Closing Sessions - Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance - Day 2

what we can do is that LAC can leverage all these existing foundations and adapt them to the demands of the, of the AI era, which is important. And second, for the region, technological sovereignty is not about doing everything alone. It's about coordinating, which is something that we have been discussing already in this panel. Of course, it's about retaining the capacity to govern the data, the infrastructure, and AI in the public interest through, and this is also something that I would like to stress, a combination of national capabilities and regional coordination and cooperation. So interoperability is going to be crucial and standards are going to be crucial. We believe that the IDB, as I already said, has the convening power, the financing instruments, and the knowledge networks that help us turn this vision into a shared regional agenda and accelerate its implementation. And let me close with a concrete example. The use of blended finance and public-private partnerships to help leveling the playing field. With blended finance, we can help countries share the risk, extend investment horizons for the patient capital that is already mentioned in this panel, and reinvest sector resources into connectivity and digital infrastructure, which is going to be crucial, crucial to accelerate the inclusion of the underserved population and low-income areas and ensure that the benefits of the AI and the digital transformation reach all citizens. So, what we do is to work with the governments and the private sector to help them scale and coordinate these efforts across the region. Thank you.

Thanks, Ana Maria. Lu, many AI governance initiatives seek to promote innovation while managing risks, but translating that balance into practice remaining challenging. From your experience working with AI companies and at the frontiers of innovation, what characteristics make governance initiatives effective and credible from the perspectives of innovators?

Yeah, thank you, Cassie, for the questions. I think especially in the past couple years, we also joke about used to be Silicon Valley is always like, okay, we'll focus on innovation. But the past couple years, there's lots of discussion, including myself go to Washington, I see quite a few times to really want to contribute to the discussion of the governance because exactly as you ask, we want to make sure it's not only just the something on paper, but we actually can practice and deploy it and really help AI achieve a better result. We are doing the large deployment across different industry. I think number one thing really, really important is we want the governance to be technology informed. I think I heard other panelists already mentioned. I also mentioned early on technology within AI innovation evolves. Changing so fast. We definitely don't want the discussion of governance once it's finalized is already outdated. On one side is the model evolution, etc., but on the other side is also about how industries utilize AI. For example, I think everyone is very familiar with large language model, right? We're using large language model for different industry adoption, but in reality, if you look at a lot of the industry, they're actually having hybrid mode. For example, I also serve as a board member for the Common Spirit House Foundation, which is one of the largest healthcare system, nonprofit healthcare system in United States. They have thousands of hospital and clinic. They're not only deploying large language model because they're highly regulated industry. They also have lots of small language model they're deploying. They're also building something in-house. They're also work with third party. So in essential become a pretty hybrid dynamic AI strategy and they need to have a governance layer on top of that, not only for one model or another. This is a system. So whether the governance discussion realize the complication of this technology evolution during the adoption is very important. The deployment part is really important. Another part about the technology informed is really about leverage technology itself as a solution for the discussion of the governance. For example, probably not many people heard about federated computing, but federated computing now become more and more popular for highly regulated industry like healthcare, like financial, because it actually helped the data owner not to worry about compliance. They don't need to physically transfer or move their data while share that with third party for AI training. So, this is one of the example that technology can help us achieve better governance result. And the technology is available, is mature, ready to go. But did we consider that when we discuss about governance and regulation? I think beyond the first thing about technology, second thing I really like the point that Sergio mentioned early on is, The regulation, the discussion of the governance regulation should now be technology-based about the risk and also the challenge-based and also data-based. And really like his point about we need to have a clear definition. What is the risk-based, you know, the risk-based regulation, the governance? And also on top of that, I feel is also really need to understand specific, you know, across different industry, what is their risk profile? Profile and how to implement governance for specific industry. I think regarding that, there's a fine balance of on one side, yes, we need a standardization across the globe and we wanted to have good translation from one region to another region, one country to another country, understand the governance of AI. But also I think we need to break into pieces. For example, for the evaluation part, yes, should be standardized. Transparency, very important. But for deployment, we need to make it practical. And come back to the definition of risk profile. Okay, what is the risk profile for different country, different industry? That's definitely different type of the definition. And also, the last point I really want to highlight again, I mentioned early on, is really just the incentive. When we heard about governance, people, especially the innovator and entrepreneur, the first reaction is, oh, it may potentially slow down the deployment or innovation. But that's not the goal. I think the, the shared purpose here is we wanted to empower AI to really benefit a society faster by discussion of the governance. So if we really can have the framework as a society from the government angle to create this incentive to help responsible AI deploy faster, that will be a really positive feedback loop for more founder to implement governance when they build a solution. And for the user, for the industry leader who deploy AI and choose AI vendor, they will go with the one already have responsible AI building in. I think that will be a really good dynamic and also ecosystem we can push forward while adapting to the fast evolving AI technology. Thank you.

Thanks, Lu. And last question goes to Jason. Um, many of the AI governance discussions center around the multi-stakeholder collaboration, But achieving that itself is a challenge. From your experience, what practical models have proven effective in bringing together governments, industry, civil society, and the technical community? And how can the Global AI Dialogue build on these experiences to strengthen cooperation rather than creating additional fragmentation?

Yeah, thank you very much for that question. It allows me to sort make a point or maybe double-click on a point that I started to make in my first intervention, which is that we're not starting from scratch. We are— I think everybody here probably understands, but it's worth emphasizing that artificial intelligence models, and certainly most large language models, even some of the smaller language models, are built from data scraped from the internet. Are deployed to users through the internet and rely on the internet to interoperate more and more, especially as, as agentic AI becomes more integrated into different service offerings. So in other words, AI is built in large part on top of the social and technical architecture of the internet, and the internet has an architecture and governance that has been through 20-plus years of process development, discussion, and multi-stakeholder coordination. And that's an important reservoir of experience and knowledge that we can draw from as we think about governing AI. And there's 3 things I think that, you know, if we try and sort of distill the key lessons from internet governance for those of us embarking on AI governance, that we need to emphasize. Effective governments will require inclusive process. It needs common normative frameworks, and it needs clear focus and priorities. So first, when it comes to inclusive process, we have today and this week the benefit of overlapping with the World Summit on the Information Society. Which is a 20-year experiment in working across countries and across sectors to try and govern the information society. And there are many processes and lessons and spaces that have come out of that that can be useful to AI governance, not least of which is the Internet Governance Forum and its regional governance forums and its national Internet governance forums. So I invite everyone here to put the 2026 Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi, Kenya on your calendar and to consider being a part of the conversations leading up to and at that forum. I think it's also important to recognize that internet governance hasn't only happened through UN processes. There have been many important innovations outside of the UN system. That the UN system has allowed to flourish and has found ways to sort of interoperate with. The Net Mundial process that the Brazilian government and the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee has led produced a couple of years ago a set of recommendations for a multi-stakeholder process called the São Paulo Principles. Those principles should under— should sort of should be the guidance through which we think about constructing all commissions, processes, initiatives around AI governance. So that's on process. We also need a common normative framework so that we are speaking a shared language in terms of trying to understand what we are seeking to achieve and what we want to avoid. International human rights law provides that framework. We should say that out loud. We should recognize that. We should build it into our processes.— and that's not just the sort of core international conventions on civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights, but also frameworks like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, which translate human rights into responsibilities for the private sector and have been embedded through processes like the one that the Global Network Initiative has developed into internal corporate governance. So that's on normative framework. And then finally, we need clear focus. There is a lot happening in the AI space, and we do need to make sort of priorities. And I humbly suggest that we should look to the communities that are being most impacted and who face the highest risks for— to help establish what our focus should be. So that requires what I talked about earlier, involving civil society organizations that can bring research and knowledge of the experiences of those communities, including those outside of the global majority, outside of the global north, to the table and center them as sort of key priorities for us to focus on. So those would be my 3 key lessons from internet governance. And I encourage all of you to take some time this week and attend the WSIS forum as well. Where I'm sure there will be many more valuable lessons distilled and shared.

Thanks, Jason. And with that, I wanted to extend our sincere appreciation to all of our distinguished panelists for sharing their experiences, lessons learned, and perspectives on AI governance initiatives from across different sectors and regions. Today's exchange has demonstrated the richness of ongoing efforts around the world and reinforce the importance of dialogue, coordination, and mutual learning as we collectively navigate the opportunities and challenges presented by artificial intelligence. A recurring theme throughout the discussion has been that no single institution, sector, or stakeholder group can address these issues alone. Effective efforts on advancing safe and inclusive AI across the international system will need to draw on diverse expertise, mandates, and capabilities while ensuring a coherent and coordinated approach that supports member states and the broader international community. In that spirit, we will now turn to a special segment highlighting the work of the United Nations Interagency Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, following a request from the WSIS. +20 outcome document. We're now pleased to invite to the podium to briefly introduce and launch the UN AI Resource Hub capacity building and fellowship activities. May I ask Thomas Lamanouskas, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU. Assistant Director General Maria Gabriel, New UNESCO, and Robert Opp, Chief Digital Officer, UNDP, please come to the stage.

Thank you very much indeed, Kathy Lee, and to our esteemed panelists for that session. We'll now move on, and this special segment, as Kathy mentioned, is highlighting the work of the United Nations Interagency Working Group on Artificial Intelligence following a request from the WCIS+20 outcome document. And this group, co-led by ITU and UNESCO, brings over 60 UN entities to support collective action on AI governance, capacity building, Sustainable Development and International Cooperation.

So thank you very much, Max. Thank you very much, previous panelists. Indeed, it's great to see the dialogue is ongoing in force on the second day, and we're already reaching, you know, the last quarter, I guess. So I'm Tomas Lamonauskas, I'm Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, and I'm really pleased to be here today with the UN family, together with UNESCO Assistant Director-General and Chief Digital Officer of UNDP. And I think this definitely highlights the collaboration of us as UN. So Max already introduced what Interagency Working Group is, but also this Interagency Working Group in the WISSAS outcome document and its resolution got a new task, actually. So for those who want to be precise, in paragraph 86 of the resolution, we got a new task to really map out AI capacity building initiatives also including fellowships, and look for the gaps, as well as how we can leverage existing capabilities across UN system, and report back to this exactly Global Dialogue on AI. And one of the first practical steps implementing this mandate is the enhanced UN AI Resource Hub. Indeed, this hub, which was unveiled last December in General Assembly, was developed by UNDP together with ITU, UNESCO, so thank you very much, UNDP colleagues, and it brings already now more than 1,000 AI initiatives reflecting contributions from 55 diverse UN entities, and it's really comprehensive place for you to find what UN is doing across the AI spectrum. And latest iteration specifically includes the capacity building opportunities, fellowships, contact points, so this exactly is the place for— the operationalized place for you to know how you can benefit from capacity building and fellowship opportunities at the United Nations. Enhancements of the Insights page, it means that you can explore trends across regions, sectors, and technologies there as well. So every entity contributed, and we really present to you this as a comprehensive UN-wide tool, which we believe is a great tool for the right moment as countries adopt the strategies and as we strive to build regulatory institutional capacity. Indeed, this is a way, one-stop shop, to benefit from the cross-UN expertise. So with that, allow me to invite Maria Gabriel, ADG from UNESCO, to really share some key insights from this year's data. Please, Maria.

Thank you very much, Thomas. Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, thank you very much, dear Thomas, dear Robert, for the great partnership between ITU, UNESCO, and UNDP. I will stay focused on working group perspective and for the, and the importance of collaboration. Uh, the continued growth of the UN AI Resource Hub reflects the strength of the collaboration across the UN system, driven by the Interagency Working Group on AI. And building on this dataset, the HEP now offers a unique evidence base for understanding how AI is evolving across the UN system. And this year's insights highlight several important trends. First, AI capacity building is already system-wide but not yet systematized. 623 initiatives across 66 UN entities span every region and a wide range of sectors. Second, stronger collaboration can amplify impact. Only 87 initiatives involve more than one UN entity, highlighting opportunities to to better connect and scale efforts. Third, global expertise is reaching countries. The mapping includes 2,468 country mentions across more than 190 countries and territories, creating a strong foundation for local implementation. Next, governments lead, but broader partnerships matter. Public institutions are the primary beneficiaries with 581 mentions, with scope to engage civil society, academia, the private sector, and communities more consistently. And finally, knowledge is strong, skills and impact need scaling. 508 AI tools and 498 research products dominate the portfolio, while training and outcome reporting prepare remain comparatively limited with 152. But we see a trend of more trainings, fellowships emerging compared to last year's report. Up to you, Robert.

Thank you, Maria. Thanks, Thomas. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it's been UNDP's pleasure to be part of this joint effort with UNESCO and ITU. And picking up where Maria left off on the issue of capacity Building, one of the clearest signals that we are getting from this year's data is the growing emphasis on AI capacity building across the UN system. It's not surprising. Around the world, countries are moving quickly, of course, to, to develop AI strategies, strengthen institutions, and build regulatory capacity applying AI responsibly. So in line with the WISSS+20 outcome document, we're placing a particular emphasis on a particular focus on capacity building initiatives for member states. It includes AI fellowship programs, trainings, workshops, technical assistance, peer learning, and practical tools that help countries move from principles and strategies to implementation. To make these opportunities more easy to find, the hub now features a dedicated page on AI capacity building offers and fellowships. It provides a consolidated entry point for member states and UN colleagues to see what support is available across the system. The purpose of the UN AI Resource Hub is simple. It's to make this— the system's knowledge more accessible, to avoid duplication and support member states, uh, to identify the right support for the AI governance and capacity building needs. It's also a way to strengthen the collective offer of the UN system not as separate initiatives, but as more connected ecosystems of support. As AI continues to evolve rapidly, this kind of coordination is essential. Countries need the support that is timely, practical, rights-based, and development-oriented. They also need support that reflects their different starting points, capacities, priorities, and contexts. The Hub can help us respond with greater clarity and impact by connecting demand with expertise across the system. Looking ahead, our call to action is clear. We invite UN entities from across the system to continue contributing to the hub, and we've already got over 1,000 examples of this, as Thomas mentioned, especially by sharing capacity-building offers, fellowship opportunities, training programs, and practical resources. We look forward to continued engagement from all entities to keep the platform relevant, useful, and truly system-wide. If we use it well, the UN AI Resource Hub can help turn our collective knowledge into coordinated action and ensure that AI serves people, development, and public good. Thank you very much, everyone. So hopefully use the hub and have a great further of the dialogue. Thank you very much.

Have a great afternoon.

Thank you very much indeed, Thomas Lamonauskas, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, and Maria Gabriela, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, and Robert Opp, Chief Digital Officer of UNDP, for that exciting launch of the UN AI Resource Hub. We will now move to the next session, and I'd like to invite the Global Dialogue co-chairs to commence the government plenary.

Thank you very much indeed. Hello, hello. Let me turn to the next segment of our program, the high-level governmental plenary segment, which provides an opportunity for heads of delegation and senior government representatives to share national and regional perspectives, priorities, experiences, and lessons learned related to AI governance, while also reflecting on the expectations for international cooperation in this rapidly evolving field. We will continue from where we left off our list of inscriptions yesterday. So next speaker is His Excellency Karsten Wildberger, Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernization from Germany.

Distinguished co-chairs, excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to make the following remarks in our national capacity and aligned with the EU statement. Artificial intelligence represents an entirely new paradigm, and it will develop rapidly, perhaps faster than any of us realize. To match this speed, Germany firmly believes that international cooperation is essential. To ensuring AI serves humanity as a whole. To be precise, we must shape AI because otherwise AI will shape us. We must embed as a first principle safety by design, rules of conduct, and respect for human values, and that this technology is accessible to everyone, that it does not allow dangerous misuse,, and is never directed against humans. We need clear guidance towards positive value and use for humanity. That is why Germany warmly welcomes this global dialogue at UN level. Our discussions built on important foundations: the OECD AI Principles, UNESCO's Ethics Recommendation, and ITU's AI for Good Platform. For Germany, a multi-stakeholder approach is a necessity. Industry, academia, and civil society, especially from underrepresented regions, must have a meaningful seat at the table. This approach must also include those who will feel the impact of AI most directly: workers, learners, entrepreneurs, public administrations, and citizens. One thing is clear: society and governments We cannot move forward with the policy recipes of the past. We will need new answers, for example, for the labour market of the future. We are committed to AI that is values-based, safe, secure, and trustworthy. For us, AI safe and secure by design must be the guiding principle. Safety and security cannot be added at the end. They must be built in from the beginning. From the start. The task before us is to make AI powerful enough to solve real, valuable problems, and responsible enough to remain a tool in human hands. Germany will also establish a National AI Safety and Security Institute, anchored in cutting-edge research and plugged into European and international networks. Its job is to evaluate advanced AI systems and advise government in international collaboration. Ladies and gentlemen, Germany comes to this table as a partner, bringing our experience and our commitment to human-centered AI. We are ready to listen, to learn, to share, and to work with all stakeholders across all regions and contexts. Thank you very much.

