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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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UN AI dialogue urges human rights to become the foundation of AI governance

Human rights must move from the margins to the centre of AI governance if societies are to harness AI without undermining democracy, equality and public trust, speakers argued during the fourth thematic discussion of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance.

Bringing together governments, UN agencies, civil society, academia and industry, the session examined how AI systems can better respect human rights through stronger transparency, accountability and human oversight. Participants agreed that AI governance should be grounded in international human rights law throughout the entire AI lifecycle, from design and development to deployment and oversight.

AI deserves the same safeguards as medicines

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk opened the discussion by comparing AI regulation to the approval process for new medicines. Drugs undergo years of testing before reaching patients, he noted, yet AI systems are being deployed at unprecedented speed despite already contributing to mass surveillance, online disinformation, discrimination and growing risks to children.

Türk rejected the notion that regulation inevitably slows innovation, arguing instead that robust safeguards enable societies to trust new technologies. International human rights law, he said, already provides a binding framework for addressing issues such as privacy, equality, non-discrimination and access to justice, and should guide AI governance rather than being treated as an afterthought.

He also stressed that human oversight must be meaningful rather than symbolic, with clearly identified individuals empowered to intervene or halt AI systems when necessary. Summarising his vision for responsible innovation, Türk contrasted the technology industry’s pursuit of ‘bigger, faster, better’ with what he described as a more appropriate goal: ‘smarter, kinder, wiser.’

Women and children bear disproportionate AI risks

The first panel focused on how AI is amplifying existing inequalities, particularly for women, children and other vulnerable groups.

UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous presented evidence showing that 44% of assessed AI systems exhibit gender bias, while up to 99% of online sexual deepfakes target women. She also noted that women remain significantly underrepresented in AI development, with only a minority of national AI strategies explicitly addressing gender equality.

Bahous argued that governments remain the primary duty bearers under international human rights law and called for mandatory human rights impact assessments before and after AI deployment, alongside the meaningful participation of women, indigenous communities, disability advocates and civil society in AI governance.

Sonia Livingstone, a member of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, highlighted growing evidence that AI-generated child sexual abuse material is increasing rapidly and warned that many AI companion systems currently fail basic child safety standards. Rather than excluding young people from digital technologies, she argued, policymakers should ensure that children’s rights to participation, education and expression remain protected while embedding safeguards into AI systems from the outset.

Agentic AI raises new accountability challenges

Speakers also warned that increasingly autonomous AI systems are exposing significant legal and governance gaps.

Morocco’s Minister Delegate Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni described agentic AI as one of the most important governance challenges of the coming decade. As AI systems increasingly rely on networks of autonomous agents making decisions without direct human instruction, identifying responsibility when something goes wrong becomes considerably more difficult.

She proposed several practical measures, including documenting the actions of AI agents throughout decision-making processes, ensuring that a clearly identifiable human remains responsible for AI-enabled public services, and guaranteeing timely avenues for redress when individuals are harmed.

Samuel Arias Arzeno, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic, similarly argued that governance only becomes meaningful when someone believes an AI system has violated their rights and seeks justice. Courts, he said, must remain central institutions for ensuring that AI-assisted decisions remain subject to human accountability.

Rights protections should not depend on geography

A recurring concern throughout the discussion was that meaningful human rights protections are often applied unevenly across different regions.

Digital Rights Foundation founder Nighat Dad argued that robust human rights due diligence is largely conducted only where legislation requires it, particularly in Europe, while identical AI systems may be deployed elsewhere without comparable safeguards. She described this as a structural choice rather than a capacity gap, creating what she called a ‘two-tier’ human rights regime.

Dad called for mandatory gender and child rights impact assessments before deployment, consistent due diligence obligations across all markets where AI systems operate, and repeated assessments whenever AI capabilities change significantly.

Alvitta Ottley, also a member of the Independent Scientific Panel on AI, highlighted what she described as an ‘evaluation mismatch’. Current AI assessments often measure technical performance such as speed and accuracy, she explained, while policymakers and societies are instead asking whether AI protects human rights, strengthens accountability and improves people’s lives. Closing this evidence gap will require interdisciplinary research and much stronger evaluation of AI’s long-term societal impacts.

