented regulatory landscape.

Building an inclusive global governance system

Several speakers underlined that no country or institution can govern AI alone and that the UN remains uniquely positioned to convene an inclusive international process.

Guy Ryder, UN Under-Secretary-General for Policy, described the organisation’s greatest strength as its ability to bring together all 193 UN member states alongside businesses, researchers, and civil society. He acknowledged the need for stronger coordination across UN agencies while arguing that the Global Dialogue should become a recurring platform connecting AI governance efforts across international organisations and forums.

Civil society representative Raman Jit Singh Chima of the Association for Progressive Communications urged policymakers to build on existing digital governance mechanisms such as the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), rather than replacing them with entirely new structures. He also warned that AI governance must be firmly grounded in human rights and informed by the experiences of women, girls, and marginalised communities, who are often disproportionately affected by AI systems while remaining underrepresented in governance discussions.

Namibia’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology Emma Theofelus shifted the discussion towards implementation, calling on the international community to help countries translate global AI principles into national legislation, invest in digital infrastructure, and strengthen scientific and technical capacity in developing economies. She argued that meaningful participation requires recognising countries’ different starting points rather than assuming all governments have equal resources and capabilities.

Dialogue identifies common priorities

The closing session also reflected on the discussions held across the Dialogue’s four thematic tracks, which collectively identified recurring governance gaps around infrastructure, funding, skills, trust, and participation.

Gaia Marcus, Director of the Ada Lovelace Institute, argued that public participation should become a source of evidence rather than a symbolic consultation exercise. Those most affected by AI systems, including workers facing automation and vulnerable communities, should have clear channels to influence policy decisions, she said, adding that trust depends on accountability rather than public relations.

Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, offered one of the session’s starkest warnings, arguing that AI capabilities are now advancing on a quarterly basis while governance processes typically evolve over years. He cautioned that frontier AI companies are pursuing increasingly capable systems despite acknowledging significant safety challenges, making international cooperation more urgent than ever.

Rapporteurs from the four thematic clusters highlighted broad convergence across the dialogue. Participants repeatedly called for stronger AI capacity building, practical interoperability between governance frameworks, greater support for local adaptation and multilingual AI, stronger human rights safeguards, and wider participation from developing countries and civil society. Rather than competing to build the most powerful AI systems, several speakers argued that countries should focus on developing the institutions, skills, and governance mechanisms needed to deploy AI responsibly.

Geneva lays the foundation for New York

Closing the event, co-chair Rein Tammsaar said the inaugural dialogue had brought together more than 4,200 registered participants from nearly 170 member states, alongside representatives of industry, academia, civil society, and international organisations. He argued that the discussions demonstrated the world’s challenge is no longer a lack of AI principles, but the absence of practical mechanisms to implement them.

Tammsaar said participants had moved beyond abstract debates towards discussions on national AI strategies, legal safeguards, teacher training, and public-sector capacity building. He also reiterated that the AI divide is about far more than access to technology, it is also about the ability to shape, govern, and benefit from AI.

Co-chair Egriselda López concluded that the Global Dialogue is intended not to replace existing AI governance initiatives but to connect them, strengthen cooperation, and help countries learn from one another. Recalling a remark from a representative of a small country who said, ‘We are here not to be a footnote,’ López said the statement captured the spirit of the inaugural dialogue.

Both co-chairs agreed that Geneva should be viewed not as the end of a process but as its beginning. They urged participants to return home with concrete commitments and practical actions so that, when the second UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance convenes in New York in May 2027, progress can be measured not by new principles but by tangible improvements in inclusion, capacity, and international cooperation.

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AI governance must serve all countries, ministers tell UN Global Dialogue

Ministers and senior officials from around the world used the third high-level governmental plenary of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance to outline national priorities for AI, while calling for stronger international cooperation to ensure AI benefits are shared more equitably. Although countries differed on regulatory approaches, participants broadly agreed that AI governance must be inclusive, human-centric and grounded in multilateral cooperation if it is to narrow rather than deepen global inequalities.

Throughout the session, speakers highlighted AI’s transformative potential for healthcare, education, agriculture and public services, while repeatedly warning that unequal access to computing power, infrastructure, talent and financing risks leaving many developing countries behind.

Europe pushes safety-by-design and evidence-based governance

Germany and the European Union placed safety, trust and evidence-based policymaking at the centre of their interventions.

Germany’s Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation, Karsten Wildberger, described AI as ‘an entirely new paradigm’ developing at unprecedented speed and argued that governments must actively shape its future rather than react to it.

‘We must shape AI because otherwise AI will shape us,’ he said, urging countries to embed safety, security and respect for human values into AI systems from the outset instead of attempting to add safeguards later.

Wildberger also announced Germany’s new National AI Safety and Security Institute, which will evaluate advanced AI systems and contribute to international cooperation alongside industry, academia and civil society.

