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UN opens Global Dialogue on AI Governance with call for inclusive and evidence-based cooperation

The United Nations opened its first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, calling for inclusive, evidence-based and practical international cooperation to ensure that AI supports development while addressing risks related to safety, inequality, disinformation, children’s rights and human oversight.

The inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance is taking place on 6–7 July, alongside the AI for Good Global Summit and the WSIS Forum. Established in 2025, the dialogue is intended to provide a platform for governments and relevant stakeholders to discuss international cooperation, share good practices and support open, transparent and inclusive discussions on AI governance.

Opening the session, Ambassador Egriselda López of El Salvador, one of the dialogue’s co-chairs, described the meeting as the beginning of a broader process rather than a one-off event. She said Geneva should be seen not only as a place of arrival, but as a point of departure for continued work on AI governance.

López stressed that meaningful participation requires more than a seat in the room. Countries also need skills, infrastructure, financing, institutions and partnerships to shape and benefit from AI. Her co-chair, Ambassador Rein Tammsaar of Estonia, said AI is already affecting every country, regardless of its level of technological development, and that governance discussions must therefore include all regions, levels of development and relevant stakeholders.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that AI is advancing at ‘runaway speed’ and is being deployed faster than institutions can manage. He said AI is already reshaping economies, labour markets, elections and security, while society is facing what he described as an experiment being run ‘without a plan’ and ‘without consent’.

Guterres identified three major risks highlighted by scientific evidence: the speed of AI deployment, the concentration of power in a small number of companies and countries, and the erosion of truth through AI-enabled misinformation. He warned that computing power, data and talent remain concentrated, leaving many countries, particularly developing ones, with limited influence over technologies that may shape their futures.

At the same time, Guterres emphasised AI’s potential to support development, including in healthcare, education and agriculture. If shared widely, he said, AI could help make expertise more accessible and become a ‘great equaliser’ of the twenty-first century.

The Secretary-General outlined four priorities for international action: common safety standards, clear red lines grounded in human rights, stronger capacity-building for developing countries and greater transparency about AI’s environmental footprint. He also called for an AI child safety pledge, a global fund and network for AI capacity-building, and an international legal ban on lethal autonomous weapons, which he referred to as ‘killer robots’.

Annalena Baerbock, President of the UN General Assembly, said AI is developing at a pace that does not allow governments the time they had with earlier technological revolutions. She argued that AI cannot be governed by a few actors alone and must be addressed through the UN with participation from all countries and stakeholders.

Baerbock also highlighted harmful uses of AI, including deepfakes and gendered abuse. She said such abuses disproportionately target women and girls and described them as part of a broader challenge to human rights. At the same time, she pointed to AI’s potential to support the Sustainable Development Goals, including through disaster warning, agriculture, health and education.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, framed the opening as part of a wider ‘Geneva Digital Week’ that brings together the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, the work of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, the AI for Good Global Summit and the WSIS Forum. She contrasted the current pace of AI governance discussions with the early years of the internet, noting that the UN has moved more quickly to convene global dialogue on generative AI.

Khaled El-Enany of UNESCO focused on implementation, saying that a gap remains between principles and practice. He highlighted UNESCO’s 2021 Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence as a global standard for aligning AI with human rights, sustainability and inclusion. He said UNESCO is supporting more than 80 countries in strengthening legal frameworks, institutional capacities and accountability mechanisms, and noted that over 50,000 civil servants and judicial actors have benefited from UNESCO-supported AI training.

El-Enany also said UNESCO is launching a collective reflection on a new global normative instrument to safeguard children and young people in the age of AI and digital technologies.

Amandeep Singh Gill, UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, underlined the scale of participation in the dialogue, noting representation from more than 170 countries alongside scientists, entrepreneurs, civil society, international organisations and technical communities. He said inclusion in AI governance cannot be treated as a one-off exercise, adding that without capacity, ‘dialogues are monologues and science is just abstract’.

Singh Gill situated the dialogue within a longer UN process that includes the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, the Global Digital Compact and the High-Level Advisory Body on AI. He said the process would continue with a second round in New York next year, expected to be held alongside the STI Forum.

The opening session showed broad agreement that AI governance should be inclusive, evidence-based, rights-oriented and supported by practical capacity-building. Speakers repeatedly stressed that AI’s potential benefits for development, education, health and agriculture must be matched by safeguards on safety, accountability, children’s rights, truth, environmental sustainability and human oversight.

Tammsaar closed the opening by saying the discussion had highlighted both AI’s opportunities and the need for stronger international cooperation to ensure that the technology contributes to sustainable development, inclusion and shared prosperity. The meeting then moved to the presentation of the preliminary report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence.