I thank His Excellency Karsten Wahlberger, Federal Minister for for Digital Transformation and Government Modernization from Germany. Next speaker is His Excellency Roberto Viola, Director General for Communications, Networks, Content and Technology from European Commission representing European Union and speaking on behalf of EU and its member states.

Distinguished co-chair, excellencies, I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. This Dialogue is a unique moment. A successful first Global Dialogue can lay the foundation for greater international cooperation on AI, which is truly needed in a fast-evolving AI landscape. Today, frontier AI is reaching capabilities that were simply unimaginable before. Even a few weeks ago were not imaginable. This is opening extraordinary opportunities for innovation and for improving quality of life. And this is happening in biotechnology, for example. AI is accelerating the design of new proteins and new drugs. In Europe, we welcome these advances and we are investing to make them possible. We will upgrade our unique network of public supercomputers and AI factories and gigafactories. We are expanding Eurocompute capacity, offering this to scientists and startups. And we do this also with the recent European law which is called the AI and Cloud Development Act. Because we believe AI will be the defining driver of Europe's future prosperity and competitiveness. And we promote an AI-first approach. From industrial AI to physical AI and advanced robotics, these technologies are creating an entirely new competition and societal paradigm. However, this fast evolution also carries considerable societal risks. While AI can keep children with valuable skills and open new horizons, for learning, it also can be used to manipulate, exploit, and arm them. Similarly, AI can be very efficient for power grids but also, also offer criminals the possibility to actually damage them. The tension between transformation and opportunities and new risk defines the, the central challenge before us in this meeting and in this dialogue. It brings me to what we are discussing today: how to best govern AI. The EU has adopted the approach of responsible and trustworthy AI innovation. We support the development and the development of safe and secure, sustainable AI. Our approach is both human-centric and grounded on International Human Rights. With this objective, the EU has adopted a uniform risk-based rules across our single market. Our legislation only intervenes when the risk is too high or unacceptable. Based on this experience, we want to contribute to the conversation globally. Governance should be informed by facts and evidence. This is why the EU places particular importance on the work of the independent International Scientific Panel on AI, whose preliminary findings have already made a contribution to this dialogue. The dialogue is our chance to clarify the opportunities and risks of AI, and to develop ideas for concrete solutions that contribute to making safe, trustworthy, inclusive, sustainable, and widely accessible AI a reality. It is also the opportunity to discuss regional needs, specificities, and share workable solutions. Excellencies, the EU comes to this dialogue seeking something durable, a shared commitment to the principle that technology and its benefits must serve all humanity and the planet, and leaving no one behind. The EU has substantial practice in developing governance in this field and is ready to share its experience and, of course, to learn from all of you. And we come with the intellectual honesty to say we don't know everything. This is precisely why evidence, multi-stakeholder dialogue, and multilateralism are needed at this very moment. Thank you for your attention.

I thank His Excellency Roberto Viola, Director-General, European Commission, speaking on behalf of the EU and its member states. Next speaker is His Excellency Haliki Tchoua Mohamed, Minister of Telecommunications, Digital Economy and Digitalization of Public Administration from Chad.

Mesdames, Messieurs, Co-chairs, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, Chad has come to Geneva with a simple conviction, which is that the future of AI must be constructed with all of our participation, for all, in dignity, equity, inclusion, and sustainability. I would welcome the constant commitment of the United Nations, including the ITU, to help vulnerable countries to At an era where humanity has to face this new technology which will redefine humanity, your role is essential. Chad, which is in the heart of Africa and at the crossroads of the Arabian Peninsula, comes not as a spectator here but as an actor with determination in order to lead Central Africa and the Sahel in the construction of global governance of AI, which would be finally, at the end of the day, universal for all. AI is already transforming our societies, our economies, and the freedom of the world, and its consequences are immense for agriculture, health, governance, public administration. But its development, of course, rests in the hands of, of very few, and this concentration is in violation of the dignity of human persons, sustainability for the environment, and UNESCO's commitment here. In 2021, a document was adopted, and this is one of the most shared documents. Chad has subscribed to this document. Ethics is not a barrier to development. Rather, it's the foundation for its legitimacy.

In Africa.

This is a document of reference for the continent, but we have unequal levels of development. This is insufficient. We have a digital divide and there are risks faced by our countries because of the fact that our economy is not producing enough value. But Chad doesn't have a general framework. This is an opportunity, though, for Central Africa to create regional governance, to harmonize data, and cybersecurity. Work began under the distinguished President of our Republic, and we have a ministry in charge of this subject which is working hand in hand with the President. We are preparing for AI, and we are elaborating a national strategy for AI governance and data governance, which is aligned with our AI strategy at a federal level. That's why we are coming before the international community today. Financially speaking, differentiated collaboration, which will take into account the different possibilities of each nation and would help countries which have a modest infrastructure, is what's needed. We need to make sure that this is not an algorithmic divide which separates us.

I thank His Excellency Hallyki Choa Mohammad, Minister of Telecommunications, Digital Economy, and Digitalization of Public Administration of Chad. Next speaker is His Excellency Chai Chanok Chitchope, Minister of Digital Economy and Society of Thailand.

Excellences, ladies and gentlemen, good day. On behalf of His Excellency the Prime Minister of Thailand, allow me first and foremost to begin by extending the greetings from the administration of Thailand to the United Nations and to the co-chairs. Thank you for having convened this global dialogue on AI.

Measure of AI is how much value it creates for the people. Recently, we have successfully adopted AI to keep up with rain bombs, flash floods, wildfires, and even scam operations. Regulatory guillotines and public services were also upgraded. So our adoption is high and latency is low. We pair this growth with action-oriented guardrails. We established our AI Governance Practice Center, AIGPC, hosted the 2025 UNESCO Ethics of AI Forum, and chaired the ASEAN meeting that delivered the expanded GenAI guide initiated by Singapore. This and many more. So governance is the priority. Yet, like many nations, Thailand shares these concerns. Can we embrace AI while remaining in control? Can we accelerate innovation without compromising trust? For trust is the foundation that enables innovation to flourish. Today, the greatest risk to that trust is fragmentation. Different technologies, different standards, especially different approaches to governance. If we allow AI governance to become fragmented, we risk fragmenting trust itself. Thailand is presently uniquely positioned to help bridge this divide. With strong partnerships across ASEAN, the Global South, and all major AI ecosystems, we choose cooperation over competition and openness over division. That is why Thailand extends an invitation to the United Nations and all member states Please, use Thailand's current situation as a sandbox for AI governance, not simply as another place to discuss AI, but a place where global principles can be translated into practical implementations real-time, where everyone can test solutions together, share lessons openly, and develop scalable governance models for the benefit of all. Thailand is ready to serve as a trusted convener, ensuring that emerging AI economies are not passive adopters, but active architects of our shared digital future. Because we're not the line between competing powers, but the common ground where all can come together. Ultimately, the success of AI will be measured by how many people, communities, and nations are empowered by AI while continuing to trust it and each other. If we choose unity over fragmentation, AI will not divide the future,. It will unite us for the benefit of all. Khob khun khrap.

I thank His Excellency Chai Chanok Chitchope, Minister of Digital Economy and Society of Thailand. Next speaker is Her Excellency Meotia Viada Hafid, Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs of Indonesia.

Thank you and a very good afternoon. Indonesia welcomes the convening of the first Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance. We believe this is an important milestone in implementing the Pact for the Future of Our People, particularly the Global Digital Compact. This dialogue offers a valuable opportunity to shape AI global governance that is inclusive, human-centric, development-oriented, and grounded in international cooperation. Indonesia's President Prabowo believes that AI governance must go beyond managing risk. It must also enable countries, particularly developing countries, to harness AI for sustainable development, improved public services, and social inclusion. We also believe the center of global AI governance is bridging AI divide. This includes not only access to AI models and latest technologies, but also addresses the gaps in connectivity, data governance, digital infrastructure, financing, regulatory readiness, and human capital. At national level, Indonesia is developing a presidential regulations on its national AI roadmap and ethics to provide strategic direction of AI development across all sectors and to promote responsible, ethical, trustworthy, and human-centric AI. Indonesia also reaffirms that human rights, privacy, transparency, accountability, and meaningful human oversight must remain at the heart of AI governance. In this regard, Indonesia remains committed to international standards on digital security, data protection, and child online safety. In March 2025, President Prabowo has enacted a milestone government regulation, No. 17/2025, on electronic system governance in child protection, which enhances the protection of children in Indonesia within the digital space by delaying access of children's accounts until the age of 16 on high-risk digital platforms. With 5 million accounts reportedly have been deactivated by platforms within the last 5 months. Indonesia underlines that trustworthy AI requires interoperability, not uniformity. Global AI governance must respect different national contexts and levels of development. A one-size-fits-all approach is neither realistic nor equitable. Indonesia therefore calls for practical cooperation, capacity building, technology partnership, access to cloud and computing resources, local language AI development, and innovative voluntary financing mechanism. And to close, for Indonesia, the principle is clear: capacity before compliance.

Thank you. I thank Your Excellency Emeltia Viada Hafid, Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs of Indonesia. Next speaker is Her Excellency Ximena Lincalao, Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation of Chile.

Excellencies, authorities, representatives, it's an honor to address you. Artificial intelligence is not just a technology, it's critical infrastructure transforming our economies. In Chile, we see it as increased intelligence, a tool designed to optimize human capacity, optimize resources, and generate strategic economic value. In democracy, governance requires the participation of all people. For that reason, we must train society so that they can harness AI and have enabling regulation which will give impetus to development. For Chile, this development is a priority underpinned by structural capacity. We have 95% connectivity across all of our territory and 65% renewables in our electricity grid. With more than 6,000 kilometers of coastline, Chile has pursued innovative solutions in desalination and water treatment for industry. We can also add the presence of critical minerals, a consolidated scientific ecosystem, and growing development of startups. Chile is not just a recipient of technology, it is a reliable partner. Today, AI was already operating at the heart of our country. In the north, self-driving trucks— self-driving machines are extracting deep-ground minerals. This shows that technology can increase productivity, also improving working conditions at the same time. We are seeking knowledge to be converted into the creation of jobs. Before labor conversion, governance would require that adequate distribution takes place. We were proposing the following to the member states. First of all, seeing education as an ongoing process, putting emphasis on technical education, identifying serious standards and certifications such as ISO, ISO AI Verify, and others. Thirdly, to establish a multilateral network of sandboxes for AI testing under common rules, which would facilitate experiments. And fourth, promoting open data ecosystems. AI alone will not create divides. As with any human creation, it can concentrate power or it can distribute opportunities. Chile stands ready to contribute to enabling responsible and development-oriented global governance, governance which is not born out of fear but out of knowledge and not in the hands of the few but with the active participation of all people. Thank you.

I thank you, Excellency Ximena Lincoln Lau, Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Technology of Chile. Before we proceed, let me say that national statements Just to remind, national statements can be shared via email to aidialogue@un.org and will become available on the website in the coming days. The next speaker is His Excellency Ali Ehsan, Minister of Homeland Security, Labour and Technology of Maldives.

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, I speak today for a nation of just around half a million people, scattered across 1,000 islands in a vast ocean. On the map of global technology, the Maldives is easy to overlook. But we are not here to be a footnote. We are here because the future being designed in rooms like this will be judged by whether it works for countries like ours. And for many small island and developing states who share our reality. For countries like ours, AI is not a race for prestige. It is a tool for public problem-solving. Its value lies not in novelty, but in whether it helps us serve people better, and extend people more fairly. For a nation like ours, that means one thing above all: the quality of a citizen's service should never depend on how far they live from the capital. That is why under Maldives 2.0 roadmap, we treat AI as one layer within a broader transformation. It must rest on digital public infrastructure, trusted data, cybersecurity, and clear accountability. For us, inclusion begins with that foundation, because without AI deepens inequality rather than reducing it, concentrating benefits in already capable institutions and leaving others further behind. So when we speak of AI for all, we must be honest about what "for all" requires: digital foundations that are not fragmented, institutions that can govern AI with confidence and local capability rather than permanent dependency. The Maldives has grounded this action— this inaction. With UNESCO, we completed South Asia's first national AI readiness assessment, and we have established our National AI and Data Competency Center, the Maldives AI Lab to move from fragmented experimentation towards coordinated, governed capability across government. From our experience, three priorities deserve emphasis. First, invest in foundations, not only applications. AI cannot compete or cannot compensate for weak data systems or thin institutional capacity. Second, treat capacity building as a serious long-term commitment. The AI divide is a divide in people and skills, not only in access to tools. Third, treat interoperability as a governance principle. It lets countries build incrementally and adapt new tools on a stable, sovereign foundation. Excellencies, the future of AI governance will not be measured by the sophistication of the most advanced systems. It will be measured by whether a government on a small and distant island can put these tools to work safely for its people. That is the true test for AI for All—not whether the powerful can go further, but whether the rest of us can come along. We ask the nations who hold the frontier for this technology to build it as a bridge, not as a wall. We are small, but on this question, our voice speaks for many. Thank you.

Hussan, Minister of Homeland Security, Labour and Technology of Maldives. Next speaker is Her Excellency Paula Ingabira, Minister of Information and Communication Technology and Innovation of Rwanda.

Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, 2 years ago when we adopted the Global Digital Compact, we did so with a commitment to to give everyone an equal voice to shape the future of artificial intelligence. Today, we make an important step towards delivering on that promise. I commend the United Nations for establishing the Global Dialogue for Artificial Intelligence Governance. As we all know, the benefits of artificial intelligence are clear: increased productivity, better decision-making, and new answers to old problems.. But these gains are not equally reaching everyone. Over half of the world's data centers are concentrated in a handful of wealthy countries. For us in Africa, it is in our interest to look inwards for solutions and adapt. In Rwanda, we've put in place strong regulatory frameworks, starting with our national AI policy and data protection and privacy law, and recently with our new established national AI agency We intend to accelerate the deployment of this technology across multiple sectors. Equally important, we are also training our people to remain competitive. Our continent's entrepreneurs, data scientists, and engineers are an asset not just for Africa but for the rest of the world. The impact they will have will depend on their ability to collaborate and scale. It is hard to break through— to to break through borders when every market has a different rulebook. Fragmentation slows us down. On the continent, we are already moving to harmonize regulations. Last year in Kigali, 49 African countries together with the African Union and the Smart Africa adopted the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence. To make progress, we must prioritize the fundamentals such as infrastructure, skills, and financing. Technology is a force for good which brings us together, but that does not happen by accident. The choice is ours to ensure that we make sure that artificial intelligence fulfills the purpose that we have set for it. I thank you for your kind attention.

I thank Her Excellency Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT of Rwanda. Next speaker is His Excellency Mustafa al-Maryani, Minister of Communications of Iraq.

Thank you. Distinguished delegates, Your Excellencies, before stating my declaration, which is in Arabic, I should like to just recall that here I'm representing for the State of Iraq We are part of this context as was described by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. We are a state, member state of the ITU, and so I would like to make this statement now in Arabic. First of all, we've come here today to debate the largest change in technology that we've seen over the last few years, AI. We are facing a historic opportunity which has ambitions. The opportunities which are provided by this technology are vast, never before seen. We're not only talking about a digital tool or tools, but we're talking about an essential partner for the future. Our main way forward, if we think of facing climate change to improve economic situations of countries. It seemed impossible even yesterday, but today this technology is opening new ways forward for innovation, for promoting and developing sectors of our economies. This will allow the human brain to focus its time on innovation leadership. That being said, In order to be able to benefit from this technological revolution, we need safe, exemplary, ethical governance, which is based on three main pillars. Firstly, we need to be far away from warfare technologies. We need to make sure that AI is only a tool for life, not a tool for developing lethal weapons which would threaten international peace and security. Two, protect families and children. We need to make sure that these algorithms are safe tools which preserve the innocence of childhood and not isolate children from their social context or realities. And thirdly, We need to invest in the development of human capacity to make sure that humans are the first to benefit, fully benefit from these new technologies. Your Excellencies, AI is at the service of humanity to promote innovation, to achieve prosperity. We need to act with a vision that is based on a safe technology which will broaden our work in the future.

Thank you very much. Mustafa al-Mariani, Minister of Communications of Iraq. Next speaker is Her Excellency Shaza Fatima Qayyada, Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication of Pakistan.