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs Felipe Paullier added that young people remain among AI’s most active users and innovators, yet rarely participate in decisions shaping the technology’s future. He urged governments to create meaningful opportunities for youth participation within national AI governance frameworks.

Global South voices call for more inclusive governance

Audience interventions reinforced the need for AI governance that is genuinely inclusive rather than shaped primarily by a handful of countries and companies.

Brazil highlighted its Digital Statute for Children and Adolescents, which requires child protection measures to be incorporated from the design stage and restricts platform features that encourage excessive use. Poland pointed to the Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI as an important legally binding instrument placing AI within the broader framework of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, while the Republic of Korea presented its AI Basic Act, which requires human rights assessments for high-impact AI systems.

Civil society organisations called for stronger global action. Access Now urged governments to establish binding human rights safeguards and prohibit AI applications that pose unacceptable risks, while the Association for Progressive Communications argued that communities should be viewed as ‘the first mile, not the last mile’ of AI governance, emphasising that meaningful connectivity and local participation remain prerequisites for equitable AI development.

In the closing discussion, co-chair Linda Bonyo highlighted another overlooked barrier to inclusive governance: many Global South experts remain unable to participate in international discussions because of restrictive visa processes, illustrating that exclusion from AI governance can begin long before negotiations start.

Closing the session, Spain’s Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service Óscar López Águeda acknowledged that governments are already behind the pace of technological change but insisted the direction ahead is clear. AI governance, he argued, is ultimately about defending democracy, human dignity and human agency, ensuring that AI helps societies become better rather than simply more technologically advanced.

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Global Dialogue highlights need for interoperable AI governance

Building safe, secure and trustworthy AI requires countries to align their governance frameworks rather than adopt a single global regulatory model, participants heard on the second day of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance. Speakers from governments, international organisations, industry and civil society argued that interoperability, backed by common standards, scientific evidence and inclusive participation, is essential to address AI risks that increasingly cross national borders.

The discussion also highlighted a growing imbalance in global AI development, with participants warning that governance should not be shaped solely by the countries and companies leading frontier AI. Instead, they called for developing countries to become co-creators of international AI governance through stronger capacity development, shared standards and multilateral cooperation.

AI concentration risks becoming governance concentration

Opening the session, co-chair Paula Bogantes Zamora, Costa Rica’s Minister of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications, argued that the world has reached a point where agreeing on AI principles is no longer enough.

‘The world does not need more AI principles, it needs a common way to prove they’re being implemented.’

Bogantes Zamora warned that AI development remains heavily concentrated. She noted that institutions in the United States produced 59 notable AI models in 2025 and China another 35, while the rest of the world produced just 13. She argued that this concentration of infrastructure also creates a concentration of evidence, allowing a small number of actors to determine which risks are measured, which benchmarks are accepted and how AI safety is evaluated.

She also pointed to findings showing that 118 countries, primarily in the Global South, remain largely absent from major international AI governance discussions.

Rather than pursuing regulatory uniformity, Bogantes Zamora proposed what she called ‘minimal viable interoperability’ by 2027, including shared terminology, comparable risk classifications, interoperable incident reporting and multilingual evaluation methods that allow different governance systems to function together.

Interoperability should connect governance systems, not replace them

Co-chair Rebecca Finlay, CEO of the Partnership on AI, argued that governance efforts must be grounded in stronger scientific evidence and greater transparency.

She outlined three priorities: strengthening independent scientific research, improving public access to evidence through greater disclosure by AI developers, and creating shared baselines for measuring progress in the public interest.

‘The panel provides the evidence and the dialogue provides the direction,’ Finlay said, describing the UN scientific panel and the Global Dialogue as complementary processes.

UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Singh Gill echoed that message, warning that fragmented AI governance creates regulatory arbitrage, accountability gaps and unnecessary compliance burdens, particularly for smaller companies and developing countries.

Rather than harmonising all AI rules into a single global framework, Singh Gill argued that countries should focus on building practical bridges between different governance approaches.