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Stronger health data governance seen as key to trusted AI and digital health at WSIS Forum 2026

Strong legislative frameworks for health data governance are becoming essential to ensure that AI and digital health technologies remain trustworthy, equitable and rights-based, speakers said during a session at the WSIS Forum 2026.

The discussion brought together representatives from governments, international organisations, civil society and the private sector, who agreed that while AI and digital technologies are transforming healthcare, governance frameworks have not always kept pace. Speakers repeatedly argued that stronger legislation, greater international coordination and broader stakeholder participation will be necessary to build public trust and enable responsible data sharing across borders.

The session formed part of the WSIS Forum 2026, held in Geneva from 6 to 10 July. Co-organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD together with more than 50 UN organisations, the forum serves as one of the UN’s principal multistakeholder platforms for digital cooperation and sustainable development.

Trust begins with governance

Opening the discussion, Mathilde Forslund of Transform Health argued that health data has become the foundation of modern healthcare, powering everything from patient care and disease surveillance to AI innovation and health system planning.

However, she stressed that technological progress alone is insufficient.

‘Digital technologies and AI are transforming health systems rapidly, but these benefits will only be realised equitably and responsibly if governance keeps pace and public trust is maintained,’ she said.

Forslund argued that trusted governance requires legislation grounded in human rights, transparency and equity, alongside inclusive decision-making that informs citizens how their health data is collected, shared and protected. She also called for stronger national legal frameworks governing both health data and AI while encouraging greater regional and international alignment to prevent fragmented rules from undermining interoperability and cross-border cooperation.

Rather than starting from scratch, she noted that countries can already build on existing resources, including Transform Health’s Health Data Governance Principles, WHO guidance on AI, OECD recommendations and emerging regional initiatives such as the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and the Africa CDC’s work on continental health data governance.

National legislation provides legal certainty

Drawing on Zambia’s experience, Andrew Kashoka, Director of Information Technology at the Ministry of Health of Zambia, explained that governments increasingly recognise the need for legal certainty as digital health systems expand.

He argued that while policies and strategies provide direction, legislation ultimately establishes enforceable rights and obligations governing consent, privacy, accountability and access to health data.

‘Technology moves faster than policy and policy moves faster than legislation,’ Kashoka observed.

He described Zambia’s National Digital Health Strategy and the country’s participation in the WHO Global Initiative on Digital Health (GUIDE), noting that electronic health records, digital public infrastructure and AI all require strong legal foundations to maintain public confidence.

Kashoka also highlighted the Africa CDC’s continental health data governance framework, saying it provides African countries with shared principles that support legal interoperability, trusted cross-border collaboration, regional disease surveillance and responsible AI innovation.

Coordination, not policy, remains the biggest challenge

Several speakers suggested that governance challenges stem less from the absence of policies than from fragmented implementation.

Linda Bonyo, Founder of the Lawyers Hub and the Africa AI Policy Lab, argued that numerous organisations are already developing health data and AI governance initiatives, but often work independently with limited coordination.

She criticised the exclusion of parliaments and judicial institutions from governance discussions, arguing that legislators and courts play essential roles in creating and interpreting legal frameworks.

Bonyo also called for stronger institutional capacity, particularly among national data protection authorities that increasingly find themselves overseeing AI without sufficient technical expertise or financial resources.

She further highlighted practical barriers limiting African participation in international governance discussions, including visa restrictions and the high cost of attending Geneva-based meetings.

Summarising the challenge, Bonyo remarked that the problem is ‘not a policy problem… it’s implementation,’ urging countries to develop governance frameworks rooted in local realities rather than simply adopting foreign regulatory models.

Private sector and technical standards also matter

Representing the technical and private-sector perspective, Simão Ferraz de Campos Neto, Senior Counsellor at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), argued that clearer rules and common technical standards are essential if health data is to be shared safely without discouraging innovation.

He noted that organisations frequently hesitate to share data not because they oppose collaboration, but because legal uncertainty creates concerns about liability.

Campos Neto called for interoperable technical standards, machine-readable datasets and standardised data-sharing agreements that could make trusted health data exchange significantly easier.

He also cautioned against treating AI as a single technology requiring uniform regulation.

Instead, he advocated proportionate, risk-based regulation that reflects the diversity of AI applications, while avoiding excessive regulatory burdens that could slow innovation.

Momentum builds towards global action

Closing the discussion, Jamal Alshanfari, Ambassador and Head of Oman Health office in Geneva, pointed to growing political momentum following discussions at the World Health Assembly, where member states expressed broad support for developing stronger global health data governance arrangements.

He identified four priorities for the next phase of work. The phases are expanding international consensus, strengthening national legislation and institutional capacity, providing practical implementation guidance, and ensuring that governments, civil society, academia, industry and end users all participate in shaping future frameworks.