Co-chairs, excellencies, distinguished delegates, a very good afternoon. It is an honor to address this inaugural Global Dialogue on behalf of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. I commend the co-chairs and the United Nations, ITU, and UNESCO for bringing us to this moment. The theme of this segment, Harnessing the Benefits of AI for All, is exactly right. Pakistan comes to this plenary with clear vision. For all can be achieved if this dialogue continues to confront structural imbalances head-on. The capability divide is real and it is widening. Much of the Global South faces deficits in energy, broadband, data centers, high-performance compute, and AI talent. Foundational models are built and controlled elsewhere. Left to drift, the benefits concentrate where capability already sits, while the risks of job displacement, biased systems, extracting of data for value generation, and new dependencies fall on those least able to absorb them. So let me be direct about what inclusion must mean. First, inclusion is a voice in writing the rules. Norms, standards, and interoperability frameworks must be authored by both those already at the summit and those who've just started climbing. Every nation should chart its own AI path in line with its own history, languages, and development priorities while honoring international consensus. Every child must grow in a safe environment firmly rooted in their cultural values and social identities while developing knowledge, skills, and perspective to thrive in the global world today. Secondly, we feel that inclusion without investment is an empty promise. Pakistan calls for concrete resource mechanisms, access to open source models, shared compute initiatives, support for data infrastructure, and national AI strategies, regulatory sandboxes fit for local conditions, and South-South and South-East-West cooperation. All of these to be anchored explicitly in the Sustainable Development Goals, because the whole purpose of governance is to enable development. We must also effectively advance the consideration of the proposed Global Fund for AI. Pakistan is doing its part. Our national AI policy ensures human in the loop where AI must support and not replace human decision-making. Human on the loop, where human oversight remains an inbuilt feature. And human in command, where ultimate legal responsibility remains that of humans. It is also rooted in ethical AI principles where fairness, transparency, accountability, safety, and inclusivity are at the center of any AI deployment. Our upcoming National Data Governance Policy treats data as a national asset held in trust of our people with federated custody, governed exchange, citizen empowerment, and risk-tiered controls with meaningful human oversight. It is sovereignty by default.

I thank Her Excellency Shahza Fatima Khawaja, Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication of Pakistan. Next speaker is His His Excellency Djibril Ouattara, Minister of Digital Transformation of Côte d'Ivoire.

Excellences, ladies and gentlemen. Côte d'Ivoire would like to thank the United Nations and all of our partners for the organization of this Global Dialogue. On AI governance. The President of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, His Excellency Mr. Alassane Ouattara, who was not able to be here because of other commitments, would like to extend his greetings and wish the fullest of success to our work here. Ladies and gentlemen, our dialogue is coming at a decisive moment in time. Artificial intelligence has become one of the major transformations of our time. Which carries with it opportunities for development and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. During a— according to a recent study, AI could contribute some $15.7 trillion to the economy, but by 2030. However, an essential issue is emerging. Which are those economies who already benefit from that? From that, for Côte d'Ivoire, the response is clear. AI must not be the privilege for some economies and platforms. It must be a lever for shared progress, shared ethically. My country, which has seen significant economic development over recent years, has the ambition to become an emerging country. With a significant drop in poverty, and we hope that artificial intelligence will contribute to the deep-rooted transformation of our economy. Ladies and gentlemen, today in Côte d'Ivoire, 95% of our population have broadband coverage. We'd like to see this rise to 98% to eventually achieve 100% in order to make government services accessible to all online. Aware of these issues, Côte d'Ivoire, under the auspices of President Ouattara, has brought about digital transformation by the Ministry of Digital and Technological Transformation. An ambitious roadmap is one strategic pillar for the— an ethical and inclusive deployment of AI in Côte d'Ivoire. One important aspect of that approach is regulation, which will protect users while not closing ourselves off to innovation. We will participate in all approach—supranational approaches which can protect our citizens from ideological influences in the use of AI, given that AI is a cross-border phenomenon. Our Our objective is clear, to make AI a lever for progress for all.

I thank His Excellency Djibril Ouattara, Minister of Digital Transformation of Côte d'Ivoire. Next speaker is His Excellency Samba Diouf, Ministre des Télécommunications et du Numérique du Sénégal. Excellence, Madame—

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Senegal has the great honor of participating in this AI Global Dialogue and to express itself on behalf of the Global Network of Cooperation for the Strengthening of AI Capacity. We have centers with Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Germany, Guinea, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Rwanda, Niger, India, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and the EU is a host. We would like to welcome the accent that has been made on capacity building for AI, which is an essential factor in reducing the AI and digital divide. And which would allow all countries, not only developing countries, to benefit from AI and its global governance. Here we would like to recall the commitments that have been made for the Global Digital Pact and the standing resolutions of the GA, which are calling for international cooperation, which is voluntary and inclusive to Strengthen AI Capacity. We thank the United Nations Secretary-General for the report, which proposes and puts forward specific actions to have a global fund for AI, a platform for donor coordination, mechanisms for contribution in kind, and a network for capacity building in AI. The network launched at the initiative of Saudi Arabia and Kenya, and which took place at the UNGA in 2025, has progressed thanks to consultations which took place both in Senegal, Geneva, and in India, and it's attempting to put forward the exchange of expertise, access to data and compute, local innovation, as well as support for national AI strategies which are aligned with development goals and sustainable SDG goals. Facing this, of course, strengthening AI capacity is a global need. We invite member states as well as academia, philanthropic organizations, the private sector, and all partners to actively support our network through resources, expertise, and centers of excellence, as well as partnerships. We thank the Digital Technology— Emerging Digital Technology UN Office for its support and making AI a lever for cooperation and development. I thank you very much for your kind attention.

I thank the distinguished Minister of Telecommunications of Senegal. Now I give the floor to the Minister of State for External Affairs of India, His Excellency Kirti Bardhan Singh.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, last year the United Nations General Assembly launched the Global Dialogue on Air Governance, a landmark initiative that gives every country, along with industry, academia, and civil society, a meaningful voice in shaping the future of artificial intelligence. This platform reflects our shared recognition that AI is not merely a technological breakthrough but a transformative force to be guided by collective wisdom and shared responsibility. India firmly believes that responsible AI governance must rest on strong foundational principles: preserving human oversight, upholding human rights, and preventing its misuse. These principles, as reflected in the recent India AI Impact Summit, are essential for ensuring that AI systems work across borders in ways that are ethical, secure, and beneficial to all. Excellencies, our National Strategy for AI and National AI Governance Guidelines embody the philosophy of AI for all— inclusive growth for everyone without stifling innovation. However, for the Global South to participate meaningfully in AI governance, we must first close the glaring capacity gaps that exist today. Excellencies, it is crucial that this global dialogue is taking place at the United Nations, which is the world's foremost platform for forging global consensus on issues of shared international concern. Machines do not quarrel over borders, ideology, or pride. Humans do. AI governance structure must reflect unity of purpose, and our divisions should not allow technology to outrun diplomacy. This Global Dialogue is not merely a forum, it is a deciding forum. Let this be the moment for us to choose consensus over conflict before the choice is no longer ours to make. Excellencies, the paths that governments, international organizations, and the private sector follow in coming years will decide whether AI becomes an enabler of equitable progress or a multiplier of existing inequalities. Before I conclude, let me reiterate, India remains committed to shaping an AI future that is safe, secure, trustworthy, and inclusive. Thank you.

I think the Honorable Minister of State for External Affairs of India. And now I give the floor to the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications of Bahrain, His Excellency Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Excellencies, distinguished guests, delegates, The Kingdom of Bahrain views artificial intelligence as a key enabler of sustainable development, economic growth, and improved public services. As we continue our digital transformation, we are working to ensure that AI is developed and deployed in a responsible, trustworthy, and human-centric manner. To this end, Bahrain is currently developing its national artificial intelligence strategy and adopted the Gulf Cooperation Council AI ethics framework in 2025. These efforts build on our national telecommunications plan, which incorporates AI and emerging technologies as strategic priorities, while preparations are underway for the next phase of our digital transformation through NTP7. And in collaboration with the Digital Cooperation Organization, the DCO, Bahrain is leading the efforts of exploratory work for initiating a study for a global AI treaty initiative aimed at Strengthening International Dialogue and Cooperation on the Governance of AI-Related Risks. The initiative seeks to encourage trusted, inclusive, and interoperable approaches to AI safety, guided by shared principles, multilateral collaboration, and respect for national policy priorities. This will also support the principles reflected in the UN Global Digital Compact. Our strong digital foundations provide the necessary environment for trusted AI adoption. Bahrain ranked amongst the highest scores in the ITU ICT Development Index of 25, achieved Tier 1 role modeling status in the Global Cybersecurity Index 24, and ranked 18th globally in the UN eGovernment Development Index. We have also migrated approximately 85% of government workloads to the cloud and are proud to host the first AWS cloud region in the Middle East and Bahrain since 2019. As a kingdom committed to innovation and international cooperation, Bahrain believes that the future of AI governance should be built on cooperation, interoperability, capacity building, and inclusivity. We stand ready to work with partners to advance trusted and responsible AI, ensuring that its benefits are shared broadly and equitably. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the distinguished Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications of Bahrain. And now I give the floor to the high-level representative of the United States of America, Mrs. Katie Strickland.

Distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, thank you and good afternoon. AI represents a potentially transformational shift in humanity's relationship to technology, accelerating scientific discovery innovation, and economic growth. The question before us is whether we will create the conditions to ensure AI development and deployment benefits our respective citizens and preserves their liberty and way of life. As AI empowers breakthroughs in medicine, manufacturing, education, and energy, it lays the foundations for new industries and new ways for individuals to amplify their personal creative capacities. These transformative benefits will only be realized through widespread adoption. Governments can play an important role in accelerating AI adoption in two ways. First, governments are key adopters themselves and can act as examples for effective employment of AI, improving the services they provide their citizens. Second, governments can help to establish trust in these technologies and competence and accountability for their misapplication. The Trump administration is working with American legislators as they construct a national policy framework for AI that protects children, prevents censorship, respects intellectual property, and supports our workers, families, and our communities. Combined with a pro-innovation environment that allows AI companies to to meet people's real needs. The framework will assure the public that these tools and its infrastructure can benefit their lives. Government has an essential role to play in building public trust, but it cannot do this alone. As AI capabilities continue to advance, industry must be a core partner in AI security. Industry is intimately aware of the state, scope, trajectory of AI developments. Government is not. Voluntary cooperation between the two is the only AI security approach agile enough to meet challenges as they arise without stifling innovation. American companies are leading the world in advancing the reliability, robustness, and security of AI systems, and the Trump administration is passionate about sharing the benefits of American AI with the rest of the world. Our hope is that shared efforts to to advance the diffusion of the full AI stack across partner countries will become an occasion for bilateral diplomacy, international development, and global economic dynamism. We are working hard to make sure that the AI future is one of prosperous collaboration and peaceful competition around the world. America has been the dynamic center of global science and technology and the world leader in AI development because our This experiment in self-government gives innovators the freedom to discover and build the next frontier. We invite you to join us in fostering—

I thank the distinguished High-Level Representative of the United States of America, and now I give the floor to the Minister for Digital Development and Information of Singapore, Her Excellency Josephine Teo.

Ko chairs, colleagues, and friends, thank you for coming together to discuss a very important topic. By now, many countries have some experience promoting AI adoption. Let me share what Singapore has learned from a governance perspective. The first lesson is that we need a few building blocks to achieve our AI goals for the economy and society. One, reliable infrastructure, including the software layer that makes AI accessible and useful. Two, access to quality data. Among the 11 states of ASEAN, we have established a Digital Economy Framework Agreement to develop common rules and interoperable standards to support cross-border data flow. 3, capabilities—people and organisations that know how to use AI confidently, maximising its upsides and minimising its downsides. The second lesson is the need to build trust, because people will not use a technology they do not trust. For example, Singapore has published guidelines on the responsible use of data for AI models and on AI agents. We update our laws to deal with AI risks. We also partner international bodies like the ISO and IEC to standardise the methodology for testing generative AI systems. But it is important to recognise that so much is still unknown about AI risks. Singapore has therefore hosted the international scientific exchange for AI safety experts from academia, industry, and civic organisations, who have in turn developed the Singapore Consensus for AI Safety Research Priorities. The third lesson is that AI can be a significant force for good. The Government itself can use AI to be more efficient, and effective when delivering public services. But whether in the public or private sectors, it takes more than big bang announcements and high-profile projects. It is more like the patient work of tending a garden, sowing seeds and removing weeds before the flowers bloom. The Global Dialogue on AI Governance and other platforms can be a community of AI gardeners,— growing each member state's capacity for vibrant yet safe AI ecosystems. Singapore will remain committed to doing our part so that the benefits of AI can be enjoyed by the many and not the few. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished Minister for Digital Development and Information of Singapore. And now I give the floor to the Minister of Minister of State with responsibility for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation of Ireland, Her Excellency Niamh Smith.

Excellencies, distinguished co-chairs, distinguished guests. The governance of artificial intelligence cannot be addressed by any single nation alone. The systems being developed today at rapid pace are shaping access to information, influencing economic opportunity, and affecting fundamental rights. The Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact set out a roadmap for global digital cooperation to harness the potential of digital technologies and close digital divides. This Global Dialogue marks a critical step in our collective efforts to implement these agreements and to move forward with a balanced, inclusive, risk-based approach to AI governance. One that aims to harness the potential for safe, secure, and trustworthy AI to change the world for the better. One that improves our capacity to deal with its consequences, visible and those less visible. That is why Ireland has developed a new National Digital and AI Strategy which supports competitiveness and innovation while also protecting data privacy and fundamental rights. It's about empowering all groups in society. We are acutely aware that if we are to fully harness the potential of AI and mitigate risks, capacity building and inclusive engagement with the digital transformation is essential. As we come together to meet these collective challenges, we need to ensure that the voices of all society can contribute to the solutions. Ireland firmly believes in the inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital space that respects, protects, and promotes human rights. It is vital that a human-centric and human rights-based approach is taken to the development of AI technology from the design stage onwards. The EU AI Act aims to promote innovation and uptake of AI while ensuring a high level of protection, including for fundamental rights. It establishes a valuable governance framework and shows how harmonised approach can help build trust and ensure responsible AI. This dialogue can facilitate much-needed efforts towards shared governance language incorporating transparency, accountability, and oversight, and it can advance multi-stakeholder cooperation towards safe and equitable access to AI technologies. The independent International Scientific Panel on AI also has a critical role to play in this regard. We welcome the publication of the panel's first report and reiterate our support for its vital work. It's incumbent on all of us to address the fragmentation in the global landscape of governance. The work ahead requires sustained political will and genuine collaboration. The progress made here can be sustained with practical outcomes and follow-up, ensuring a collective response is to share— is a shared challenge. Gormila Maighaith, and thank you everyone.

I think the distinguished— I think the distinguished Minister of State with responsibility for trade promotion, AI, and digital transformation of Ireland. And now we give the floor to the Minister of ICT, Postal and Career Services of Zimbabwe, Her Excellency Tatenda Mevetera.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I am deeply honored to address this inaugural Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance on behalf of the Republic of Zimbabwe. I thank the United Nations and the co-chairs for convening this historic forum. For the first time, every nation has an equal seat at the table to shape the future of this transformative technology. For Zimbabwe, AI represents a strategic opportunity to leapfrog stages of development, guided by our National Development Strategy 2, in our national vision of an upper-middle-income economy by 2030, led by His Excellency our President, Dr. Edim Mnangagwa. We are no— not mere spectators of this revolution. In March this year, Zimbabwe launched its national artificial intelligence strategy, a comprehensive framework to harness AI for inclusive growth and digital sovereignty. As Zimbabwe, we are committed to unlocking real opportunities for the future of Zimbabwe in the artificial intelligence space. We are rolling out dedicated startup funds and innovation initiatives that will give young entrepreneurs and tech developers the capital, mentorship, and incubation support they need to bring their ideas to market. Our government has established special economic zones geared towards AI-inspired investment. Backed by the incentives and infrastructure required to draw both local startups and international AI players to our shores. We cannot allow the digital divide to harden into an AI divide.

Therefore, we strongly support the Secretary-General's call for a global fund for AI to build skills, data, and affordable computing power everywhere.

Zimbabwe fully aligns to the core of the UN-supported Global Network for Exchange and Cooperation on AI Capacity Building.

We believe that international cooperation and solidarity are essential if AI is to truly become the great equalizer of the 21st century.

As we leave Geneva, let us remember that governance is not the enemy of innovation. It is the guarantor of trust. Zimbabwe is ready to contribute to global governance framework that makes it inclusive, fair, and safe. Therefore, we believe that there are 3 things we should do. Number 1, an AI global AI capacity building fund. Number 2, a mutual recognition framework for AI ethics standards.

Number 3, an interoperability by default pledge.

Zimbabwe is tabled its skin to this game, and we are ready to work.

Let us move from work to delivery.

I thank you. I thank the distinguished Minister of ICT, Postal and Career Services of Zimbabwe. And now we give the floor to the Minister of State for Innovation, Communications Technology and National Guidance of Uganda, His Excellency Alione Yorke Odria.

Uh, co-chairs, Excellencies, distinguished guests. Uh, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the President of Uganda, was invited for this important dialogue, but due to state duties, he sent our delegation to represent him. And his message is clear that Uganda aligns himself with a statement delivered on behalf of the African Group. Secondly, Uganda also has come here to reaffirm its position for the commitment and responsible use of AI. Our focus— Uganda focuses on bridging the divides. Those are the AI divides coming from compute, data, and skills. Uh, Uganda has come for this dialogue with its ambition of, uh, to table our Vision 2040 to take our economy to $500 billion through support of AI. Uh, Well aware Africa holds less than 1% of the world's AI compute, and our 2040 goal cannot be achieved easily on the less than 1% of the world's capability. We therefore call for concrete partnership cooperation on input access, capacity building, and financing for development from all countries who are present today. Secondly, on safe, secure, and trustworthy AI, we favor interoperal standards based on approaches over fragmented ones.

