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Speaking at the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, Secretary-General António Guterres said governments must move more quickly to establish international AI safeguards before the technology outpaces existing rules.

The United Nations is urging governments to move faster on AI governance, warning that the technology is now too important and too fast-moving for countries to regulate independently.

Opening the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said AI should be governed through international cooperation built on safety, accountability, and fairness. He argued that governments have a limited window to shape how AI develops before its impacts become more difficult to manage.

“We may be the last generation able to set the terms on which humanity and machines coexist,” Guterres said.

The two-day dialogue brings together government officials, AI researchers, technology companies, civil society organizations, and technical experts to discuss how countries should respond to increasingly capable AI systems. A second Global Dialogue is scheduled for May 2027 in New York.

The UN says AI governance cannot wait

Guterres warned that AI is already reshaping economies and societies with increasing influence on issues ranging from national security to public services. He also pointed to the growing use of AI-enabled military technologies, noting that AI chips originally designed for civilian applications are now deployed on the battlefield, where autonomous weapons pose an imminent concern.

The Secretary-General argued that international cooperation is essential because fragmented national approaches could make AI harder to govern.

“When countries align on how to test systems, measure risk and assign responsibility, safety travels with the technology,” he said. “When they do not, a patchwork of incompatible rules raises costs, divides the world — and protects no one.”

Three priorities for global AI governance

Rather than outlining detailed regulations, Guterres grouped his proposals around several broad priorities for future international AI governance.

• Protecting people: The Secretary-General called for a global AI Child Safety Pledge to strengthen safeguards and accountability for AI systems that are used by or affect children.
• Human accountability for human rights: Guterres said human rights must remain central to AI governance, arguing that AI should never replace human responsibility for decisions involving justice, healthcare, or policing. “Machines can inform, but humans must decide — and answer,” he said.
• Expanding global participation: The Secretary-General called for greater public investment to help developing countries build AI expertise and infrastructure, warning that today’s digital divide could become an AI divide. He also announced a new UN-backed initiative, supported by more than 20 countries, to help nations share knowledge and strengthen their AI capabilities.

Transparency and environmental impact

Guterres called on frontier AI developers to publicly disclose the environmental footprint of their AI systems, including carbon emissions, water use, and land consumption. He urged companies to power AI data centers with renewable energy by 2030, warning that their resource demands are growing rapidly.

According to the Secretary-General, AI data centers could consume more electricity than all but five countries by the end of the decade while using enough water to meet the annual needs of the entire population of sub-Saharan Africa.

The Global Dialogue forms part of the UN’s broader effort to build international consensus on AI governance. AI development outpacing governance is a central theme of the summit. Further, officials repeatedly emphasized that AI’s benefits should be shared more broadly while ensuring that increasingly capable systems remain safe, accountable, and subject to meaningful human oversight.