Alshanfari also reminded participants that governance discussions should ultimately focus on those most affected by digital health technologies.

‘Everybody forgets about the end user,’ he said, stressing that trust depends on governance frameworks serving citizens as much as institutions.

In her closing remarks, Forslund said the discussion demonstrated encouraging progress across national, regional and global initiatives, while acknowledging that implementation remains the greatest challenge. She pointed to the upcoming World Health Assembly as an important opportunity to advance work on a possible global resolution on health data governance.

The session concluded with broad agreement that trusted AI in healthcare will depend not only on technological innovation but also on stronger legislation, greater international coordination, practical implementation, and governance frameworks that place citizens’ rights and public trust at their centre.

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UN chief urges global rules for AI governance

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged governments, companies and civil society to move faster on global AI governance, warning that the technology is already reshaping economies, security and human rights. Speaking at the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, he said any future agreement must be ‘worthy of global trust’ and place safety at its centre.

Guterres said AI ‘sits at the heart of our common future’, but stressed that humans must remain responsible for critical decisions. In high-risk areas such as justice, healthcare and policing, he warned that ‘machines can inform, but humans must decide, and answer’.

He also said that AI rules must be aligned internationally, adding: ‘When countries align on how to test systems, measure risk and assign responsibility, safety travels with the technology.’ Without such alignment, he warned, ‘a patchwork of incompatible rules raises costs, divides the world – and protects no one.’

Children’s safety was presented as a central concern. Guterres called for an AI Child Safety Pledge, saying: ‘No child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI…We do not let medicine reach a child until it is proven safe. We test every toy; yet AI has reached our children – their learning, their friendships, their most private questions, before anyone asked what it would do to them.’

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He also said that when a child shows signs of distress, ‘the system must stop and connect them to real human support’, and added: ‘When a child is harmed, the answer must never be “the algorithm did it,”’.

The UN chief also warned that unequal access to AI could deepen global divides. Used well and shared widely, he said, AI ‘could compress decades of development into years’ and become ‘the great equalizer of the 21st century’. However, he cautioned: ‘We cannot allow the digital divide to harden into an AI divide and the AI divide to become a development gap, a security gap, and a sovereignty gap.’

Environmental impact was another major focus. Guterres called on major AI companies to disclose the carbon, water and land footprint of their systems and to power all data centres with renewable energy by 2030. ‘AI may feel intangible – but its footprint is not,’ he said, warning that data centres already consume more electricity than most countries and could soon place even greater pressure on power and water systems.

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WSIS session calls for a broader understanding of digital citizenship in the AI era

A WSIS Forum 2026 session on digital citizenship examined how governments, regulators, international organisations, and technical communities can help people participate safely and meaningfully in digital society as AI becomes more widely used.

The discussion took place during the WSIS Forum 2026, held in Geneva from 6 to 10 July. The annual multistakeholder forum, co-organised by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, and UNCTAD, brings together governments, international organisations, civil society, the private sector, academia, and technical communities to advance implementation of the WSIS Action Lines and support digital cooperation.

Opening the session, Alik Mikaelian, project specialist at UNDP Egypt, said digital citizenship can no longer be understood only as internet access. Although billions of people are now online, she argued that meaningful participation requires the ability to think critically, understand rights and responsibilities, navigate AI-enabled environments, and engage safely in digital society. She also linked digital citizenship to trusted institutions, resilient infrastructure, and cooperation among governments, the private sector, civil society, and technical communities.

Dr Hoda Baraka, advisor to Egypt’s Minister of ICT for Technology Talent Development and a Professor of Computer Engineering at Cairo University, presented Egypt’s approach to digital citizenship, describing a digitally empowered citizen as someone able to ‘access, understand, use, create, and benefit from digital technologies’ in a safe, ethical, productive, and inclusive way. She said Egypt’s Digital Egypt agenda combines infrastructure expansion, digital government services, digital literacy, skills programmes, online safety, and support for persons with disabilities.

Baraka said Egypt is working across different age groups and professional communities, including school pupils, university students, graduates, public servants, parents, educators, and persons with disabilities. She highlighted initiatives such as Digital Egypt Marvel Schools and the Digital Egypt Cubs Initiative, as well as programmes for advanced skills and public-sector readiness. She added that online safety is becoming increasingly important due to misinformation, deepfakes, privacy risks, and threats to personal data.

Dr Abeer Shakweer, speaking from UNDP Egypt’s perspective, said the focus should shift from simply combating misinformation to strengthening information integrity. She argued that citizens need critical thinking skills and the capacity to make informed decisions in AI-shaped information environments.