He also highlighted the emergence of increasingly autonomous agentic AI systems as a new governance challenge requiring adaptive oversight mechanisms, including cross-border regulatory sandboxes and continuously updated risk assessment frameworks.

Existing frameworks provide building blocks

During the first panel, speakers pointed to several initiatives that could serve as foundations for greater interoperability.

Yoichi Iida, adviser at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, highlighted the OECD AI Principles and the Hiroshima AI Process as examples of frameworks already helping countries align governance approaches despite different legal systems.

Syed Ahmed of Infosys said that translating broad principles into practical implementation remains technically challenging.

Using transparency as an example, he explained that the concept carries different technical requirements across governance frameworks, requiring detailed mapping of individual controls rather than simply aligning high-level principles.

Nouf Al Hameli of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs similarly argued that countries define concepts such as ‘high-risk AI’ in different ways, making common incident reporting and mutual recognition of governance practices increasingly important.

Leonardo Cervera Navas, Secretary-General of the European Data Protection Supervisor, compared AI governance to aviation safety, arguing that while countries operate different legal systems, they nevertheless follow common international safety rules.

‘The higher the risk, the higher the care and supervision required,’ he said, referring to the EU AI Act’s risk-based approach.

Inclusive evaluation and trustworthy evidence remain critical

Several speakers argued that trustworthy AI depends not only on technical standards but also on ensuring that governance reflects linguistic, cultural and demographic diversity.

Dr Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, warned that widely used AI benchmarks often fail to represent the global majority, noting that some have historically included less than 5% of the world’s population.

She called for harm reporting systems that record not only technical failures but also who was affected, creating stronger foundations for accountability and redress.

Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, drew lessons from more than 150 years of international weather cooperation, arguing that trust cannot simply be declared.

‘Trust must be built through verification,’ she said, pointing to the organisation’s longstanding use of shared standards and independent validation across 193 countries.

Qinghua Lu of Australia’s CSIRO proposed greater collaboration through shared evaluation methods, common risk management principles and international testing exercises that include multiple languages and national contexts.

Global South calls for a stronger role in shaping AI governance

Interventions from member states and stakeholders repeatedly stressed that interoperability should not become another mechanism for exporting governance models developed elsewhere.

Pakistan argued that AI safety standards are currently shaped by a small group of countries and companies, calling instead for genuinely multilateral governance under the UN.

Brazil similarly stressed that interoperability must not undermine digital sovereignty, while South Africa argued that governance frameworks should reflect the realities of developing countries and support technology transfer and capacity development.

Other speakers highlighted practical priorities, including multilingual benchmarks, common standards for documenting AI training data, cross-border incident reporting systems and greater participation from local governments, academia and civil society.

Concluding the discussion, both co-chairs argued that trustworthy AI depends not on identical regulations but on governance systems that can communicate, exchange evidence and recognise one another’s safeguards.

They identified shared technical standards, independent evaluation, multilingual benchmarks, human rights protections and continuous multistakeholder cooperation as the foundations for AI governance capable of working across borders, while warning that progress will depend on maintaining momentum between international meetings rather than restarting discussions each year.

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Spain leads international coalition on child safety and AI

Spain has launched the International Coalition for Children’s Rights and Protection in the Age of AI with a group of countries and international organisations.

The initiative was presented during the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva and is intended to ensure that AI respects children’s safety, healthy development and rights.

Spain said the coalition was promoted with support from France, Kenya and the EU.

Participating countries include Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, South Korea, El Salvador, Estonia, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Morocco and the Netherlands.

UNICEF, UNESCO, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Telecommunication Union and the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies have also joined the coalition.

The coalition aims to coordinate action between governments, UN bodies, technology companies, civil society, child well-being experts and educators.

Signatories warned that rapid AI deployment is transforming the digital environments in which children learn, communicate and interact. They said AI can create opportunities, but can also amplify risks such as manipulation, harmful content, sexual deepfakes, AI-generated child sexual abuse material and algorithmic profiling of minors.

Coalition members are committed to promoting safe, reliable and trustworthy AI systems that respect children’s rights and include children’s views in the design, deployment and governance of AI systems that affect them.