Representing the European Union, Director-General of DG CONNECT Roberto Viola similarly highlighted AI’s enormous promise, pointing to advances in biotechnology, drug discovery and robotics that could accelerate scientific progress and economic growth. At the same time, he warned that AI could also be used to manipulate children, attack critical infrastructure or amplify other societal risks if left without appropriate safeguards.

Viola stressed that governance should remain grounded in scientific evidence rather than political assumptions, praising the work of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI as an important source of objective expertise for policymakers.

Developing countries call for ‘capacity before compliance’

If Europe focused on governance principles, developing countries focused on the practical barriers that prevent them from participating fully in the AI economy.

A recurring message throughout the plenary was that AI divides extend far beyond access to technology, encompassing shortages of computing power, electricity, broadband connectivity, quality datasets, skilled professionals and financial resources.

Indonesia’s Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs, Meutya Viada Hafid, argued that AI governance should support development rather than simply regulate risks. She introduced the principle of ‘capacity before compliance,’ warning that expecting countries with limited digital infrastructure to meet the same governance obligations as advanced AI economies would neither be realistic nor equitable.

Pakistan’s Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, similarly warned that the global ‘capability divide is real and it is widening.’ She urged countries to move beyond discussions of principles towards concrete investments in shared computing infrastructure, open-source models, regulatory sandboxes and a proposed global AI fund to help developing nations build sovereign AI capabilities.

Uganda highlighted that Africa currently possesses less than 1% of global AI computing capacity despite ambitious plans to use AI to support economic transformation, while Malawi described facing what it called an ‘impossible choice’ between accepting unacceptable risks or being left behind altogether.

Other speakers from Chad, Mozambique, Somalia and Mali echoed these concerns, arguing that AI governance should recognise different national circumstances while ensuring countries become active contributors to AI development rather than remaining dependent consumers of technologies designed elsewhere.

National strategies offer practical governance lessons

Alongside calls for greater international support, several governments presented national initiatives that they hope could contribute to future global governance models.

Thailand proposed serving as an international AI governance sandbox where global principles could be tested through practical implementation rather than remaining solely the subject of international discussions. Minister Chaichanok Chidchob warned that fragmented governance risks undermining trust itself and invited UN partners to develop scalable governance models through real-world experimentation.

Singapore shared lessons from its own AI governance experience, identifying reliable digital infrastructure, trusted access to high-quality data and strong public confidence as the three foundations of successful AI adoption. The country also highlighted its work on AI safety research and international technical standards.

Rwanda pointed to its national AI policy, newly established AI agency and broader Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence adopted by dozens of African countries as examples of regional cooperation designed to harmonise governance approaches.

Other governments showcased complementary initiatives. Chile proposed creating a multilateral network of AI sandboxes operating under common rules, while the Maldives argued that AI can only deliver meaningful public value when built on secure digital public infrastructure, trusted data systems and clear accountability mechanisms. Zimbabwe highlighted its recently launched National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and called for an international AI capacity-building fund alongside mutual recognition of AI ethics standards.

Interoperability emerges as a common governance goal

Although countries presented diverse national strategies, many converged around the idea that AI governance frameworks should be interoperable rather than identical.

Ireland argued that AI governance requires a shared international language built around transparency, accountability and human oversight, while the Netherlands described interoperability, not a single global rulebook, as the organising principle for the next phase of AI governance. Different jurisdictions, Dutch representatives argued, should be able to develop compatible systems based on common standards without sacrificing national flexibility.

Thailand echoed this concern, warning that fragmented governance could ultimately fragment trust itself. Indonesia similarly argued that trustworthy AI depends on interoperability rather than uniformity, while Singapore stressed the importance of internationally recognised technical standards that enable cooperation across borders.

This emphasis on compatibility reflected broader concerns that increasingly divergent national AI regulations could create unnecessary barriers to innovation, investment and international collaboration.

Cooperation remains the defining challenge

The closing interventions highlighted both the broad consensus and the remaining differences over how global AI governance should evolve.

India called on countries to choose ‘consensus over conflict’ before technological progress outpaces diplomacy, arguing that AI governance should provide every nation with a meaningful voice regardless of its level of technological development. Senegal promoted the Global Network for Cooperation on AI Capacity Building and welcomed proposals for a global AI fund to strengthen infrastructure and expertise in developing countries. Bahrain announced exploratory work on a potential global AI treaty initiative, while the United Kingdom highlighted partnerships helping countries across Africa develop local-language AI tools and strengthen domestic AI ecosystems.

The United States, meanwhile, emphasised voluntary cooperation with industry and a pro-innovation regulatory environment rather than binding international rules, illustrating one of the clearest policy differences to emerge during the session.

Despite these differing approaches, participants broadly agreed that AI’s future cannot be shaped by any country acting alone. As ministers repeatedly argued, the success of AI governance will ultimately be measured not by the sophistication of frontier models, but by whether countries of every size and level of development can safely use AI to improve the lives of their citizens.

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