I thank the distinguished Minister of State for Information, Communications, Technology, and National Guidance of Uganda. And now I give the floor to the Minister for Indo-Pacific and Minister for Equalities of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Her Excellency Seema Malhotra.

Your Excellencies, Madam Secretary General, and distinguished guests. The United Kingdom thanks El Salvador and Estonia for co-chairing this dialogue. Over the last 2 days, we have heard about AI's immense potential, but those benefits of AI will not be shared on their own. To make a real difference, we must work in diverse partnerships—partnerships between countries, policymakers, researchers, and the private sector. That is why we are proud to be collaborating with some of the brightest minds across Africa and Asia through our AI for Development program. Together, we're helping build AI tools in more than 40 African languages, supporting, supporting 13 AI labs and helping countries develop locally led AI ecosystems that reflect their own priorities. We're also supporting practical uses of AI that are already making a difference. This includes a maternal health service in Kenya that has reached millions of mothers and helped more high-risk pregnancies get specialist care. These efforts reflect a wider principle that countries should be empowered to harness AI in ways that support their own development goals. The United Nations has an indispensable role to play in making that possible, and it can do so in three ways. First, by helping build a common evidence space. The International Independent Scientific Panel on AI can help ensure all countries have a shared understanding of AI's capabilities and risks. Second, by helping maintain a strong foundation of the principles for trustworthy AI, taking the strong foundation of rules, norms, and principles that we have, connecting and consistently operationalizing these and translating them to reality in all countries. And third, by helping countries access the support, evidence, and expertise they need to benefit from AI. Ultimately, the UN's unique strength lies in its ability to bring countries together and ensure every voice is heard. If we get this right, AI can become one of the greatest drivers of opportunity, of prosperity, and of sustainable development of our time, with an important legacy for the next generations. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished Minister for the Indo-Pacific and Minister for Equalities of the UK, and I give the floor to the Minister of Communications and digital transformation of Mozambique, His Excellency Americo Muchanga.

Excellencies, it is a privilege for the Republic of Mozambique to participate in this high-level dialogue on artificial intelligence. AI is redefining the global landscape at a speed not seen before. Like every transformative technology before it, AI will shape economies, power, opportunity, security, and human development for generations to come. The question before us is not whether AI will transform our societies. It is whether that transformation will be fair, inclusive, and guided by our shared values. For Mozambique, AI is a strategic enabler for sustainable development, and for that we are developing a national strategy of AI. We would like to apply it to strengthen agricultural productivity, improve healthcare delivery, enhance education, reinforce climate resilience, support disaster readiness, modernize public administration, and expand opportunities for millions of our citizens. However, we must recognize a fundamental reality: if access to AI remains concentrated among few countries and a handful of corporations, We risk creating a technological divide that will leave developing countries further behind. This must not be the defining legacy of the AI era. The future of AI must be built on equity, cooperation, and shared prosperity. Mozambique therefore calls for a global AI ecosystem founded on three essential pillars. First, inclusive governance. Global AI rules should reflect the voices and realities of all nations, including developing countries. Second, capacity development. Access to AI requires far more than algorithms. It demands investment in digital infrastructure, affordable connectivity, reliable energy, quality education, digital literacy, research innovation, and development of local, local talent. Third, trust. AI must remain firmly anchored in human dignity, transparency, accountability, respect for human rights, cybersecurity, and international law. History will judge our generation not by how quickly we developed AI, but how wisely we governed it. The decisions we make today will tell whether AI becomes a force that narrows inequalities or widens them, that empowers humanity or concentrates opportunity in the hands of a few. Mozambique stands ready to work with all member states and partners to build an AI future that's open, secure, inclusive, and open-centered. Let us ensure that AI becomes not a privilege of few, but a shared asset for all humanity. Because the future does not belong to those who possess the most powerful algorithms, it belongs to those who ensure the innovation, serves humanity, dignity, and fairness, and hope. With that, I thank you all.

I thank the distinguished Minister of Communication and Digital Transformation of Mozambique. And now I give the floor to the Minister of Information and Communications Technology of Malawi, His Excellency Chadrik Namalomba.

Mme. Secretary-General, Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates. Imagine building a highway while the traffic is already moving at full speed. This is the reality for Malawi as we approach the AI revolution. On behalf of His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika and the people of Malawi, I thank the ITU for convening this summit. For us, AI is not a luxury. It is a lifeline. Our vision, Malawi 2063, maps our path to an industrialized nation. We are not waiting passively. We are using intelligent systems to leapfrog barriers and accelerate our transformation. Malawi champions human-centered AI, where innovation and fundamental rights advance together. Transparency and fairness are non-negotiable. However, we must confront a profound dilemma. Our challenges are compounded by persistently low foreign direct investment, unreliable energy supply, inadequate connectivity, prohibitive costs for data and devices, and limited digital literacy among our people. These barriers widen the digital gap even before we ever begin. For countries like ours, robust AI governance demands massive investment in compute, expertise, stable energy, and connectivity. But our people cannot harness what they cannot afford or understand. We lack the scale, yet we are expected to meet the same high standards. We face an impossible choice. Accept unacceptable risks or be left behind. True inclusivity demands genuine partnership. We invite you to say that as a country, we are not waiting. Malawi is expanding connectivity. But as I said, our ambition outpaces our resources. We therefore need investment in 3 pillars: energy, computing power, and human skills. Of course, yes, with emphasis on digital literacy to ensure our citizens can meaningfully participate. Today, we brought proof of our potential. 2 brilliant young Malawian innovators are here, Vision Tondoia and Staff Nyoni, These are winners of our national ICT awards. They have ideas.

I thank the distinguished Minister of Malawi. I should now like to give the floor to the Minister of Communication of the Digital Economy and the Modernization of the Administration, His Excellency Almadou Iliane from Mali. Go ahead, sir.

Bonjour tout le monde.

Good day, one and all. Co-chairs, good day. I'm taking here the floor on behalf of His Excellency General Assimi Goïta, who is the head of state of Mali, who has given me the honor of representing him here at this important meeting, an exceptional opportunity for the future of humanity. For Africa and for Mali specifically, AI represents both an opportunity of historic nature,, but also a systemic risk which we need to clearly identify. Ladies and gentlemen, the priority strategic challenges are as follows in this dialogue. First of all, data control. AI uses data, data, but who controls the data? And this is a determining issue for economic, social, and political issues of all nations. The South countries, countries of the Global South, must have a sovereign right to collect, store, and analyze their data. It's not just a protectionist aspect that I'm saying here. No, it's a matter of the dignity and the sovereignty of each nation at an international level. The non-neutrality of AI also— AI is not neutral. It actually reflects the biases of those who are doing the training. So AI systems which are based on non-representative data can amplify discrimination— worsen discrimination, even. The challenges which inhibit the participation of countries such as Mali in this revolution of AI are as follows. First of all, an insufficiency of our infrastructures and skills. Without reliable electricity, without a fast internet connection, we can't have AI, for example. With regard to skills, they're, of course, concentrated in higher capitals of different countries. AI is a question of emergence. Sub-Saharan African countries are underrepresented in this space. Insecurity is, of course, impacting development in all countries of the Sahel group. This— their participation is a prerequisite for any investment in any technology of the future. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the transitional government and the people of Mali, we would like to make the following recommendations. First of all, the adoption of an international framework for AI governance which respects all and which has clear international rules respecting the rights of developing countries and the sovereign rights of countries to equitably be represented in their data, amongst other things. Also, a dedicated space in the development area which is focused on least developed countries. Also, we need to represent African languages and cultures in AI. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Merci, Monsieur le Ministre. Thank you, Minister from Mali. Now I give the floor to the Secretary of State for Innovation of Italy, His Excellency Alessio Butti.

Distinguished colleagues, dear co-chairs, the question today is no longer whether AI will change our societies. It already is. The question is whether we will manage to govern it or end up being governed by it. I thank the United Nations for convening the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance, which we truly hope could provide substantial guidance to parallel and sectorial ongoing dialogue initiatives. A challenge of this magnitude requires principles that are truly universal and shared by all, not imposed by the few, and that every country can then adapt to its own governance experience. For too long, we have treated artificial intelligence as something to watch unfold. It is time we treated it as a responsibility to share. For Italy, governance of this kind means first and foremost putting the person at the center, safety, reliability, transparency of the underlying algorithms and datasets that reflect the plurality of the world's languages and cultures, not just a few of them. It also means designing artificial intelligence according to a security-by-design approach, because trust in these systems is built by preventing malicious uses not by chasing after them. It means involving all stakeholders—governments, businesses, civil society, the research community—because no one can write these rules alone. And above all, it means closing the existing digital divide without opening a new one—the AI divide. The concentration of these technologies in a few companies and a few countries is a risk for everyone. —not only for those left out. Italy brings to this dialogue a concrete experience as well. Our Law on Artificial Intelligence aligns our national legal framework with the European AI Act and entrusts governance of the sector to two existing agencies. The rules we build together are not a brake on innovation. They are the guardrail that makes it safer and faster. Thank you, and count on Italy as a strong supporter of the UN efforts to shape AI governance globally. Thank you.

Thank you, Secretary of State of Italy. Now I give the floor to the Minister for the Digital Economy and Sovereignty of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Her Excellency Billemijn Aerts.

The Netherlands strongly supports the establishment of this dialogue. Our approach is to find the balance between seizing the opportunities of AI and managing its risk, informed by the conviction that AI should be responsible, safe, secure, and trustworthy, human-centric, reliable, privacy-preserving, and accountable. In recent years, the international community has constructed the building blocks of a global AI governance through, for example, the OECD and the G20 AI principles and the UNESCO recommendation. And states and regions are now implementing them in context, as we do through the European AI Act. Let me make 3 points on interoperability, inclusion, and on transparency. In regard to interoperability, to my mind, the organizing principle for this next phase, it does not mean one rulebook for the world, nor harmonizing away legitimate differences. It means frameworks built in different jurisdictions, built on the common international standards to rights, safety, transparency, and accountability. We can recognize and work together with each other instead of fragmenting into patchworks that no one can navigate, but always on the shared global foundation, the UN Charter and international law, including human rights law. Second, inclusion, because the theme is benefit for all. If governance reflects only a narrow set of perspectives, it cannot be sustainable. AI for all must mean more than access to products. It means using AI to solve local problems in health, education, climate, and food. And it deals with the question of who's sitting at the table. AI governance cannot be written by governments or technology companies alone. Civil society, researchers, and the technical community bring knowledge that we lack. And it's our task to give this multi-stakeholder real seats at the real table. Then transparency in practice. Open data, open source, and transparency across the lifecycle foster accountability and let citizens see how these systems affect their lives. Our public algorithm register now documents around 1,500 algorithms across nearly 350 public sector bodies. An example we offer not as an answer, but as a something someone can adapt. Colleagues, Two tasks. Let us treat interoperability as a shared objective. Frameworks that work together by default while respecting that approaches differ. And let us build capacity and Global South participation in from the start so that we can agree that reflects the world and the whole world that we live under it. Let me close by underlining the value of a multilateral and above all, multi-stakeholder cooperation. And the foundational importance of a rule-based international order. The Netherlands is a committed partner in that work. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and I give the floor to the Minister of Communication and Technology of Somalia, His Excellency Mohamed Adam Mualim.

Kojere's Excellence, distinguished delegates, artificial intelligence presents one of the greatest opportunities of our generation to accelerate sustainable development, improve public services, and unlock new economic opportunities. At the same time, it presents one of the most complex governance challenges the world has ever faced. Somalia welcomes the convening of this timely and important inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance. We commend the United Nations for creating an exclusive platform where all member states can contribute to shaping the future of AI. Earlier this year, the ITU recognized Somalia as the world's leading performer in ICT regulatory reform. We are proud of this achievement because it reflects nearly a decade of building modern regulatory institutions and creating an, an enable environment for digital transformation. However, AI presents an entirely different challenge. Unlike telecommunications or many other digital technologies, AI cannot be effectively governed by any single country or even a regional bloc acting alone. AI is inherently global. Its development, deployment, and impact is national borders. Requiring unprecedented international cooperation. For countries like Somalia, the challenge begins even earlier. Before we can fully harness the benefit of AI, we must overcome the fundamentalist constraints, including limited access to affordable computing infrastructure, unreliable and The close and costly energy shortage of high-quality data limits digital and AI skills and constrains access to advanced AI technologies and the institutional foundation necessary to ensure AI is safe, trusted, and respects human rights. These are challenges that no developing countries no country can overcome alone. As we shape the future of AI governance, Somalia believes we must ensure AI narrows, not widens, the global digital divide.

Somalia therefore welcomes this global dialogue as an important step towards a more inclusive global AI governance architecture,

one way where I thank the distinguished Minister of Somalia, and now I give the floor to the Minister of Information and Communication Technology of Namibia, Her Excellency Emma Theophilus.

Madam SG, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, I bring you greetings from the land of the brave and our President, Her Excellency Dr. Netumbo Nandindaitwa. Namibia welcomes this global dialogue on AI governance and commends the co-chairs and welcomes the great work done by the expert team in producing the report of the independent International Scientific Panel on AI. Informed by our national digital strategy and our digital transformation agenda, Namibia, like many other developing countries, faces the challenge of AI adoption. However, it is not AI adoption alone that concerns us. It is building the foundational digital infrastructure that makes AI possible. Without inclusive digital foundations, AI risks becoming a tool for the few, not a catalyst for shared prosperity. Global cooperation is essential to expand open datasets for development, support shared AI infrastructure, including regional AI hubs and maybe even AI capacity fund for developing states, and promote responsible open-source AI models that empower innovation without compromising safety. Namibia has made great strides in the empowerment of women and girls, including at the highest political levels. However, Bias in AI systems is threatening these gains due to an increase in digital violence, with great concerns around technology-facilitated or AI-facilitated gender-based violence. We require both public and private sector collaboration to build AI capabilities that will perform the mundane tasks in order to free up humans for innovation, for empathy, and creativity. As Namibia advances its digital transformation agenda, we are prioritizing rural connectivity, community digital centers, national digital identity and data governance frameworks, AI skills development for youth, and of course, our public sector workers. We stand ready to collaborate, share experiences, and learn from global partners. In conclusion, if we are to fulfill the promise of the 2030 Agenda, we must ensure that no country is left behind in the AI age. Thank you for your kind attention.

I thank the Honorable Minister of ICT of Namibia. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, we will have to conclude this high-level governmental plenary segment now. We apologize for those who were not able to speak, but we are running out of time. On behalf of the co-chairs, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to all member states for their contributions and for sharing national, regional, and collective perspectives on AI governance, international cooperation, and the opportunities and challenges presented by artificial intelligence. Our next session, Dialogue of Dialogues: Reflections, Complementarities, and the Way Forward, has been designed for bringing together different perspectives and reflecting on what we've heard during this dialogue, first and second day. It will provide an opportunity to identify key messages emerging across the dialogues consider areas of convergence and complementarity, and explore how different initiatives, experiences, and approaches can inform and reinforce one another. It is our hope that this conversation will help draw together the many perspectives shared throughout the dialogue and contribute to a stronger understanding of where further cooperation, coordination, and collective action may be most valuable. To begin with this session, it is my great pleasure to invite Clare Malamed, Vice President, UN Foundation, to deliver the opening high-level remarks.

Thank you very much indeed, Ambassadors, Doreen. Thank you all. Thank you everybody for a hugely stimulating and engaging few days. I say it feels very much longer already, and let me assure you that that is in an entirely good way, because it has been so packed full of content, of stimulating ideas, and of commitments to, as the speakers just now said, to make sure that this dialogue carries forward with concrete conversations, with specific ideas, and takes us— sets us well onto the road for the second Global Dialogue— brace yourselves— to be held in New York next May. I'm absolutely delighted to begin this next segment, the dialogue of dialogues, which will start to chart the way forward and think about how the UN can play a key role in ensuring that AI governance is built upon the foundations of human rights and of the values espoused by the UN. I'm delighted to begin with high-level opening remarks, and as befits a multi-stakeholder dialogue, we are delighted to have remarks from different stakeholders here, and I'm beginning— let me begin by welcoming to the stage Her Excellency Halla Tómasdóttir, the President of Iceland.

I'm here.

Excellency, nice to meet you. Very warm welcome. Thank you so much. So much.

And the floor is yours.

Thank you so much.