Shakweer described a three-pillar UNDP programme in Egypt. The first pillar addresses misinformation and disinformation through an assessment of the information ecosystem and a bilingual Arabic-English toolkit for youth and journalists. She said the toolkit had been used to train more than 120 young people and 25 journalism trainers. The second pillar explores how AI can be used both to spread and to counter false information, while the third embeds capacity development across public-facing digital programmes, including digital transformation, digital public infrastructure, and future intelligence.

Krisstina Rao focused on digital public infrastructure (DPI), describing it as shared, reusable infrastructure that supports services across government rather than separate systems developed by individual ministries or departments. She cited digital identity, payment systems, and consent-based data exchange as examples.

Rao said governments cannot build complex DPI systems alone and need early collaboration with stakeholders who can contribute expertise on inclusion, safety, accountability, and adoption. She warned that if countries continue maintaining both digital and analogue systems, because many people remain excluded, costs remain high, and the full value of DPI is reduced. She referred to examples, including Brazil’s PIX forum and Ethiopia’s early collaboration with UNHCR to connect digital identity systems with refugee registration.

Dr Chafic Chaya stressed that digital citizenship should not be separated from internet infrastructure. He said discussions often focus on individual behaviour, such as staying safe online or protecting data, but that meaningful participation also depends on resilient connectivity, reliable platforms, and secure environments. He added that this is particularly important in the Global South, where access may expand faster than resilience and capacity development.

Her Excellency Lara Khateeb brought a regulatory perspective, saying rules must remain flexible and adaptive because technology changes quickly. She said Jordan benchmarks international practices and uses public consultation to make regulations more workable. She described this as a form of ‘reverse engineering’, starting from available technologies and practical solutions before shaping rules around them.

Khateeb cited Jordan’s work on child online protection as an example, explaining that regulators consulted telecom operators about available technical solutions and international platforms about how those systems interact. She also emphasised data protection, coordination with cybersecurity agencies, and awareness campaigns tailored to different groups, including children, women, businesses, and SMEs.

Nicholas Field highlighted the role of young people in digital citizenship. Drawing on work with Omidyar Network and UNICEF, he said young people often want to engage and are ready to contribute, but are frequently treated as an afterthought in policymaking. He noted that they often help older family members use digital services and argued that governments should reach them through the channels they actually use, including influencers, YouTube, and podcasts.

Field also raised the issue of AI skills among teachers, saying educators cannot be expected to guide responsible AI use if they do not understand the technology themselves. He said institutions should not assume students will avoid AI tools, but should instead define clear parameters for responsible and acceptable use.

The session also discussed sandboxes as practical tools for testing digital systems before full deployment. Field described sandboxes as time-bound technical environments created for a specific learning purpose. He said they can help regulators, companies, and citizens build trust through safe experimentation. He cited the French identity sandbox, which contributed to work around interoperable digital identity, and the GovStack interoperability sandbox, which tests components such as ID, consent, registers, messaging, and workflow.

Shakweer later shifted the discussion from citizens to institutions, arguing that digital transformation requires public bodies to assess their own readiness and invest in capacity development. She said UNDP uses digital and AI readiness assessment tools to help organisations understand their current position and develop practical roadmaps. In Egypt, she said, such assessments had been applied with the Ministry of Justice and started with the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority.

Returning to AI governance, Al-Khateeb said regulators should encourage responsible AI use rather than ban it. She criticised approaches that prohibit AI use outright, arguing that people should instead be taught to use the technology responsibly, including by checking sources and understanding risks. She also described how Jordan’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission uses an internal AI system, not connected to the internet, to search regulations and decisions and support regulatory work.

Baraka closed the discussion by outlining Egypt’s responsible AI work. She said Egypt has an ethical charter, a governance framework, guidelines for developers and deployers, and procurement guidance for public institutions buying AI systems. However, she stressed that frameworks alone are not enough and that institutions need practical tools to apply them before and after deployment.

She also highlighted Egypt’s emerging AI Audit Lab, developed with support from UNDP, GSMA, GIZ, and WebSphere, as a way to help move from principles to implementation. The lab is intended to support Egyptian programmers, developers, and SMEs in testing and building responsible AI systems, including around fairness, accountability, transparency, openness, interoperability, and explainability.

Across the session, speakers agreed that digital citizenship in the AI era requires more than connectivity. It depends on critical thinking, trusted public institutions, secure infrastructure, inclusive DPI, flexible regulation, AI literacy, online safety, and practical tools that allow citizens and institutions to use digital technologies responsibly.

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What Geneva’s history can teach us about governing AI

Based on a Diplo interview with Jovan Kurbalija, Executive Director of Diplo, conducted by Maricela Muñoz.