Why does it matter?

The coalition places child protection at the heart of the emerging UN AI governance agenda. AI-related risks for children now include not only harmful content and cyberbullying, but also sexual deepfakes, AI-generated child sexual abuse material, manipulative algorithms and profiling of minors. A UN-based coalition could help align national approaches around safe-by-design systems, age-appropriate safeguards and children’s participation. However, its impact will depend on whether members move from declarations to practical standards and enforcement.

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China and Denmark expand cooperation on AI and innovation

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expressed China’s readiness to strengthen cooperation with Denmark in areas including the green economy, innovation and AI during a visit to Copenhagen. Wang made the remarks in a meeting with Danish King Frederik X, alongside separate talks with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

During a meeting with King Frederik X, Wang highlighted the longstanding relationship between China and the Danish royal family, noting previous state visits and describing them as a symbol of mutual respect and friendship.

King Frederik X said bilateral relations continue to develop positively, highlighting active trade and people-to-people exchanges. He added that the Danish royal family is ready to support closer cooperation, including in AI and other areas of mutual interest.

Wang also stressed the importance of people-to-people exchanges as the foundation of bilateral friendship during his visit to Copenhagen.

Why does it matter?

The discussions illustrate how AI is becoming a regular feature of bilateral diplomacy alongside trade, innovation and green technologies. Governments are increasingly treating cooperation on emerging technologies as part of broader economic and strategic partnerships rather than as a standalone technology issue.

The talks also reflect China’s continued effort to strengthen relations with individual EU member states despite broader tensions between Beijing and the European Union over trade, technology and economic security. Cooperation in areas such as AI and innovation offers a channel for engagement even as wider geopolitical differences persist.

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ECB researchers use LLMs to measure geoeconomic tension

The European Central Bank (ECB) researchers have published a working paper introducing a Large Language Model-based method for measuring geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions in the euro area.

The paper develops the LLM Geoeconomic and Geopolitical Tension index, or LGPT, using a large dataset of European newspaper articles in local languages.

Researchers analysed almost 20 million articles from newspapers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, covering the period from 1999 to 2025.

The methodology combines a fine-tuned multilingual BERT model with GPT-4o in a two-stage classification process.

BERT is used to filter articles likely to relate to geopolitical or geoeconomic tension, while GPT-4o classifies relevant articles and extracts structured information.

The index distinguishes narrower geopolitical tensions from geoeconomic tensions, including economic policy or the use of resources for geopolitical purposes.

It also breaks geoeconomic tension into four sources: trade, energy, finance and technology.

The authors argue that the multilingual LLM approach can capture nuance that dictionary-based methods may miss, while providing more granular data for economic analysis.

They also show how the index can be integrated into macroeconomic modelling to assess the effects of geoeconomic tensions on output and inflation in the euro area.

Why does it matter?

The paper shows how LLMs can be used as analytical tools for economic policymaking, not only as chatbots or productivity software. Measuring geoeconomic tension more precisely matters because trade conflict, energy security, financial fragmentation and technology restrictions can affect inflation, output and financial stability in different ways. A multilingual approach is especially relevant for the euro area because it captures local-language reporting from major member states rather than relying only on English-language media or keyword lists.

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AI governance must move from principles to practical action, UN dialogue hears

Bridging the global AI divide will require much more than expanding access to AI tools, participants heard during a thematic session of the United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance. Speakers argued that countries need digital infrastructure, reliable electricity, skilled workforces, trusted institutions and governance capacity if they are to shape AI on their own terms rather than simply consume technologies developed elsewhere.

Throughout the discussion, governments, UN agencies, academics and industry representatives stressed that the next phase of AI governance should focus on implementation. They called for stronger international cooperation, investment in local capabilities and practical measures to ensure AI contributes to sustainable development instead of reinforcing existing inequalities.

Capacity building means creating AI, not just using it

Opening the session, Robert Opp of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) argued that the world is moving from a digital divide to an AI divide, one shaped not only by access to technology but also by countries’ ability to adopt, govern and develop AI responsibly.