Excellencies, distinguished guests, dear friends, it is an honor to join you for the Global Dialogue on AI Governance. Artificial intelligence is one of the most consequential forces shaping our time. We all know that. It can improve health, education, food security, disaster preparedness, scientific discovery, and our response to environmental challenges. But its impacts will not be determined by technological capacity alone. It will be determined by the human choices we make about power, access, accountability, and ultimately the kind of society and humanity we choose to be. Around the world, governments, international institutions, companies, and civil society have put forward important principles for, for artificial intelligence. Many of them point in the same direction, towards safety, inclusion, transparency, accountability, sustainability, and human rights. But we have not yet aligned on shared guardrails, common standards, or the practical accountability that this technology demands. And principles without practice can inspire false comfort. It is not enough to sound responsible while avoiding the difficult choices that responsibility requires. The central question is not simply how we govern artificial intelligence. It is whether we can govern ourselves in the age of artificial intelligence. I come from Iceland, a small island nation that has long turned constraint into creativity. For centuries, we have carried our history, imagination, and values through stories, through the sagas, poetry, music, and our very own language. They are our roots. They give us a sense of identity, belonging, and continuity across generations. We have also learned to draw energy from the magma beneath our feet and from the power of our waterfalls, transforming natural forces into warmth, light, and opportunity. We tend to believe that even the most powerful forces should be put to work for the common good. That, it seems to me, is the test for artificial intelligence as well. Not simply whether it can create value, but whether it can create shared capability, shared opportunity, and shared prosperity without sacrificing our human dignity, relationships, and sense of pro— and sense of purpose. Access without agency is not inclusion. The benefits of AI must reach communities everywhere, not only those already closest to capital, computing power, and decision-making. Those furthest from today's centers of power must be co-authors of this future, with a meaningful role in building the infrastructure, shaping the rules, and sharing fairly in the value created. We should measure success not by the number of pilots we announce, but whether people and communities have greater agency, dignity, and hope because of AI. AI is not only a technological question. It is a social, economic, and democratic question, and increasingly, a question of peace and security. What happens in a world where young people conclude that the safest response to the digital world is to trust nothing and no one? And we must not normalize a future in which human beings delegate the irreversible decision to take a human life to a machine. Meaningful human responsibility must remain where the stakes are highest. This autumn, Iceland will invite people across the country into a national dialogue in which young people will play a leading role. We need a future-fit leadership that neither confuses speed with progress nor technical capability with wisdom.

We need leadership that brings governments, business, educators, researchers, civil society, parents, and young people into genuine partnership.

We need leadership that asks not only, "What can this technology do?" but also, "How will it affect the lives of our children?" I come from a country where we have learned to live alongside volcanoes, earthquakes, and pretty unpredictable weather. Perhaps that is why we tend to believe that powerful forces should be studied, understood, respected, and put to work for the common good. I believe this is the task before all of us, to ensure that artificial intelligence expands the horizons of young people, of all of us, without diminishing our humanity. To ensure that it helps us become more capable, more creative, more connected, and more hopeful for the future. And to ensure that the intelligence we create remains in the service of the very humanity we share. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Your Excellency, and thank you for reminding us first that we have key choices to make here—policy choices, individual choices. We're not powerless in the face of technology, but we can choose the path. And secondly, that the path must be guided by the impact on people. That must be the criteria that guides the choices that we make and how we're judged for them. Thank you very much for those powerful remarks. And let me now welcome for our second keynote of this segment, uh, Brad Smith, the Vice Chair and President of Microsoft. You're very welcome.

Well, thank you. It's a real pleasure for me Thank you, Secretary, to be here this afternoon. And let me begin where you just left off. We will be measured by the choices we make, and the time to start making them is now, because we come together at what I believe is a critical moment for the future of artificial intelligence. Let's take stock. It was less than 4 years ago, at the end of November in 2022, when ChatGPT was released and in effect a new era with generative AI began. Where are we today? What are the issues we need to address? Well, I think we should start where many of the speakers this afternoon have started as well. Let's look at the state of the world and the divides that characterize the planet on which we live. Let's look at the greatest divide of all, the economic divide between the Global North and South. At Microsoft, one of the things we do is measure every quarter the state of the AI diffusion, its usage or adoption on a per capita basis among the working age population in countries around the world. And what we see today is that AI diffusion in the Global North stands at 27%, while in the Global South it is only 15%. And what we know is that if current trends persist, by this time next year, AI will be used by more than twice as many people on a per capita basis in the Global North as in the Global South. What does that tell us? It tells us that we are not in good shape. We are not on the right course, and instead what we are seeing is yet again a new technology trend where digital technology, new technology, is going to widen rather than narrow the gap between North and South. We have important decisions to make, and you've heard speakers capture its critical elements. One cannot simply deploy AI in the cloud as if The cloud is the space that it exists. We need a foundation. We need infrastructure. We're trying to invest in that as a company, but we still need to complete the electrification of the world. We have even more distance to travel to complete the internet connectivity of the world. We need to expand the ability of AI models to work equally well in many languages rather than a few. And we need to make digital skilling an everyday reality rather than a dream that is being realized by far too few. These are the kinds of steps we need to take, and we need to start by recognizing that we're going to need to bend the arc of history if we're going to make progress. Similarly, I think we need to take stock and acknowledge that around the world, not everywhere, but in many countries, many people have many more questions and even concerns today than they did just a year ago. They ask, will AI bring me and my family, my neighbors in my community, more economic opportunity or less? Will it create better jobs for my children, or will it instead create technology that creates the jobs we already have? This is not a decision that machines will make. It is a decision that people and governments and countries will make, and we need to make them with the right kind of forethought and the right kind of values if we are going to ensure that AI serves its purpose and creates a better world. And then finally, I think there is in some ways the most fundamental question of all. Where are we when we look at the state of AI governance around the world? I think what we can say is this: over the last 12 months, AI has raced forward and AI governance has not kept pace. We've reached a point of recognizing quite rightly that if not governed well, the risks of AI can grow as they are this year with respect to cybersecurity. As they will in future years when it comes to biology, with technology that can do both enormous good as a tool, but enormous damage as a weapon. We have to catch up. And as you've heard other speakers talk today, there are— there is only one way to catch up when it comes to AI governance. We must work together. We do need an approach that is inclusive, that makes room for every government in the world, as well as multi-stakeholder conversations as were happening right now today. These are not challenges that can be met by any one sector of the economy alone. Government cannot act alone. The private sector cannot act alone. The nonprofit and NGO sector not act alone, but if we act together, we can do better. And as you've heard, we need interoperability. We need to recognize that different countries and cultures will quite rightly exercise their sovereignty and make different choices. That is something that is always part of international relations. But as you've heard, we cannot afford a patchwork that is impossible for people or companies or governments to navigate, we need to build the interoperability among governance systems if we're going to turn the current stalemate into progress. That requires the United Nations. It requires other institutions as well, and there will be many. But I continue to believe that the United Nations, the ITU, the other agencies that are here this weekend, every day of every week, have an indispensable role to play. Only by harnessing the power to bring people together, to solve problems through stronger public policy, to deliver real results through real programs to countries around the world, can we offer what the world needs and what the world deserves: hope. Hope. That we can turn AI into what it should be, a new technology that can build a better world. Certainly on behalf of Microsoft, on behalf of, I think, so many people who come from so many different sections of society and so many parts of the world. I am happy to be here. I am happy that all of you are here, and I am happy that we now have the opportunity to go forward together. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much to Brad Smith for reminding us that while there are many divides here— digital divides, governance divides— it's absolutely critical that we bridge those, that we bridge those through institutions, and that we bridge those through what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite words of the weak interoperability of approaches. For our final plenary segment, for our final keynote speaker of this segment, I'm very delighted to now welcome Mr. Ramanjit Singh Chima, who is the Global Program Director at the Association for Progressive Communications. You're welcome.

Thank you so much, Claire. I also wanted to thank the joint organizing team of the AI Dialogue and the agencies who've been working so hard for these conversations here in Geneva and online this week. Your Excellencies, colleagues, I speak to you on behalf of the Association for Progressive Communications. For those of you who may not know us, we are an international nonprofit organization born in 1990 with over 74 organizational members and 44 associates across 60 countries. From the beginning of our existence, APC's network has recognized that it is crucial for the international system to engage with civil society, public interest technologists, and grassroots communities on the design and conversation around technological systems, their development, and governance. And I stand before you today sharing the fact that I feel a bit uneasy. It would be tempting for us here to focus on conversations about the future, how should we approach AI and its governance. But it's rare to find a truly blank slate. The development around AI and its governance, and architectures in particular on institutional development, come from histories that we must learn from. We must not forget that the development of AI is not inevitable, and indeed not as a new phenomenon. As many of you might be aware, AI and the range of technologies that constitute artificial intelligence and the the term we use today, come from development and development cycles of AI booms, or what sometimes people call AI springs and AI winters. What might be, of course, particularly different and unique about today's boom or today's AI spring is the fact that the extent to which it's impacting our communities and societies, that is not merely in labs, in testing environments, and more. And in that context, it is impacting vulnerable communities and individuals and it's already trying to seek and in fact successfully achieves the attention of already strained and contested policy and governance institutions. The internet has become a mainstream force. That does not mean it's universally accessible or it's equitable in its development or in its applications. This is the problem that our communities were engaging, and this is a problem that we need to be honest about when it comes to this space. We were still working hard on getting digital governance right, and we are now under tremendous pressure to leapfrog into a conversation around AI governance and to create effective architectures for it. Global digital governance processes, including those born out of the World Summit for the Information Society, and that includes the UN IGF as well as the processes in the UNCSTD, has demonstrated the value of sustained cross-forum engagement. When we have seen success in digital cooperation at the global level, That has been when governments, civil society, the technical community, academia, the private sector, and international organizations have worked together. Many of those who work for the ITU and other UN agencies here in Geneva, as well as those working in New York and other UN hubs, have recognized and learned this through discussion, dialogue, and sometimes active debate and disagreement with society and other stakeholders. AI governance should build on that, not replace The United Nations system and the different agencies involved in these conversations must remember this as they plan for the next dialogue in New York, as they design commissions and other fora, particularly given the challenges the UN faces at a broader level over the next few months and the reality of the UN's leadership transition and changes. We need to also recognize that the current and upcoming developments around AI raise concerns that intersect with existing concerns around connectivity, human rights standards, cybersecurity, and digital inclusion. AI systems are not neutral. They are designed and operated in structures that affect— that come from existing inequalities. Women and girls, gender-diverse people, and other marginalized groups are distinctly and disproportionately harmed by the development and use of AI systems and are underrepresented in the conversations around their evolution, design, and governance. The Global Dialogue on AI Governance is an opportunity for governments and decision makers to embed commitments in these affirmations on gender equality from existing digital policy and cooperation processes into the AI governance conversation from the start. You can learn from those mistakes, you can learn from those wins. While the internet impacts and connects to many, much, many, much, many other parts of our societies and economies, we need to recognize that there is still a reality. Your gender, your community identity, your geography, and more impacts what connectivity you get and whether you get connectivity at all. Absence of connectivity impacts your agency and autonomy. You will still have your data scooped up for AI models and often experimented on in AI deployment, but you cannot voice your demands, you cannot reveal what is happening, and you cannot provide your thoughts on governance. Connectivity efforts are also being impacted by how AI connectivity conversations— sorry, AI infrastructure conversations— are grabbing the attention of policymakers and are focusing on particular approaches regarding deployment of compute infrastructure without looking at what communities want. We need a community-centric approach to internet infrastructure and one that recognizes the impact this has on climate change, a topic that the AI dialogue needs to engage with further and needs to connect further with environmental defenders and more. My colleague Rebecca mentioned this earlier today in the conversation around human rights, saying that we need to recognize that the conversations here about communities, that they are not a last-mile policy problem, but communities need to be a first-mile priority and stakeholder. I want to end with a reminder on history. History has taught our communities that do not be afraid of red lines. In particular, we need to be clear about what we deem and enforce as unacceptable when it comes to people's rights, including their rights to their data and privacy, as well as the sustainability of the planet. June, last month, was the 13-year anniversary of the Snowden revelations. It prompted the United Nations and the US member states to redouble the protection of the right to privacy in a digital age, to drive national reforms around data access and more. But all of those stand at risk, and surveillance controls, for example, in particular, are completely at risk of being jeopardized due to the current relentless rush for AI tool and usage, for partnerships between the public sector and AI firms, and other efforts to collect and use data in AI systems. We therefore fully agree with the vision that was hinted at by the Secretary-General and by the High Commissioner for Human Rights today. We need regulation guided by human rights, a universal recognition around leaving no space for data collection and AI development without consent. And in closing, I want to thank you all for this opportunity, and in particular know that civil society looks forward to working with everyone in the AI dialogue through collaboration, through challenge, and through imagination. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Rahman, and thank you for reminding us that it's a very long road that brought us here, and there are many interlocking processes that we have to think about, and much history here also of discussion, of debate among many different stakeholders of these issues. Speaking of many different stakeholders' discussion and debate, we're now going to turn to the panel section of this plenary. Let me just welcome our panelists to the stage. If you could all come up on the stage as I call your name, and then we will begin. Let me first welcome Her Excellency Emma Theofilos, the Minister of Information and Communications Technology of Namibia. Very warm welcome to you. Let me welcome Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary-General for Policy at the United Nations, Jan Tallinn, the co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, and Gaia Marcus, the director of the Ada Lovelace Institute. A very warm welcome. Everyone has found their seats, everyone is comfortable. Great, let us begin. So this is, this is the concluding plenary panel of the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, and as seems appropriate, we are going to start facing forward into the future and think about the next UN Global Dialogue to be held in May of next year in New York, and to think about some of the things that we have learned over the last two days, some of the lessons that we will take, and some of the work that needs to be done in order to get us to that next dialogue. So let me start, um, with you, Under-Secretary-General. Um, we've heard over the last, uh, few days of many different processes and initiatives, so all of the huge amounts of work that are going on in different combinations and constellations of stakeholders which are contributing incrementally to AI governance. How can the UN help to connect these efforts to achieve the complementarity, the inclusivity, and the interoperability which I think many people in this room would like to see?

Well, thank you very much for that question. To answer the question and to look forward, as you've just invited us to do, I think it's worth just seeing for a minute how we got here today. It was only in August of last year that our member states decided to convene this dialogue. This dialogue is happening because 193 countries of the world decided that it would be a good idea to come together and have this dialogue, and it's important to remember the mandate, not only what its content is, but who it comes from, and it gives a particular importance and a particular legitimacy to what we're all doing here together today. And I have to say that I think we deserve to recognize the extraordinary contributions that people have made to making this dialogue work rather successfully. We owe big thanks to our co-chairs who undertook really very intense consultations to get this dialogue off the ground. We got 1,500 written submissions. And of course we've worked very carefully and very closely with the independent scientific panel that we heard report to us yesterday. And we'll be getting an outcome document, an outcome from this dialogue to be prepared by the co-chairs in good time. So this dialogue has set us on, I think, an important road. Now, what can the UN do to bring things together? It is obviously true that there is an enormous amount of attention and activity taking place internationally around AI issues, some of them here this week in Geneva, not just this dialogue but the AI for Good events, the WISIS events as well. And the point about this is the UN enjoys one unparalleled comparative advantage in the task before us, and that is the legitimacy of its universality. There is nowhere else where 193 member countries can come together in this all-inclusive conversation, and when we say inclusive, of course, it's all our member states, but it's also business, it's also civil society, as we have just heard. We have a challenge— let me be perfectly honest with you, as a moderator, inside the UN system. There's a lot going on inside the system. We need to make sure that what happens inside the UN system is coherent, is complementary. We are working hand in hand within the system, and I think what we've seen from the dialogue and the panel this week is good evidence that we are working well on that. But I also think that we are able, through the UN, to try to reach out to, to connect with those other international processes that will take place, not universal ones, but different summits that will take place. No doubt the G20, the G7, and others will want to have their say, and I think we can be a reference point and a gathering. And looking forward, I mean, we've heard some very interesting ideas for initiatives arising during the course of our dialogue. We heard our Secretary-General suggest that we have a child safety pledge acted upon. We heard him talk about a transparency initiative. We've just heard the President of Iceland talk about the national dialogue in that country. These are things we have to put together, and I'm sure there will be many other initiatives, and I think bring to this dialogue, which can be, I think, an annual place to come together and to really take stock of what we're doing and where we need to go. So I think we've made an enormously encouraging start, but it's a start.

Thank you, Under-Secretary-General. And speaking of starts, what for you would success look like? And I should warn all of the other panellists, you're all getting a variation of this question. What would success look like by the time the Global Dialogue convenes again in New York May 2027?

Well, we will have some things which we think we—

with some confidence we can rely upon. We'll have another report of the International Scientific Panel, and we'll be able to chew on what they bring to the table. No doubt other things such as the initiatives I've just mentioned, which have been launched at this dialogue this year, will be bringing new ideas to the table, but my view is that success will be both maintaining the UN's position, as I've said, as unique universal convener for dialogue, and having the engagement of our member states, also of other stakeholders, to take forward, frankly, all of the ideas in terms of objectives which have come out rather clearly from this dialogue. Dialogue. You know, having AI serve humanity— I know these are sounding rather high-level, uh, ideas, but to put those into some sort of operational, uh, form, uh, and as I say, I think we've both got the commitment of stakeholders and the direction of travel that will help us to move towards progress in that regard.