Few places embody the history of international diplomacy as vividly as Geneva’s Alabama Room. It was here, in 1864, that representatives of European states signed the first Geneva Convention, laying the foundations of modern international humanitarian law. The same room also hosted negotiations that resolved the Alabama Claims, an arbitration between the United States and the United Kingdom that became a landmark in the peaceful settlement of international disputes.

Maricela Muñoz and Jovan Kurbalija

More than 160 years later, the room continues to host conversations about another challenge with global implications – AI. While the technologies have changed dramatically, the underlying questions remain remarkably familiar. How can societies govern transformative innovations responsibly? How can competing interests find common ground? And how can international cooperation keep pace with technologies evolving faster than regulation?

These themes formed the basis of a recent Diplo interview with Jovan Kurbalija, Executive Director of Diplo, who reflected on Geneva’s historical legacy and its continuing relevance for AI governance. His central argument is that understanding the future of AI requires more than technical expertise. It also requires revisiting the intellectual traditions, diplomatic culture, and human values that have shaped Geneva for centuries.

History offers principles, not ready-made answers

Kurbalija cautions against treating history as a collection of simple solutions.

‘History does not provide us ready-made lessons. Our moment is unique in many respects.’

Instead, history provides something more enduring, the principles that continue to guide societies confronting new challenges.

Standing inside the Alabama Room, Kurbalija described history as something that ‘echoes across time.’ Rather than searching for direct historical parallels, he suggested imagining the negotiators who once walked through Geneva’s streets before gathering around the same table to discuss humanitarian protection or peaceful dispute settlement.

The technologies confronting today’s diplomats are different, yet many of the qualities that enabled successful negotiations remain unchanged. Patience, dialogue, respect for opposing views, and the willingness to seek common ground continue to underpin effective diplomacy.

As governments, international organisations, companies, researchers, and civil society grapple with AI governance, these diplomatic traditions may be more relevant than ever.

Geneva’s enduring values: Inclusion and compromise

For Kurbalija, Geneva’s importance extends well beyond the concentration of international organisations located around the city.

Its defining contribution lies in a diplomatic culture built around inclusion and compromise.

Inclusion has long characterised Geneva’s approach to international negotiations. Whether discussing humanitarian law in the nineteenth century or AI governance today, meaningful outcomes depend on ensuring that all those affected have a voice.

That principle has become particularly important for AI governance.

‘We should have AI companies, but we must have governments, communities, citizens, marginal groups all over the world.’

The observation reflects one of the central challenges of AI governance. Decisions about AI increasingly affect education, healthcare, employment, security, trade, and human rights. Consequently, discussions cannot remain confined to governments and technology companies alone.

Kurbalija identifies compromise as the second defining Geneva principle.

‘Compromise is not a very popular word today.’

Yet he argues that compromise represents an ethical strength rather than a weakness. It requires recognising that different actors hold legitimate interests and finding solutions that, while imperfect, remain acceptable to everyone involved.

In an era increasingly shaped by geopolitical competition over AI, these principles may prove as valuable as any technological breakthrough.

EspriTech de Genève: When history speaks to AI

One of the interview’s most distinctive ideas is Kurbalija’s concept of EspriTech de Genève.

Drawing inspiration from the traditional Esprit de Genève, which reflects the city’s humanitarian and diplomatic heritage, EspriTech de Genève explores how thinkers associated with Geneva anticipated many of today’s debates about technology, knowledge, and humanity.

Rather than beginning with computers, Kurbalija traces AI governance back through centuries of philosophy, literature, linguistics, and science.

Art, Collage, City, Metropolis, Urban, Water, Waterfront, Adult, Male, Man, Person, Nature, Outdoors, Scenery, Female, Woman, Face, Head, Accessories, Glasses, Transportation, Vehicle, Yacht, Architecture, Building, Monument, Arch, Jean Piaget, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Jorge Luis Borges, Ferdinand de Saussure, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Valentin Haüy, Voltaire, Jehan Cauvin

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, written near Geneva more than two centuries ago, provides perhaps the most familiar example. The novel tells the story of a scientist whose creation ultimately escapes his control.

‘It is the eternal reminder of the human drive to push the frontier, to invent, to discover new things—and at the same time the human predicament that the very invention we developed could hurt humanity.’

For Kurbalija, the novel remains strikingly relevant as societies debate increasingly capable AI systems. The question is no longer simply whether humans can build powerful technologies, but how they can ensure those technologies remain aligned with human interests.

Another recurring influence is Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, whose works explored uncertainty, knowledge, and the limits of human understanding. Reflecting on Borges’ observation that humanity must continue building ‘as if the sand were stone,’ Kurbalija argues that uncertainty is not a flaw to eliminate but a defining feature of human existence.