Loretta Hieber Girardet of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) added that governments need trusted institutions, robust data systems and technical expertise if AI is to improve disaster resilience and public services.

The session’s co-chairs, Rashid Khan, Co-Founder of Yellow.ai, and Mark Alexandre Doumba, Gabon’s Minister of Digital Economy and Innovation, reinforced that message by arguing that AI governance should now move beyond high-level principles towards practical action. Khan said the challenge is no longer agreeing that AI should be inclusive and trustworthy, but creating the standards, infrastructure and skills needed to make those principles meaningful.

Doumba argued that developing countries should not try to replicate the resource-intensive path taken by major AI powers. Instead, they should build AI ecosystems suited to their own economies, languages and cultural contexts.

‘We should not measure success by who builds the biggest models,’ he suggested, but by whether AI creates jobs, improves public services and supports local innovation.

Several participants also stressed that capacity development must extend far beyond basic AI literacy. Shikoh Gitau argued that countries should become creators of AI rather than passive users, describing the goal as building AI ‘for us, by us’. That requires investment not only in technical skills, but also in research, standards, financing and local entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Government representatives echoed that assessment. Speakers from South Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, Oman and Ethiopia all identified electricity, connectivity, computing power, public-sector capacity and access to quality data as essential foundations for meaningful AI participation.

Environmental sustainability moves to the centre of AI governance

One of the strongest themes throughout the discussion was that environmental sustainability should no longer be treated as a secondary issue in AI governance.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) argued that AI depends on extensive use of electricity, water, minerals and manufacturing while also generating growing volumes of electronic waste. Because these impacts extend across entire supply chains, speakers said governance should address AI’s full environmental lifecycle rather than focusing solely on the operation of AI models.

Participants also highlighted questions of environmental justice. Several speakers warned that many of the environmental costs associated with AI infrastructure, including mining, water consumption and waste, are disproportionately borne by communities in developing countries that receive relatively few of AI’s economic benefits.

Rather than assuming AI will automatically solve environmental challenges, panellists called for internationally comparable methods to measure AI’s environmental footprint, greater transparency from technology companies and stronger accountability across supply chains.

The discussion reflected a broader shift in international AI policy debates, with environmental sustainability increasingly treated as a core governance issue alongside safety, human rights and economic development.

Local languages and cultures must shape AI development

Another recurring message was that AI will only become genuinely global if it better reflects the world’s linguistic and cultural diversity.

Estonian President Alar Karis described how Estonia has invested heavily to ensure that AI systems can operate effectively in the Estonian language, despite the country’s relatively small population. Alongside partnerships with companies such as OpenAI and Google, Estonia has focused on training teachers, integrating AI into education and ensuring that modern Estonian-language content remains available for future AI systems.

Other speakers argued that similar efforts are needed worldwide. They noted that current AI models overwhelmingly favour dominant languages, leaving thousands of languages and many indigenous knowledge systems largely excluded from the AI ecosystem.

Several participants warned that countries lacking local datasets, evaluation benchmarks and language resources risk becoming dependent on technologies designed for entirely different cultural contexts.

The discussion also highlighted the importance of standards and international cooperation. UNESCO presented its ongoing work to implement its Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence through large-scale training programmes, language-diversity initiatives and AI competency frameworks for teachers and public officials.

Meanwhile, standards experts argued that participation in international standard-setting should itself be viewed as a form of capacity development, enabling developing countries to help shape the technical foundations of future AI systems.

Trust, children’s rights and implementation now take priority

Beyond infrastructure and capacity, speakers repeatedly argued that trust will determine whether AI delivers a broad public benefit. Participants emphasised that trustworthy AI requires transparent governance, accountable institutions and meaningful public oversight rather than technical performance alone.

Children’s rights received particular attention during the session. UNICEF warned that children are adopting AI technologies faster than adults are learning to regulate them, creating new risks around privacy, safety and development. Representatives called for child-centred benchmarks, stronger safeguards for children’s data and mandatory child-rights impact assessments for AI systems deployed in education, healthcare and other public services.