Thank you so much, Under-Secretary-General. Minister. Let me now turn to you. We heard from you a moment ago, um, delivering your statement. Um, now, as you said, as you said then, as we've heard several times already, uh, this week, countries are moving at different speeds in developing AI governance frameworks. But of course, all of the countries here share an interest, and their people share an interest, in ensuring that AI contributes to sustainable development and to inclusive growth. So from Namibia's perspective, what practical forms of international cooperation of the kind of debates that the Under-Secretary-General just referred to are most needed to help countries build the capacities, the institutions, and the partnerships that are required to govern AI effectively and deliver on the promise that we know there is?

Thank you, VP Moderator. And indeed, I concur with the Under-Secretary-General that the convening of this dialogue is a great first step. Every country is grappling with, you know, how to best manage AI because it's inevitable. Nobody can wait. But I think there are three concrete steps we can take, one immediate and perhaps one moderate and some long-term. And I think the first one would be looking at helping countries who are, in many instances, grappling with so many other structural issues, especially us from the Global South, to translate this global AI principles into effective national laws and institutions. I think that would be a good foundation. For any country to actually know, based on our context, how to handle the AI question. I was listening to one of the AI panel members yesterday who did say that context determines the outcome. And it's true. We have different regions. We have different contexts. So it's only right that we condense those based on the context of each country, whether from the Global South, Global North, or elsewhere. Then I think the second practical moderate approach that we can look at is continuously investing in digital and data infrastructure. The fact of the matter is some countries are still grappling with getting their citizens digitally literate. It's no secret. To pretend that all of us are at some level the same is not true. We must find a way to create or avail financing to countries that are still teaching their citizens how to trust technology, how to trust the ability to use technology in public service and otherwise, and then continuously elevate from there. And then finally, the long term would be creating programs to strengthen skills and scientific capacity. From a Namibian perspective of a country on the African continent, it's no secret that almost half of the world's population will come from the African continent by the year 2050. This means that we have not only the, the energy and agility of a young population, but we will have the numbers. So it's only right that, especially for the Global South and the developing nations, that there are programs tailor-made to train human capacity and human capabilities to strengthen skills and scientific capacity in the Global South. Thank you,

Minister. And let me also ask you the same question that I asked the Under-Secretary-General. This is a huge agenda that you have posed and one that is the work of many people and many years. Practically speaking, what would you like to see by the time we get to the second Global Dialogue? We are perhaps sitting, if we're invited back, on another panel like this. What would you like to see? What would success what would it look like? How would you know that we were moving forward? Well, the next

one will be 10 months from now, so there's a lot of work to do in less than a year. But I think success in May 2027 in New York would look like, one, having a shared but flexible reference framework for AI governance. I say flexible again, as I've spoken about the context text earlier before, and this reflects on all the regions across the world and giving countries like ours, small states, developing states like Namibia where I'm from, a practical but sovereign template for national legislation and, of course, our institutions. The second one would be visible capacity gains in the Global South. Like I said with the example earlier before, we need more trained regulators, We need more national AI strategies deployed and more cross-regional AI initiatives advancing inclusive growth and resilience, especially for countries that are compounded with AI coming up, but they do not necessarily have the capacity in-country so that there's no— this dependence on other people's capabilities for one's own country. And last, Reflecting on Goal 17 would be partnerships, global partnerships around this dialogue where governments, industry, academia, civil society are regularly exchanging evidence, updating norms, and co-developing open tools that we can use in administrating the use of AI for now and the future. And that the voices of Some are not lesser than others. I'm a government representative, but many instances we depend on all these actors to properly advise policymakers such as myself to genuinely take a listening ear to actually put the necessary safeguards in place to protect citizens. So this is, I think, what success would look like in the next 10 months before we meet in New York in May. Thank you. Thank you. That

is, as you say, a big agenda for 10 months. I don't want to quash your applause, please. And I'm very glad that you raised the question of partnerships. I've already heard many announcements of very exciting new partnerships, and for those that haven't yet, let me encourage you all to take a look at the Partnerships Hub that has been launched as part of this dialogue. There are some Fantastic examples there of exactly what you described, practical coalitions of different stakeholders coming together to solve some of the many, some of the practical problems that have been outlined here today. So it's great to see that those solutions starting to come. Jan, Jan Tallinn, the Future of Life Institute. We've heard, I think, through the dialogue, um, recognition of the, the particular moment that we're in with the, the huge increase in AI's transformative opportunities and capable systems that we, that we are seeing, um, reflected. As you think about that, where, where would you see the greatest need for international cooperation in the face of this rapidly developing industry.

Thank you very much. Indeed, I think it's great to see this kind of awareness throughout the dialogue and like indeed in the world that finally AI is becoming very capable. I certainly see it in my own field of software development. But clearly healthcare sciences, there's so much good that can be done with AI. But I think even the best experts are only now starting to grasp that the progress will actually accelerate from here. The big reason is that the top AI companies are now openly pursuing what's known as self— recursive self-improvement. That is, using their own AI to accelerate the development of AI. Just yesterday, Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, said that their TopModel now did a new world record in one of the crucial tasks of machine learning, the GPU kernel development. Now the problem with this recursive self-improvement is that you're risking losing the control because you're giving machines more and more autonomy. And autonomy that makes those— more in general, more generally, the autonomy that makes these systems useful is also what makes it— makes them harder to control. As the Secretary General said, these systems are actually no longer tools awaiting instruction, and our intuitions and institutions are not ready for machines that decide. And in the worst case, we indeed lose control altogether, as the— and as the panel's report makes it clear, reliable methods for retaining control over highly autonomous AI systems are lacking. But of course, that's not inevitable. The choice, as Secretary General puts it, is between governing by design and drifting by default. Probably drifting in the wind of economic pressure. But in the end, it is the path that we humanity are choosing, and we can choose a better path. Because the reason why we are rushing towards these dangerous thresholds is because of the competitive dynamics driving this AI development. And indeed, even the leaders of the top AI companies now are voicing caution. They are saying that they would like to slow down, but they really can't because of this commercial and geopolitical pressure. And this is where UN and more generally international cooperation can step in to make sure that there is like international pressure to progress at a safe pace so we can actually capture the AI benefits, the increasing capabilities that the increasing capabilities are bringing, and not kind of succumb to this loss of control that's driven by the race., and I think with this dialogue and the scientific panel's independent evidence, the UN, obviously as the most legitimate organization on the planet, is uniquely placed to build that cooperation.

Thank you, thank you, Jan, and looking ahead to the next dialogue, we've heard that there are many risks risks ahead, and particularly, as you've just said, with the developments in the technology, but we've also heard throughout the last few days excitement about innovation and opportunity. How do you think that we should be collectively prioritizing to anticipate those risks, but while also supporting the innovation that we want?

So I think it's— again, it's It's great to have this report because it's easy to just look at it and say that the report points like several key problems that we're going to face. One is that, as I already mentioned, AI capabilities are advancing faster than our ability to govern them. Second, the companies now actually have the highest level of knowledge. They know more, far more about how capable and how safe their systems are really than the governments and the public. And the third, which is like now becoming very clear, uh, most countries, including many advanced economies, lack the technical expertise to assess the most capable AI or have a real say in governing it. And because of these risks are actually cross-borders, even if you don't have a say, you're still going to be subject to the risks. The countries left out or exposed just like everyone else. So kind of preaching the AI divide and governing the risks are not two separate agendas, they're one. I think there's like one way of putting it is that there's like two frontiers that are being pushed. One is making AIs more and more capable, and that's kind of happening behind two gates. One is with what the AI companies are deciding to release And the other is what the host country is kind of enabling, enabling the rest of the world to access. And even the companies themselves, as I mentioned, are kind of trying to go like, help us, let's, let's be more careful here. And the other frontier is basically the AI adoption, diffusion, and actually putting the capabilities into good use. So there is really no dilemma anymore between the dichotomy between innovation and, and and safety, because most of the safety concerns are in the first frontier where the companies are racing into unknown. And most of the innovation and benefits actually come from the second frontier where the companies can— companies and the communities in general can actually tap into those capabilities.

Thank you very much. And in the spirit of the dialogue of dialogues, the title of this session, I think I think bringing what you have said together about the fact that these different issues, although they may sometimes be discussed in different fora, are not at all in contradiction with each other, and Under-Secretary-General Ryder's comment about the UN being the inclusive forum where these things can come together, I think again this speaks very much to what we are all doing in this room today and the value of this forum. So thank you for that. Gaia, coming to you last, Gaia Markus, the director of the Ada Lovelace Institute. We've heard, I think, already from several panelists, from Her Excellency the President of Iceland earlier, the critical importance of inclusion, of public trust, and that has been a recurring theme across the different cluster conversations that have that have been happening in these rooms. What, what practical mechanisms do you think can, can help to ensure that the diverse voices that we need continue to shape AI governance between these two dialogues and beyond?

Thank you.

It is truly an honor to be addressing you all today. In reflecting what we have heard, it strikes me that we cannot understate how historic it is that all UN member States now have a seat at the AI table. And inclusion cannot stop at the level of states. For this dialogue to be legitimate, we need to move from hearing only about the futures that a few companies, investors, or powerful actors want to see, as we have heard, to hearing the hopes, aspirations, and fears of people around the globe as AI becomes intertwined with everyday life. So Embedding trust and inclusion into this dialogue cannot mean treating participation as a side event or a consultation exercise. Trust is built through reliability, responsiveness, integrity, fairness, openness, and above all, accountability. And these are qualities of the governance process itself. So the question becomes, how do we make sure that diverse voices are not just heard, but they truly shape decisions between Geneva and New York in 2027 and then far beyond. So there are two things that we would like to see, to see trust and inclusion really sit as the bedrock of this dialogue. First, we need to treat public participation as a source of evidence. Global AI governance should be shared, as we know, by a shared understanding of evidence. Not only the technical evidence about AI systems, but evidence about how impacts are being experienced by real people across the world. Scientific evidence is essential, but in AI, consensus can take time, and the evidence often lags behind the pace of change. As we heard yesterday, while incredibly laudable in and of itself, the independent scientific This panel gives us the floor of our concern, not the ceiling. And while our focus must be on human rights protecting safe and trusted AI for all, it is often the people most affected by these technologies that are the true experts in their impacts. Workers really understand the effects and implications of automation. The most vulnerable—women, girls, children—are bring lived experience of the hard edges of technologies that are deployed before they are governed and deployed before they are safe. So second, to know that we're making progress on inclusive and trusted AI, participation needs clear docking points into institutions and power. Inclusion of marginalized people and of those who have the most to gain from AI will not automatically lead to trust, and it will not lead to change unless their experiences and expectations are connected to clear levers of power. That means the dialogue must be the place where different mechanisms, be they a citizens' track of affected communities, national and regional dialogues, or participatory instant reporting mechanisms— the dialogue must be the place where these mechanisms contribute to outcomes that have clear accountability. Participation does not just mean collecting or representing views, but making sure that those views shape agendas, evidence priorities, and recommendations. So now, now I'd say is a moment for courage, not a moment to stand in beautiful contemplation of the various problems that we are all aware of. We need to move forward with a shared expectation that this dialogue can set a global AI governance floor. With clarity on what is and what isn't acceptable, with respect for the rule of law, and with the full spectrum of international human rights as its foundation. So for 2027, we need to act decisively, developing an embedded and institutionalized participation architecture around the dialogue that adds substance to a recognized, respected, and defended global governance floor, a floor that complements existing processes but adds a shared global layer, a floor that recognizes lived experience as evidence, gives communities clear routes into decision-making, and creates transparent obligations that the dialogue is accountable for. That is how inclusion moves from being a theme to becoming a governance mechanism, and how public trust becomes something that is earned, not something that is simply asserted. Thank you,

Gaia. Thank you so much. I mean, we've heard from all of you, I think, some recurrent themes and also some very strong directions for the next dialogue. We've heard of the need for a flexible framework, one that can accommodate the rapid changes in technology, the rapid changes in the needs of different countries and communities, and the rapidly evolving field of AI governance itself. We've heard of the need for an inclusive approach, inclusive of all UN member states and inclusive of communities and of those voices that often are not heard in these debates, and of course inclusive of the companies who are developing AI and bringing it through the products to— into people's hands. We've also heard about the need for governance to have a practical application, for the, the linked of a— the link from a broad AI governance conversation to national implementation, to practical changes in people's lives, and of the need to link up the different conversations that are happening around the world, whether those be thematic in terms of addressing specific parts of the agenda— safety, innovation, and so on— or whether they be the conversations that are happening in different fora where not all are represented, although progress and new ideas can be made. So we need, I think, to recognize, as Under-Secretary-General as Michael Ryder said, the critical role here of the UN as the place where all of these different attributes of dialogue can come together. We have a few more minutes, I think, of the panel, so I would like to ask all of you one final wrap-up question. As you have been listening to the conversations, participating in panels, having your— I'm sure your many bilateral conversations over the last few days. What do you think, as we approach the final sessions of this dialogue, what in— well, it says in my script in one word, I might allow you 3 or 4. What do you hope is carried forward from here, from Geneva, to New York when we meet again in May 2027? Let me just start with you, Minister, and go down the row. Okay, thank

you so much, Clare. I think for me, immediate word comes to mind is equity, but another couple of words that comes to mind is collective progress. So equity and collective progress. Thank you.

Thank you. Guy.

Well, certainly agree with both those ideas. But it seems to me from the conversation, you know, that if we are successful in what we are trying to do, advance on the three sort of lines of action which actually flow from the Global Digital Compact, which, you know, gave birth to this dialogue, we need to advance on the governance discussion. It doesn't mean we'll have a fully fledged agreement around governance, The parameters of the things we need to do around governance, as Minister, you said in your first intervention, need to be established. We'll continue to advance our understanding of the science and do our work on capacity building, as the Minister's emphasized. So, to get to your question, it seems to me that we will have been successful, and we will be successful, to the extent that people believe, not just as an abstract proposition, but as their lived experience, as the last speaker said, that AI is beginning to work for them. That the balance of fear, concern in the face of AI, uh, is actually moving towards optimism. Not because people by nature get more hopeful, but because we're able to demonstrate that we are beginning to exercise that process of control, to access, you know, to, to act not just drift towards the futures of AI that we want. So I think it comes around to confidence, but live— not irrational confidence, founded confidence that AI is beginning to work for people. Thank you.

Yeah, urgency, because I think the situation AI is now on an exponential where the developments certainly happen on a quarterly basis. Soon they will be monthly and then weekly. And if the governance continues to work on a yearly basis, there's a problem.

Thank you. Gaia? I think we all know that we've made true progress where we have a shared understanding of evidence that goes beyond the scientific to look at the impact on people and societies. We have a shared understanding of accountability, and we have a shared belief that the UN is the in place drive minimum governance standards that we can all be held to, so that we can all reach the moment. Thank you. I have 5 words from our 4 speakers. They are optimism, progress, equity, urgency, and understanding. That sounds to me like an excellent agenda and aspiration to take forward into our next Global Dialogue, so I thank you all very much for that. Thank you. It now gives me great pleasure to turn back our program to our master of ceremonies, the co-chairs of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance. And giving them a moment to walk onto the stage, let me also add my congratulations to them for a wonderfully organized and stimulating, um, few days and for all of the huge amount of work that I know has been done by them and by their teams, who are also I think in the room, over the intervening few months. I congratulate you on a fantastic dialogue. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Claire. Thank you. Thank you for moderating this important conversation. Organization, but also to your insightful remarks. Definitely, this panel has made clear that the conversation on AI governance cannot end with this dialogue, and the experiences, the ideas shared over the past two days underscore that advancing effective AI governance will require continued collaboration across sectors, regions, and initiatives. And we all have a role to play in carrying these critical messages forward to the next global dialogue. So now we're going to the next part of the segment. We will invite all the thematic clusters co-chairs of the 4 breakout groups to come up to the podium to provide a report back from all the breakout groups. So I kindly invite you to come here. Are we all here? Almost there. Okay, so I have some housekeeping. Guidelines for all of you. Are we okay? One, two, three, and four. Yes? Fantastic. Okay. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to be very efficient in time. And I will ask for your help on this. I know that the discussions were really interesting. I know that you have a lot to say and we're so looking forward to it. And we also have a summary to write, right? So everything will be really, really useful. But now I will give you, each of you, only 2 minutes. Yeah, I heard the sigh, like— so only 2 minutes for each of you. So in total, for each of the thematic clusters, you're going to have 4 minutes. Why are we doing this? It's because, as you know, then we have the possibility to hear back from member states and other stakeholders also on those discussions. And some of the people that we're going to listen after that, they were not able to speak throughout these 2 days. So I kindly ask all of you, dear co-chairs, to help the co-chairs of the global dialogue on this. Are we good? Sounds great. Okay, let us begin with the thematic cluster 1, co-chair Marc Alexandre Doumba, Minister of Digital Economy and Innovation of Gabon, and Rachid Khan, co-founder of Yellow.ai.