Attempts to achieve complete certainty through technology, he suggests, risk repeating an ancient mistake, believing that humans can fully master complexity.

Rousseau, Bonnet and Saussure: forgotten foundations of the AI age

The interview also revisits several Genevan thinkers whose ideas continue to resonate in discussions about AI.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s concept of the social contract raises questions about human agency in an increasingly digital society. If knowledge becomes concentrated within a handful of large AI systems, Kurbalija argues, societies may need to reconsider how citizens exercise autonomy, participate in democratic life, and realise their potential.

Charles Bonnet, an eighteenth-century Genevan natural philosopher, appears as an unexpectedly modern figure. Fascinated by recurring patterns in nature, Bonnet studied the mathematical organisation of leaves and explored how seemingly complex biological systems emerge from underlying structures.

According to Kurbalija, Bonnet’s search for patterns anticipated, in remarkably abstract form, today’s machine learning systems, which likewise identify statistical relationships within vast quantities of information.

Language itself forms another bridge between Geneva’s intellectual history and contemporary AI.

Geneva

Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure transformed linguistics by distinguishing between the structure of language and its meaning. Although writing decades before computers existed, his work laid conceptual foundations that later influenced computational linguistics and, indirectly, today’s large language models.

‘If AI companies ever had to pay royalties for ideas,’ Kurbalija jokes, ‘Saussure’s successors would probably earn quite a bit.’

Behind the humour lies a serious point, that AI did not emerge in an intellectual vacuum. It builds upon centuries of inquiry into language, knowledge, communication, and human cognition.

Human-centred AI begins with human values

Throughout the conversation, Kurbalija repeatedly returns to one theme, that AI governance is ultimately about people rather than machines.

The phrase ‘human-centred AI’ appears frequently in international discussions, yet he argues that its meaning deserves closer examination.

What does it actually mean to place humans at the centre of AI? For Kurbalija, the answer lies in humility.

Drawing once again on Frankenstein, he argues that technological ambition should always be accompanied by recognition of human limitations.

‘We should have humility,’ he says.

Jovan Kurbalija

Rather than pursuing AI for its own sake, societies should ask how technology can support human dignity, creativity, education, and well-being.

He also highlights the principle of subsidiarity, the idea that decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the people affected by them. Applied to AI, this means involving citizens, educators, local communities, researchers, and smaller organisations alongside governments and major technology companies.

Broad participation, he argues, helps ensure that AI is perceived not as an external force imposed upon society, but as a tool developed with society.

Geneva’s next chapter

Geneva’s role in AI governance continues to evolve.The city already hosts initiatives such as the AI for Good Global Summit, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and numerous discussions on AI governance involving governments, international organisations, academia, civil society, and the private sector.

It is also expected to host the AI Summit in 2027, further reinforcing its position as one of the world’s principal centres for international dialogue on emerging technologies.

Geneva
Image via Freepik

Yet Kurbalija believes Geneva’s greatest contribution lies not in the number of meetings it convenes but in the diplomatic culture it represents.Its traditions of inclusion, dialogue, compromise, and respect for human dignity offer an important counterbalance at a time when AI discussions are increasingly shaped by geopolitical competition, technological rivalry, and commercial pressures.

He concludes the interview with three messages for policymakers:

  • The first is to avoid what he calls ‘chrono-narcissism’, the belief that every challenge is entirely new and disconnected from history.
  • The second is to approach AI with humility, recognising both its extraordinary potential and its inherent risks.
  • The third is to ensure that AI governance remains genuinely inclusive by bringing decision-making closer to the people whose lives the technology will affect.

These principles echo far beyond Geneva.

As AI becomes embedded in nearly every aspect of society, debates about governance are becoming less about technology itself and more about the values that should guide its development. In that respect, Geneva’s greatest contribution may not be a particular regulatory model or institutional framework, but a reminder that diplomacy, dialogue, and humanity remain as essential in the AI era as they were when the first Geneva Convention was signed more than a century and a half ago.

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IWF and NCA urge parents to protect children’s photos from AI misuse

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) have launched new guidance urging parents and carers to better protect images of their children online, warning that criminals are increasingly using AI to turn publicly available photographs into child sexual abuse material.

The campaign responds to a sharp rise in AI-generated child sexual abuse material and aims to help families make more informed decisions about sharing children’s image online and obtaining their consent.

The guidance accompanies a public awareness campaign across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, encouraging families to review privacy settings, reconsider who can access children’s photographs and discuss image consent with young people.

Parents are encouraged to regularly review whether they are comfortable sharing images online, limit access through private groups where appropriate, and talk openly with their children about AI-generated imagery, deepfake nudes and online safety.

The campaign follows growing evidence that offenders are exploiting publicly accessible family and school photographs.