Several speakers also argued that governance should focus more on AI deployment than on frontier model development alone, ensuring that systems remain accountable throughout their lifecycle and can be adapted to local social and institutional realities.

Closing the session, Khan and Doumba returned to the discussion’s central message: that AI governance should ultimately be judged by practical outcomes rather than technological competition. Countries need the capability to shape AI according to their own priorities, they said, while international cooperation should ensure that no society is left behind.

Participants were encouraged to leave Geneva not simply with new principles, but with concrete commitments on financing, infrastructure, skills and cooperation that can be reviewed when the Global Dialogue reconvenes in 2027.

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Portugal links AI literacy to lifelong digital skills strategy

Portugal has linked Europe’s new digital education agenda with its national efforts to expand AI literacy and lifelong digital skills.

The government’s digital portal said digital education is becoming a strategic priority for both the EU and Portugal, as technology becomes more central to schools, work, public services and civic participation.

The update follows the annual event of the European Digital Education Hub, an initiative of the European Commission under the Digital Education Action Plan.

One focus was the new AI Literacy Framework, developed by the European Commission and the OECD with support from international experts.

The framework is designed for primary and secondary education and aims to help schools, teachers and policymakers integrate AI responsibly into learning environments.

It is structured around four areas: engaging with AI, creating with AI, managing AI, and designing and shaping AI.

Portugal said AI education should include personal data protection, critical thinking, the fight against misinformation and the ethical, safe and responsible use of AI tools.

The national agenda is linked to the Portugal Digital Strategy and the Digital Skills Pact, which aims to train 2.8 million people by 2030.

Planned measures include Community Digital Agents, mobile digital training units and a digital training wallet integrated into the Gov.pt app, with particular attention to vulnerable groups, rural areas and citizens aged 45 to 70 with lower education levels.

Why does it matter?

Portugal’s approach shows how AI literacy is becoming part of wider digital inclusion policy, not only school curricula. Linking the EU AI Literacy Framework with lifelong digital-skills programmes could help citizens use digital public services, participate more confidently online and understand AI-related risks such as privacy, misinformation and unsafe use. The strategy also reflects a broader European shift from basic digital skills towards continuous training across education, employment and public administration.

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Closing the AI divide means building capacity, not just expanding access

The global AI divide is no longer simply about who has internet access or the latest AI tools. It is increasingly defined by who has the infrastructure, computing power, skilled workforce and institutional capacity to develop, govern and adapt AI and who does not.

That was the central message of a discussion on bridging AI divides at the inaugural United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance, where governments, UN agencies and experts argued that narrowing AI inequalities will require a fundamental shift from expanding access to building long-term national capabilities.

From access to capability

Speakers repeatedly argued that AI has exposed a new generation of digital inequalities that extend well beyond connectivity.

Robert Opp, Chief Digital Officer of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), distinguished between an access divide and an adoption divide, warning that AI technologies are spreading faster than governments and institutions can build the capacity to use them responsibly.

Loretta Hieber Girardet, Chief Risk Knowledge of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), echoed that concern, saying countries need trusted institutions, governance frameworks, digital infrastructure and technical expertise if AI is to strengthen development rather than deepen existing vulnerabilities.

The discussion also highlighted how investment patterns reinforce those divides. Pedro Manuel Moreno, Deputy Secretary-General of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), noted that AI infrastructure investment is increasingly concentrated in a small number of countries and companies because investors naturally gravitate towards locations offering reliable electricity, high-speed connectivity, skilled workers and predictable governance. Without those foundations, he warned, many developing countries risk being left behind regardless of how quickly AI technologies spread globally.

Several government representatives reinforced that message by pointing to persistent shortages of electricity, broadband connectivity, computing infrastructure, quality datasets and digital skills as barriers to meaningful participation in the AI economy.

Capacity building means creating AI, not simply using it

Participants argued that AI capacity building should be redefined.

Moderator Shikoh Gitau said many current initiatives focus too heavily on teaching people how to use AI applications, while overlooking the broader ecosystem needed to create AI locally. Instead, she advocated an approach centred on ‘AI for us, by us’, combining investment in research, technical skills, financing, standards, entrepreneurship and local innovation.