Excellencies, distinguished guests, thank you very much. Um, yesterday with my co-chair, Mr. Rashid Khan, our cluster examined AI's opportunities and implications related to social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and technical dimensions, and I'll share with you a few takeaways. The first one is to not race race to be first on AI. Race to use AI wisely. The instinct to compete on speed misses the point. The real contest is who builds the institutions and judgment to deploy AI well, as opposed to who deploys it fastest, even if this can feel counterintuitive in the world that we live in. Second, most of AI's opportunity will come from adapting big AI to small AI. AI today is shaped by Western infrastructure, language, and values, but the cognitive economy only works if we meet people where they are. And that means the frontier isn't getting bigger model, it's about local adaptation that lets an African farmer or a Pacific Island utility operator actually use this technology in their own context. That's where the disproportionate value sits, especially for economy whose knowledge has always been tacit as opposed to codified. The third point relates to the fact that AI is a paradigm shift. It's not business as usual. It doesn't ask us to optimize existing systems. It demands that we redesign them with new incentives, new measures of success. New assumptions about who gets to participate and how. There has never been more capital, talent, technology assembled than today. Yesterday, we agreed that we are only limited by our imagination. Will we use our imagination to distribute this abundance fairly, or let the gap between who builds AI and who benefits from it become decentralized defining inequality. It's really now up to us.

Thank you so much. Fantastic. Thank you, Minister. Rashid.

Excellencies, distinguished—

yeah, please go ahead. Time is precious.

Excellencies, co-chair—

15 seconds more, Rashid, go ahead.

Yeah, distinguished delegates, colleagues, a very good evening to you all. Mrs. Dumba has set out where Cluster 1 is going, and let me share what the room shared yesterday with all of you. Starting with first, access is not the finish line. AI is probably the fastest growing technology in the history of the world, yet access alone does not create prosperity or jobs. Capacity does. Our room's sharpest warning was the biggest risk is that most of the world remain spectators while others capture the value. Second, Strategy is enablement, not a compute race. Digital public infrastructure, the foundation of AI as a literacy for national priority, and serious attention to distribution and workforce transition— getting AI to people and people through the change is where the work real— is the real— is where the real work lies. Third, sovereignty and openness are partners and not really opposites. Local models in local languages on data that belongs to the user, working with frontier models, because in AI, context matters the most, is what we realized. Finally, no citizen wakes up and demands an algorithm from us. They demand a healthier child, a better harvest, a faster way for the governments to respond, and AI is that means to get there. Outcomes are the mandate for all of us today, and those outcomes must be measured honestly, including AI's own footprint across training and inference. So Cluster 1's leaving remarks: we need to create more value than we capture.

Thank you. Thank you, Rashid. That was awesome. Okay, now let's go to Cluster 2.

Thank you. Go ahead.

43 speakers. Pronounced 12,084 words, and three words, three C's have been resonating: capacity, capability, and context. During the discussion of three hours, we mapped some sort of taxonomy or mapping of the digital inclusion gaps and divides. First, access— this is the old one— infrastructure, cables, if I can call it. Funding gap, second one. The third one, participation gap. This is a good example of having louder voices, but we still need louder voices for many communities which are affected by AI. Skills gap, which is also highlighted. Knowledge— knowledge came as an interesting word, mentioned 35 times during the discussion in comparison to data, 63 times. Therefore, knowledge is possibly more important than data in this context. Around the knowledge, there are a few keywords: local creation, co-creation, and local expertise. Again, context, context, context. Language has been mentioned as another gap, trust, standards, and the open source. Therefore, we got some sort of overall mapping of the question of inclusion, gaps, and the need for the second steps. I'm sure that this careful reading of this transcript together with other discussion can lead us to have really focused, creative, and impactful developments triggered by discussion during the Global Dialogue.

I gave you 22 minutes— seconds. Thank you so much.

This divide, we applied on the AI, but it goes beyond that. We applied on the infrastructure, we applied on the connectivity, we applied on the device, we applied on the knowledge. So what needs to be done? We need connectivity. We need electrification. We need investment. This, all this, grab it together will help us to benefit on the AI. So bridging the gap is not only the AI, is going beyond the AI. For our countries, like in West Africa, we are not facing the same situation with around the world if you compare to the US or Asia. For us, we are on the connectivity level. We are on the infrastructure level. We are on the devices level. And to go beyond the AI, we need to fix those challenges. So yesterday discussion was about how to close the gap We applied in our situation where we have connectivity issues, infrastructure issues, knowledge sharing issues. We have people ready to learn. We have people ready to understand. We have people that accept to be teaching. So what we need is all the guys together. We go together, we share knowledge together, we share the platform together. We share everything together. This is the main thing that we can do to close the gap. Thank you. Thank you.

Can I please ask you a round of applause to Jovan Curvalija, Executive Director of Diplo Foundation, and Minister of Communications and Telecommunications of Digital of Senegal, His Excellency Samba Diouf. Thank you so much for this. Okay, now let's go to thematic cluster 3. Can I hear from Minister Bogantes and also Rebecca? Thank you.

Today's discussion confirmed that effective AI governance does not require every country to follow the same model. It requires us to connect different approaches while respecting national context, regulatory autonomy, and different levels of institutional capacity. Several key messages that I would like to highlight. First, AI governance must become adaptive. Adaptive static rules, sorry, will not be sufficient for systems that are even more autonomous, interconnected, and capable of acting across multiple steps. Second, interoperability must become practical. This requires common definitions, shared technical standards, and clearer links between legal requirements, technical control, and evidence of compliance. Third, cooperation must move from principle to implementation. Cross-border regulatory sandboxes, shared evaluation methods, and incident reporting mechanisms that can help countries test system, learn from failures, and prevent repeated harms. Fourth, trust requires transparency, independent evaluation, and accountability throughout the AI system's life, especially when AI systems affect access to healthcare, education, employment, credit, public services, and democratic participation. Fifth, global evaluation frameworks must reflect linguistic, cultural, and demographic diversity. Countries and communities currently underrepresented must help shape the benchmarks and evidence used to evaluate AI systems. And finally, as agentic AI systems gain greater autonomy, responsibility must remain clearly assigned across developers, deployers, and operators. Traceability and meaningful human oversight must ensure that autonomy never becomes an accountability gap. Thank you very much.

Dear co-chairs, First and most importantly, I want to assure you we dialogued. We dialogued so much that I cannot begin to cover the additional comments building on those excellent summary remarks from my co-chair. I'll give you 4 priorities and related actions that came out of them. First, strengthen the independent scientific evidence base. The scientific panel's report informs the dialogue. It is crucial that we support it, that we cohere the body of evidence already gathered, link it up between the UN, the State of Safety Reports globally, and the international network of AI safety institutes. And one recommendation we received was to think about how we align the 7 working groups of the scientific panel to better inform directly the 4 dialogue clusters in the next dialogue. Second, develop a shared minimum baseline for interpretability that builds on existing global frameworks and reinforces trust and openness. As my co-chair said, we have global commitments in place. We have, uh, the Hiroshima Process, international law, human rights frameworks, the body of pledges from the AI summits. Now we need to open that with more open benchmarks, verification, independent testing, making sure that models reflect linguistic ethnic diversity, open science, and technical standards. The UN Dialogue could be the place where that coherence happens, and we could dig into some of those challenges that are required for full equity and inclusion. Third, create continuity between the dialogues to advance progress. The work must continue after today. And fourth, finally, we heard— and I could not agree more— that multi-stakeholder Participation is not a nice to have, it is necessity moving forward. The next few years are critical in shaping the future of AI. Let us make sure to take this opportunity to act together. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Minister Bogantes, and also Rebecca for this important wrap-up. Okay, now let's go with thematic cluster 4. We're going to hear from Linda Bondio. Founder and CEO of Lawyers of Africa. Linda, you were also with the Minister of Spain that couldn't join us, but you will be speaking on behalf of two, so please go ahead. Excellent.

I'm speaking on behalf of the minister who's headed to Spain to celebrate his win last night, and we had a really good time dialoguing and talking about football, and tonight, you know what's going to happen to Switzerland.

We did have conversations spanning from children. We think that it's agreeable that we must protect children, but too, there was consensus that children aren't homogeneous. We have immigrant children, disabled children that we must take care of in this age. Number 2, we talked about financing human rights. How do we finance human rights in the digital age?

Many civil society organizations or organizations just do not have the funding anymore.

In this room, there are fewer civil society organizations this time.

We must look at disruptive and new ways to do that.

Number 3, we talked about AI workers and who's missing in the room. We did not have voices from the AI workers.

And for the fourth reason that I'm going to talk about, we spoke at length on why there is little participation from the Global North.

We agree with the evidence from the scientific panel that AI governance globally is being run by a few states. The power is concentrated there, and we know why.

It is because of visa refusals.

Last—

the last 6 months, 51% of conversations on AI governance happened in Geneva. The visa refusal rates for Africa— Africa accounts for 7 out of 10 visa refusal rates.

I can mention Frida Mwangi, an AI worker, Marian Benecker, from the Commonwealth, they could not make it here today because of visa refusals. We think that it is time that we open up that black box.

There must be transparency and accountability for the AI systems that are being used to determine visa refusals.

We also think that—

this is my personal view, it wasn't from the group—

but we need an AI passport.

It must be easy for people to move when they want to invest in AI they want to take part in AI governance.

We should not pay for visas to come here. The average African has spent €2,500 to get to this place.

Some of you spent only €200. We must rectify those to ensure that the Global South participates.

We also talked about linguistic diversity and community. Let's build for communities.

We talked about Zimbabwe and Ubuntu. Zimbabwe's national AIDS strategy talks about Ubuntu, that we must look at ourselves as a community and not look at human rights violations as something that happens to the other side, but it happens to all of us. We also talked about diaspora and those that are immigrants and refugees, what happens in terms of this particular, you know, violations that are happening.

We also dialogued on artists. That you need to put artists first, musicians and creative, because we sang before we spoke.

We also talked about legal certainty. We need some legal certainty around this because rules are changing every single day, but the law must be able to be predictive in this sense. And finally, we also talked about information integrity.

What about democracy? And that's something that, you know, maybe we're dancing around it,. But we need to talk about AI and democracy and what an information ecosystem would look like. I'd also— I have 35 seconds, thank you. I'd also want to, you know, talk about the general sentiment in the room around what to do with algorithmic management and how to domesticate and implement all these principles that we talk about globally. Lawyers Hub launched an AI Governance Index for Africa..

And what we are seeing everywhere is that states will sign these treaties but do not domesticate them in their country.

ILO just passed, you know, I think 193, you need to read it up, on decent work for these AI workers that are crying every day on algorithmic management.

It is time that states support and ratify these conventions to be part of their domestic law.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Linda. Thank you to the co-chairs of the thematic discussions. I kindly ask you to stay here while we hear from member states and stakeholders about their own reflections as well. So we will move to the interventions from the floor. As you know, this was based on prior inscriptions. Please come up to the lectern when your name is called, but before that, For those speaking on behalf of a stakeholder, can you kindly go to my right here to the secretariat to identify yourself? Having said that, I pass to my co-chair who will be guiding us, and we will follow the same dynamic as the others to ensure fairness and also allow full participation. The mic will be automatically cut off.

Co-chair. Yes, let's go, let's move forward. So, but before I give the floor to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechia, I would like to say that whether you would be able to speak or not, we really ask you, please do not forget to send your statements, valuable statements, to the email address ai-dialog@osce.org. @un.org. Thank you very much. So, first speaker, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechia.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair, and good evening, everyone. It's my great pleasure to speak within this plenary. I really appreciate the dialogue with the different stakeholders, and it was one of my top priorities during my UN ECOSOC presidency. The Czech Republic welcomes the publication of the first report on the independent international scientific panel on AI. Artificial intelligence has enormous potential to drive innovation, economic growth, and societal resilience. Realizing this potential will depend not only on the rules we set, but also on our ability to develop talent, research capacity, and expand advanced computing capabilities. Building these capacities should therefore be an integral part of the global AI agenda. The Czech Republic is actively contributing to Europe's AI ecosystem through the Czech AI Factory, part of a growing European network supporting AI research, innovation, and access to advanced computing capabilities. As we discuss the future of AI governance, we should focus on interoperability rather than fragmentation. Different countries and regions will pursue different approaches, but we should work towards shared principles and compatibility that facilitate international cooperation education, innovation, research, and trade, including through technical standards. A human-centric approach focusing on the needs and perspectives of human beings must remain at the heart of AI development and use, ensuring that people and their rights remain central throughout the lifecycle of AI systems. At the same time, AI governance must remain inclusive and multi-stakeholder. Public trust in AI depends on transparency, accountability, and meaningful human oversight. AI governance requires global cooperation. The United Nations has an important role as a universal platform bringing together governments, international organizations, the private sector, academia, the technical community, and civil society. Companies developing and deploying AI systems also bear a key responsibility for ensuring that these technologies are used safely and responsibly.

I thank Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechia, Next speaker is Diplo Tech Solutions, Nafessa Alshala.

Thank you. Madam Co-Chair, Mr. Co-Chair, Excellencies, and distinguished delegates. I'm honored to speak on behalf of the biotech solutions. To ensure this historic global dialogue succeeds, we must urgently move from abstract ethics to a functional inclusive framework. Today, a widening technical literacy gap risks turning the Global South into passive rule-takers rather than active rule-makers of the digital age. To prevent a digital Iron Curtain, DiploTech Solutions urges this dialogue to prioritize 3 immediate actions. First, we must institutionalize regularity harmonization. We need a common diplomatic language and shared ethical red lines between major frameworks. Such as the EU AI Act and the African Union's AI strategy to eliminate regularity havens for unethical AI. Second, we must democratize technical expertise. True inclusion requires concrete capacity building through a global AI— through global AI capacity fund and decentralized trisectoral diplomatic hubs where diplomats, private innovators, and civil society co-design policy. Finally, we must address the critical emerging blind spots: the environmental cost of the large compute systems, the threat of synthetic content to information integrity, and crucially, the protection of global data centers, recognizing them as a critical non-military infrastructure. I think the unique value of this UN-mandated platform is its universal legitimacy. So let's utilize it to ensure that the Global South has an equal seat as architects, not just consumers of the global AI governance. Thank you so much.

I thank the distinguished representative of Foundry. Next speaker is State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery of Austria.

Excellencies, Dear colleagues, distinguished guests, yesterday I came to this dialogue with one clear conviction: the world needs a binding framework for the use of AI. Having listened to governments, scientists, industry, and civil society from every region, I can say this: that message has only grown stronger. We heard about the opportunities AI brings in health, education, agriculture, productivity, and many other fields. We also heard about the risks to human rights and to democracy. Both are real. Managing both at once is exactly why voluntary guidelines are not enough. Good intentions do not stop harm. Rules do. Austria's own experience shows that responsible AI use is possible without slowing down innovation. For examples, first, our GAFGPT platform already serves 180,000 public servants. Second, our digital skills initiative has reached thousands of citizens with free training. Third, our new minimum age of 14 for social media protects our children while keeping Austria open to technological progress. Fourth, and our European Charter on Digital Sovereignty proves that 27 countries can agree on shared digital rules very fast. If Europe can do this, the world can too. So as this dialogue concludes, Austria's call is: we need a global framework for AI governance. The joint understanding that human rights apply at all stages, built on common principles, backed by real safeguards, including every country in this room, also those not yet fully at the table. This is not about slowing, slowing AI down. It is about making sure AI serves the people, not just where regulation happens to be strong. Austria stands ready to keep building this framework together with all of you. Thank you so much.

I thank our distinguished representative of Austria. Next speaker is UN-Habitat Executive Director.

Thank you, co-chairs, excellencies, distinguished delegates. As executive director of UN-HABTAT, I would like to emphasize that cities and local governments are where artificial intelligence is already being applied every day. They make decisions that directly affect people's lives and generate crucial evidence for AI policymaking. Yet despite this reality, they remain largely absent from global AI governance deliberations. This matters because AI must respond to the realities cities face today. Yet AI is only inclusive as the data on which it is built. In many cities, people living in informal settlements and other vulnerable communities remain underrepresented or entirely absent from official data sets. If these gaps are not addressed, AI risks reinforcing existing inequalities by overlooking those who are most in need of housing services and public investments. We are confronting a global housing crisis with 3 billion people lacking access to adequate and affordable housing and 1 billion people living in informal settlements, and AI can help cities address these challenges. This is precisely why I am pleased to share that together with ITU Secretary-General Doreen Martin, I signed a joint invitation to United Nations entities to participate in the United Nations Pavilion at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2026 in Barcelona. The initiative also marks the 10th anniversary of the United for Smart Sustainable Cities initiative and includes the launch of the Working Group on Guiding Principles and Frameworks for People-Centered Smart Cities in the AI Era, joint-led by UN-HABTAT and ITU under this initiative. The Working Group will co-develop a people-centered smart cities toolbox to support policymakers, city leaders, and practitioners in designing and implementing human-centered digital transformation strategies. Looking ahead, UN-Habitat can help ensure that cities' perspectives, particularly from rapidly urbanizing regions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Arab states, are reflected in the global dialogue through our regional and country offices. Through the Mayors' Alliance for Digital Cooperation, in collaboration with ODET and partners of the Global Urban Data Coalition, and by leveraging the World Urban Forum, this 14th session in Mexico City in 2028. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of UN-Habitat. Next speaker is Her Excellency Ximena Lincoln Lau, Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of Chile.