The IWF recently helped prevent the circulation of more than 100 AI-generated sexual images created from photographs taken from a UK school’s website after criminals attempted to blackmail the school. According to the organisations, even ordinary family photographs can now be manipulated into realistic abuse material without the knowledge of children or their parents.

The scale of the threat has grown significantly. The IWF identified 8,029 AI-generated child sexual abuse images and videos in 2025, a 14% increase on the previous year.

AI-generated videos increased from just 13 identified in 2024 to 3,443 in 2025, with nearly two-thirds classified as the UK’s most severe Category A abuse material.

The IWF argues that technology companies must strengthen safeguards around AI image generation tools before release, while continuing to support law enforcement efforts to combat online child exploitation.

Why does it matter?

Generative AI has made it significantly easier to create realistic child sexual abuse material from ordinary photographs, fundamentally changing the online child protection landscape. Images shared on social media, school websites or other public platforms can now be manipulated without a child’s knowledge, creating new risks for families and increasing the burden on law enforcement and child protection organisations.

The campaign also highlights that preventing AI-enabled abuse requires more than criminal enforcement. Stronger safeguards in AI image-generation tools, improved privacy practices, greater parental awareness and better digital literacy around image sharing and consent are all becoming essential components of online child safety.

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ITU showcases AI tools to strengthen digital trust

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has highlighted a new generation of AI researchers developing practical tools to strengthen digital trust, improve content authenticity and combat misinformation.

Ahead of the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, the Young Researcher Associate Programme is showcasing projects designed to improve multimedia authenticity, helping people identify manipulated content while supporting creativity and innovation in the age of generative AI.

The initiative operates under the AI and Multimedia Authenticity Standards Collaboration, established in 2024 by the World Standards Cooperation, which brings together the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the ITU.

The programme brings together early-career researchers from universities around the world to develop solutions addressing content authenticity, provenance and digital rights as AI-generated media becomes increasingly common online.

Three flagship projects illustrate the programme’s multidisciplinary approach. STOP&SCAN promotes critical thinking through a five-step framework that encourages people to assess the source, content and context of digital information before sharing it.

AMITO provides an AI-powered multimedia integrity toolkit through Telegram and WhatsApp, analysing suspicious images and videos while explaining its findings in plain language rather than simply labelling content as authentic or fake.

Meanwhile, the Policy-as-Code project maps AI-related regulations across jurisdictions, helping creators, businesses and policymakers understand how AI-generated content is regulated while laying the foundations for machine-readable compliance mechanisms.

The researchers will present their work at the AI for Good Global Summit on 9 July, demonstrating how technical innovation, behavioural science and regulatory frameworks can work together to build more trustworthy digital ecosystems. According to the ITU, strengthening digital trust requires collaboration across generations, disciplines and countries.

According to ITU, designing digital trust requires collaboration across generations, disciplines and countries to ensure AI strengthens rather than undermines confidence in online information.

Why does it matter?

As generative AI makes it easier to create convincing synthetic media, verifying the authenticity and provenance of digital content is becoming increasingly important for governments, businesses and the public. Technical tools alone are unlikely to solve the problem, making user education, common standards and transparent governance equally important.

The initiative also highlights the growing role of international standards organisations in shaping AI governance. By combining authenticity technologies, regulatory mapping and practical educational tools, the ITU and its partners are helping develop a shared foundation for trusted digital ecosystems that can operate across platforms and national borders.

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Spain pushes for AI regulation to protect workers

Spain has called for stronger regulation of AI and algorithmic management in the workplace, arguing that digital technologies should strengthen workers’ rights rather than undermine them.

Speaking at the VI Ibero-American Ministerial Conference on Labour in Avilés, Spain’s Second Vice President and Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz, urged governments across the region to establish governance frameworks that ensure transparency, human oversight and the ethical use of AI in employment.

The conference focused on two priorities shaping the future of work. Ministers agreed on the need to professionalise, formalise and improve working conditions in the care sector, recognising its economic and social importance while addressing the precarious conditions faced by many workers, particularly women.

Delegations also examined the growing use of algorithmic management, stressing that governments should actively regulate AI to protect labour rights.

The meeting concluded with the adoption of the Avilés Ministerial Declaration and the Ibero-American Commitment on the Social and Solidarity Economy 2026–2030. Together, the documents establish shared principles on care work, algorithmic governance and labour rights while strengthening regional cooperation to promote inclusive economic development, quality employment and more resilient labour markets ahead of the XXX Ibero-American Summit in Madrid later this year.

At the same time, the commitment strengthens regional cooperation to promote inclusive economic development, quality employment and more resilient labour markets ahead of the XXX Ibero-American Summit scheduled to take place in Madrid later this year.