UNESCO presented several initiatives intended to move countries in that direction. Assistant Director-General Khaled El-Enany highlighted the implementation of UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence through training programmes for more than 50,000 public officials and judicial actors, AI competency frameworks for teachers and students, and projects promoting language diversity and responsible AI governance.

El Salvador offered an example of how countries are beginning to build national AI ecosystems. Vice President Félix Ulloa outlined investments in AI-supported education, telemedicine, regulatory sandboxes and a National AI Agency, alongside legislation covering AI, data protection, cybersecurity and robotics. While noting significant progress, he acknowledged that challenges remain in extending connectivity and digital opportunities to rural communities.

Throughout the discussion, speakers stressed that developing countries should become active contributors to AI development rather than remaining consumers of technologies designed elsewhere.

Language, culture and local knowledge matter

Several speakers argued that AI divides are also cultural and linguistic.

Co-chair Jovan Kurbalija, Executive Director of Diplo, said discussions about AI often focus on technology while overlooking knowledge itself. He argued that indigenous traditions, oral histories and local knowledge systems should be recognised as valuable resources for AI development, ensuring that technological progress strengthens rather than erodes humanity’s diverse intellectual heritage.

Valts Ernštreits highlighted the scale of linguistic exclusion, noting that only around 1,000 of the world’s roughly 7,000 languages currently have sufficient digital resources to support meaningful AI development. Without targeted investment, he warned, thousands of language communities risk being left outside the AI revolution.

Other speakers similarly argued that AI systems should reflect local cultures, values and institutions instead of simply adapting models developed for dominant markets. Building trustworthy AI, they said, requires communities to participate directly in data governance, research and system design.

A shared responsibility

While speakers differed on specific policy approaches, they broadly agreed that international cooperation will be essential to prevent AI from reinforcing existing global inequalities.

Suggestions included expanding public-private partnerships, strengthening participation by developing countries in international standards-setting, supporting open models and open standards, and creating a global AI fund to help countries invest in computing infrastructure, institutions and human capital.

Closing the session, Kurbalija returned to the discussion’s central theme, arguing that AI should ultimately help preserve and advance humanity’s collective wisdom rather than simply automate knowledge. Co-chair Samba Diouf added that regional cooperation will be particularly important for smaller countries that cannot realistically build every component of the AI ecosystem on their own.

Taken together, the discussion suggested that bridging AI divides will require far more than expanding access to technology. It will depend on whether countries can build the institutions, skills, infrastructure and knowledge needed to shape AI on their own terms, and ensure its benefits are shared more evenly across the world.

Track all key moments from the Global Dialogue on AI Governance inaugural meeting on our dedicated page.

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Spain pushes UN coalition to protect children in the AI era

Spain has proposed an international coalition to protect children from AI-related risks, using the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva to seek wider support.

Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service Óscar López said Spain wants governments to agree on common safeguards to ensure AI respects children’s rights, safety and development.

The proposed coalition would operate under the UN framework. Spain said it already has support from France, the EU and Kenya in efforts to launch the initiative.

According to the Spanish government, AI can create opportunities for education and innovation, but can also amplify risks, including manipulation, harmful content, sexual deepfakes, AI-generated child sexual abuse material and algorithmic profiling of minors.

López said governments should avoid repeating mistakes made during the early growth of social media by introducing safeguards before AI technologies become deeply embedded in children’s lives.

He also argued that AI should be a broad social right rather than an ‘exclusive weapon’, calling for stronger governance based on scientific evidence, innovation and human rights.

Spain highlighted its previous AI governance work, including support for the EU AI Act, the creation of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence and its role in efforts to establish the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance and the Independent Scientific Panel on AI.

Why does it matter?

Spain’s proposal places child protection within the emerging UN AI governance agenda. AI-related risks for children increasingly go beyond conventional online safety concerns, covering deepfakes, synthetic sexual abuse material, algorithmic profiling, manipulation and harmful content. A UN-linked coalition could help align national approaches and push child safety into global AI governance discussions. However, its practical impact will depend on whether governments agree on concrete safeguards and implementation mechanisms.

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