Excellencies, authorities, and representatives, in conclusion of this dialogue, there is a conviction which is very clear: the challenges presented by AI cannot be addressed in a silo fashion. We need common standards and strategic partnerships which are able to connect the competitive advantages across all our countries. This conversation— there are at least 5 conclusions that have emerged. The first is the urgency AI is rapidly evolving that no one was expecting. Countries who have to act decisively and can broaden the capacities for their citizens and therefore modernize their economies. Secondly is that we still have agency. AI is human creativity. Whilst there is more opportunities that citizens have in order to understand and use AI, then we'll have better capacity to gear the ethics around this. Also, self-governance informs societies and to act towards crafting policies. AI is not only a technology but also critical infrastructure. Therefore, its governance requires systemic vision which includes digital and the physical. Technological policy is also policy and energy and around industry as well. Talent. We have to invest in continuing capital to have entrepreneurship programs such as the one that Switzerland has also deployed. Also, these days have shown us that compute is one of the drivers for the new industry. Chile looks at this very optimistically, and there has to be responsibility to have renewable energies that are abundant and technical capacities which allow us to have an ideal society for this new stage. We'd like to thank you for being able to— for us to be able to participate in this dialogue and we have to move from intention to action. This—

Minister of Chile. Next speaker is CEO of current AI.

Good evening. We are at a very unique moment in time where, surprisingly, government and consumers and businesses are all— all have consensus. Consensus that AI cannot be concentrated in the hands of the few AI must be sovereign, and AI must serve all of humanity. But the question is, how do we build this AI in the public interest? Not how do we govern it, not how do we control it, but how do we build AI in the public interest? We already have models of international technical collaboration by looking at history. The World Wide Web, the other transformative technology of modern times, was built through an international technical collaboration. Linux, which powers 95% of servers in the world, was built through international technical collaboration. I'm the CEO of Current AI. We are a nonprofit public-private partnership whose sole mission is to build public interest AI, but our goal is not to build it ourselves entirely. Our goal is to see what others have built, have put in the public domain, and then invest in the connective tissue in between these tools and components in order to stitch together an end-to-end vertically integrated AI stack. We are a public-private partnership, meaning we have government partners, we have non-philanthropy partners, and we have private sector partners who all are invested in building different components of the technical AI stack. AI stack. All over the world, there are thousands and thousands of builders, of governments, of nonprofits, of companies that are creating building blocks for an open-source AI stack. Datasets, foundation models, evaluation toolkits, benchmark systems. The problem is that they are not stitched together and they are not interoperable. So that is what we are investing in. We've surveyed over 24,000 of these tools and components all over the world. We've identified the gaps and now we're starting to work. And this is not theoretical. On Thursday, we'll be launching the MVP of the first example of an open, completely open, public and sovereign chatbot made entirely out of open source components that exist. This requirement of international technical collaboration that AI demands of us right now cannot happen through traditional collaboration, through MOUs and lawyers. We have to collaborate at the speed of AI, and open code bases offer us this ability. If the chatbot I was telling you about, the foundation model is from Switzerland, the compute comes from Finland, the datasets are coming from India, the safety safeguards are coming from a nonprofit in the US, privacy-preserving dataset platform is coming from another nonprofit. It's only about stitching them together.

I thank distinguished representative of Current.AI. Next speaker is Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russian Federation. Excellencies, distinguished guests, you may need your headphones for next couple minutes because if you don't know Russian so far.

Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, artificial intelligence is changing the rules of the game. Companies and countries deploying AI are receiving tangible benefits. However, access to frontier technologies are not universal. The key players are the developers of models, cloud providers, the producers of chips, and these players sometimes apply restrictions. As a result, some get exclusive access, whereas others face obstacles. Russia has a full technical chain to create advanced models without needing to use any foreign components. We have two large language models, GigaChat and YandexGPT. We've also trained deep models based on national values and our history and traditions. We are ready to share our experience with other countries to respect their cultural codes and cultural specificities. What's important is that we will not be scraping and not be using this data to— for our benefit. That is a decision of principle. On top of large language models, we have a whole specter of classical technologies, face recognition, medicine, biometrics, and others. We are ready to work as partners to elaborate projects with all countries present. We are working with other countries, and this kind of common initiatives gives access to instruments, to open models, and to shape common standards. Colleagues, this reduces the risk that AI will be the privilege of a small circle of people. Russia is ready for collaboration.

Thank you.

I thank the Honourable Deputy Minister of Russian Federation. Next speaker is Head of Alive Research Group, Sheikh Hamidou Kana, Digital University.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Allow me to build on the statement delivered this morning— this afternoon by Senegal. As one of the co-facilitators of the UN broad global network of centers for exchange and cooperation on AI capacity building. I have had the privilege of working over the past months with outstanding institutions from every region to translate the vision of the Global Digital Compact and the Secretary General's recommendation into a practical mechanism for international cooperation. What makes this initiative unique is that it is not creating another institution. It is connecting existing centers of excellence into a collaborative network where countries can exchange expertise, share knowledge, develop talent, strengthen national AI ecosystems, and support one another according to their respective strengths. In only a few months, participating centers have jointly developed a cooperation framework that defines common principles, governance arrangement, and priority areas for collaboration, including AI skills development, access to compute and data, support for national AI strategies, local innovation ecosystem, and the sharing of practical AI solutions. This demonstrates an important lesson: global AI capacity building cannot be delivered through funding alone. It also requires trusted partnership, peer learning, and long-term institutional cooperation. The Network is therefore designed as a platform where governments, universities, research institutions, the private sector, and philanthropic organizations can combine the comparative advantages to accelerate AI capacity worldwide. As AI continues to evolve at unprecedented speeds, the question is no longer whether we should invest in capacity building, but whether we can do so collectively and at sufficient scale. We therefore warmly invite member states to nominate centers of excellence to join this growing community And we encourage development partners, philanthropic organizations, and industry to contribute expertise, infrastructure, and resources so that every country can become an active participant, not merely a consumer, in the AI era. Finally, I would like to thank the United Nations Office of Digital Emerging and Technology for its continued support throughout this process. We look forward to working with all member states as the network enters its operational phase. Thank you.

I thank the honorable head of the Lai Research Group. Next speaker is Vice President of the Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, Romania takes the floor in a spirit that has long defined our diplomatic tradition: the conviction that no era of transformation should be governed by force or by fortune alone, but by shared values. Nicolae Titulescu, former Romanian MFA and the longest-standing President of the League of Nations Assembly, One of the architects of the interwar international order taught us that peace should not be only asserted, it should be also organized. AI is our generation's test of the same principle, and it is the work of organizing, not merely asserting, that brings us to this room. Romania comes forward with a single guiding proposition: when it comes to AI, We must be pro-innovation and responsible at the same time. These are not competing instincts, but the same duty seen from two sides. So how do we anchor these instincts? Through main point— three main points. First, we need to encourage a human-centric transition. The move to an economy shaped by AI must be not allowed to leave the most vulnerable behind. Progress that concentrates its rewards and distributes only its disruptions is not progress. It's instability postponed. We therefore need a deliberate transition architecture through retraining and pathways into the new jobs this technology creates. Fortunately, this is not only a task for governments alone. We salute private actors investing in free cross-sector training credentials and seek to scale this model through multi-stakeholder cooperation.

Second, we believe in restraint where the stakes are the gravest.

We therefore warmly welcome the bilateral dialogue underway between leading AI powers, and we hope to see them deepen. Where the destructive potential of AI is greatest, human judgment must remain sovereign, and restraint must be a matter of principle, not merely of prudence. Third, protection of the children. This is one of the most important things. AI increasingly shapes what children see, learn, and are exposed to online, and we need to protect them above all. Romania believes that AI race not— should not be settled only by those who train the most capable front models. Romania pleads for an approach that balances opportunity with risk and that keeps the door open for every country to be co-authors of this age, not their spectators. Titușescu warned that peace must be organized, and so this must be organized. I thank you, and I encourage to shape the new era in the way that Mr. Titulescu.

I thank the distinguished Vice President of the Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications. Thank you all for— thank you, thank you to all of our distinguished speakers and to everyone who participated in this very rich exchange. Your contributions have truly brought the spirit of this session to life, giving the real meaning to its title, Dialogue of Dialogues. Special thanks to fellow co-chairs of thematic sessions. Many, many thanks for your contribution and for your efforts. And before we move to the closing ceremony, May I ask all of you to stand up and we will do a family photo first before you leave. Thank you.

Okay, we are now at our final session for the day. So to begin with this ceremony, can I invite back to the podium Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary-General for Policy, Thomas Lamonauskas, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, Maria Gabriel, ADD of UNESCO, And Amandeep Singh Gill, USG and a special envoy for digital and emerging technologies. Congratulations.

Excellencies, colleagues, friends, as we bring this first Global Dialogue on AI Governance to a close,— it is worth pausing to acknowledge what has been achieved here. We have not simply convened the meeting. Together, we have helped establish a new global platform, with UN convening power for global cooperation, on one of the defining issues of our time. More than 4,200 registered participants from 1,800 entities —representing nearly 170 Member States—heads of states and government, ministers, international organizations, civil society, academia, the technical community, and the private sector. Impressive. What has stood out is not only the breadth of participation, it is the depth. This dialogue began with evidence. The Independent International Scientific Panel handed us its first report, the minimum consensus of 40 leading international experts who answered only to the evidence. The message was sobering. Capabilities are advancing faster than our ability to verify and govern them, and many countries still lack the capacity to test, audit, or oversee these systems. But the message was also clear: the benefits The challenges are real in health, in science, in food security, and the harms are not hypothetical. They are happening now to real people, including children. The panel asked us not to wait for certainty before acting. We have heard them. Across our 4 clusters, a common thread emerged. The gap we face today is not a gap of ambition principles. It is a gap of practical mechanisms. In, in one room after another, delegations moved past abstraction towards implementation. National AI strategies and agencies, legal frameworks, safeguards for minors, teachers' training, public sector capacity. We heard that the AI divide is not only about access to technology, but about the capacity to shape, govern, and benefit from it. That capacity building must mean co-creation, not consumption. That only a fraction of the world's 7,000 languages have the foundations for meaningful inclusion in AI. That environmental sustainability is a co-governance question, not a side topic. And that children, The fastest adopters of this technology must be protected by design, not taken as an afterthought. This morning carried these threads further. Our discussions on safe, secure, and trustworth AI returned to where this dialogue began: the scientific evidence base and its role in shaping safety frameworks through a shared minimum baseline and common technical standards. Our conversations on human rights, set our priorities for the years ahead, including independent justice systems that keep AI accountable to humans and the protection of children's rights. And in the Dialogue of Dialogues that just concluded, we drew these many conversations into one, reflecting on convergence, complementarity, and mutual learning across this dialogue. So taken together, this confirms that WEF Dialogue has shown throughout. Approaches may differ, but there is a shared recognition of a need for international cooperation and of the value of a common space where differences can be expressed constructively. No single country, company, or institution can govern this technology alone. Multilateralism here is not optional. This is not the end of the process. It is the beginning of one. We look ahead to the continuation of a global dialogue in 2027, and we take with us a challenge issued in this very building to arrive there not with restated principles, but with named, supported, and result-oriented commitments. In the meantime, the work does not pause. The richness of these discussions provides substantial material for the co-chair's summary, which must reflect faithfully both the convergence and the diversity of views expressed. We will undertake this task with care, in the spirit of transparency and responsibility that had guided us this dialogue. Let me conclude with sincere appreciation to Secretary-General Guterres and President Baerbock for their leadership and trust, to my fellow co-chair Ambassador López, to the Joint Secretariat co-coordinated by ITU and UNESCO, and to every participant who gave their time, expertise, and conviction to this process. And special thanks go to our teams. To Greta, Robert, and Walter, who worked for 249 days and quite many nights, I can tell you, so that this dialogue would happen. Many thanks. And one of our discussions offered a simple measure of success. It was repeated, by the way, here. Not who uses AI first, but who uses it wisely, as also President Karis of Estonia mentioned. So, jobs created, languages served, communities included, children protected. We leave this room with no illusion that the work ahead is simple. But we leave with something equally important: proof that meaningful cooperation on AI governance is not only necessary but possible. At the opening, I expressed the hope that this dialogue might spark a San Francisco moment for AI, and we as co-chairs did our best to gather you here, and we have created the platform, and I think that we can all feel the momentum here. So it is now It is yours to carry this work forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, co-chair. I guess just building on what you said, it's also important to recognize, as we also have been hearing throughout these two days, that there is a growing ecosystem of different initiatives, institutions, and communities that each contribute to valuable perspectives on AI governance. The task of this dialogue is not to replace these valuable efforts, but to connect them and to build greater understanding, identify the complementarities, and strengthen cooperation across this evolving and rich ecosystem. So this AI dialogue has been an important milestone along that path. And I completely agree with you that this conversation here should not end today, because the ideas that we have shared in this room should inform national strategies, regional initiatives, also the international organizations, standard bodies, technical communities, and other AI governance processes around the world. And the relationships built here should continue to grow. The partnerships formed here should continue to deliver practical cooperation. And the true measure of this first dialogue will not be only what we listen, what we heard, it will be what we choose to do once we leave it. We hope that the spirit of openness, mutual respect, and shared purpose that has characterized these discussions will continue to inspire cooperation well beyond Geneva. And we look forward to building on this work together when we meet again for the second UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in May 2027. So let me repeat: what we have built here is not a conclusion, it is a foundation. Just a few moments ago during the governmental segment, I heard the representative of a small country say, "We are here not to be a footnote." That thought has stayed with me because ultimately this dialogue has been about ensuring that every country, every institution, every stakeholder has the opportunity not only to be heard but to shape our collective future. And I really hope that we will have more time to listen all of the speakers. But the responsibility we now share is to carry this work forward, each from our own governments, institutions, organizations, and communities. So on behalf of the both co-chairs, I would like to thank each and every one of you. To you, every participant both here and online, and those who made it to Geneva just for this occasion. Also to every leader from government, industry, civil society, academia, technical community, and international organizations that join us. Every speaker, every moderator, every co-chair, every colleague working behind the scenes, thank you. Your commitment has made this first dialogue, I believe, a success. And also allow me to express our appreciation to the members of the independent International Scientific Panel on AI. Your expertise, commitment, and willingness to engage throughout this dialogue have enriched our discussions. Sound governance must be informed by sound science, and your contribution will continue to be invaluable as this process moves forward. Also, I have to say once again a big thank you to the Joint Secretariat, to the Secretary-General, to PGA Baerbock, and also to the Joint Secretariat, ITU, UNESCO, supported by Odette and also by Guy Ryder and the Office of the Secretary-General. Thank you to you, you're representing here, but also to all of your teams that help us throughout this process. Thank you very much. Now, now you can put your headsets. I'd also like to dedicate some very special words to the extraordinary teams of Estonia and El Salvador. 102— these are two missions which are quite small, But they have shouldered enormous responsibility with such professionalism, with generosity, and with extreme patience, and with a true exceptional commitment to the cause. This dialogue would not have been possible without these people. So thank you so much. Thank you for believing in this process. Thank you for working with us and to really dedicating yourself to the task. Allow me to conclude with a more personal reflection, if I may. It has been a true privilege to co-chair this process. During these months, I've had an opportunity to get to know extremely amazing people throughout the world with experiences and different priorities. But united towards a genuine commitment to put AI to the service of humanity. And more than anything, this leaves me with such hope. And if you'll allow me, on behalf of the two co-chairs, I'd all like to express our deepest gratitude to our families. They have walked this path with us with these endless days, long nights, constant traveling. Edede. This work has required a lot of time from us, so thank you to our families for your patience and for your unconditional support. Thus, with these closing words, allow us to now close The first global dialogue on AI. Thank you very much, one and all, for your participation, and we wish you a very safe journey home, and we look forward to meeting you in 2027. Thank you.

Congratulations. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, thanks once again for all the participants and of course our excellent co-chairs. We'd like to highlight to you that conversation isn't over. It continues throughout Geneva Digital Week, and we invite you to join the AI for Good Global Summit and the Wissensforum 2026, where the international community will continue exploring how digital technologies and artificial intelligence Intelligence can advance sustainable development and benefit for all. And now we must ask you, unfortunately, to leave the room, to clear the room and clear the building as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we've run over time and it has to be prepared for the next event. So many thanks, wishing you a productive and inspiring week ahead, and thank you for your participation.