Why does it matter?

The conference reflects growing international concern that AI is reshaping the workplace faster than labour regulations are evolving. By calling for greater transparency, human oversight and accountability in algorithmic management, Spain is arguing that AI should improve working conditions without weakening workers’ rights or limiting human decision-making.

The adoption of shared regional principles also highlights how labour policy is becoming an increasingly important part of AI governance. As algorithmic systems play a larger role in hiring, scheduling, performance management and other employment decisions, governments are placing greater emphasis on ensuring that technological innovation remains aligned with fairness, inclusion and decent work.

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India backs ‘Human-led AI’ for digital government

India has reaffirmed its commitment to placing people at the centre of AI during the 29th National Conference on e-Governance, where Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said ‘Human-led Artificial Intelligence’ will guide the country’s journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047.

Speaking at the conference’s closing session in Jaipur, Singh said AI is no longer optional for governments, but argued that its success depends on responsible deployment that strengthens transparency, accountability and public service rather than replacing human judgement.

Held under the theme ‘Viksit Bharat 2047: AI-enabled, Data-driven and Secure Digital Governance’, the conference brought together policymakers, technology experts, researchers, industry representatives and public administrators to discuss the future of digital government.

The conference concluded with the adoption of the Jaipur Declaration, which sets out a strategic roadmap for AI-enabled, secure and citizen-centric governance. It also recognised 17 digital governance initiatives through the National e-Governance Awards 2026, highlighting innovation across ministries, states, local governments and research institutions.

Throughout the event, speakers presented AI as a tool to strengthen public administration while preserving democratic accountability. Singh stressed that AI should enhance institutional capacity rather than replace human responsibility.

He highlighted several flagship initiatives, including the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System, the multilingual AI chatbot SAMADHAN DIDI developed with BHASHINI, the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment, Mission Karmayogi and the IndiaAI Mission, all intended to improve efficiency, accessibility and citizen engagement.

Singh also said India’s long-term digital strategy extends beyond technology deployment. Capacity building for civil servants, administrative reform, secure Digital Public Infrastructure and responsible AI governance are all seen as essential to achieving the country’s 2047 development ambitions. According to Singh, AI should accelerate public service delivery while remaining grounded in ethics, constitutional values and human oversight.

According to Dr Singh, technology should accelerate governance while remaining firmly guided by ethics, constitutional values and human oversight.

Why does it matter?

India is positioning AI as a tool to strengthen public administration rather than replace human decision-making. By emphasising human oversight, ethics and citizen-centred services, the government is seeking to balance technological innovation with democratic accountability as AI becomes more deeply integrated into public institutions.

The Jaipur Declaration also signals that AI is becoming a long-term pillar of India’s digital governance strategy. Combined with investments in Digital Public Infrastructure, civil service capacity development and multilingual AI services, the approach could shape how other countries integrate AI into public administration while maintaining public trust.

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Ireland introduces AI Bill to implement EU AI Act

Ireland’s government has introduced the Regulation of AI Bill 2026, with Digital Transformation Minister Niamh Smyth describing the legislation as essential to protecting citizens while supporting innovation during its Second Stage debate in the Dáil.

The Bill is intended to give full effect to the EU AI Act in Ireland by establishing the national institutions needed to supervise and enforce the regulation ahead of the EU implementation deadline of 2 August 2026.

A central element of the Bill is the establishment of the AI Office of Ireland as an independent statutory body. The office will act as Ireland’s national point of contact with the European Commission and other member states, oversee enforcement of the AI Act, promote AI literacy and innovation, and operate a regulatory sandbox for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Smyth acknowledged both the opportunities and risks presented by AI, highlighting advances in areas such as healthcare and scientific research while warning that, without appropriate safeguards, the technology could reinforce discrimination, manipulate behaviour and exploit vulnerabilities. She emphasised that the Bill is an implementing measure and does not introduce obligations beyond those already established by the EU AI Act.

Smyth also said the legislation would strengthen Ireland’s position as an ‘EU centre of excellence and digital regulatory hub‘. She argued that a robust enforcement framework would provide businesses with the regulatory certainty needed to invest and innovate, with the government seeking passage of the Bill before the August deadline.

Why does it matter?

Ireland’s implementation of the EU AI Act carries particular significance because many of the world’s largest technology companies base their European operations there. The establishment of an independent AI Office with enforcement responsibilities and a regulatory sandbox positions Ireland as a key player in applying the EU’s AI rules in practice.

The legislation also illustrates the broader challenge facing EU member states as the AI Act enters into force. Governments must rapidly establish the institutions, expertise and enforcement mechanisms needed to supervise AI systems while providing businesses with regulatory certainty and supporting continued innovation.

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