United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that artificial intelligence is being deployed faster than governments, regulators and even developers can keep up.
Speaking on Monday at the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, Guterres urged countries to work towards globally aligned rules for AI, warning that the technology is already powerful enough to reshape economies, influence elections, change work and affect security.
“A technology that can reshape economies, transform the world of work, sway elections and tilt the balance of security is being deployed faster than anyone, including the people building it, can keep up,” Guterres told delegates, according to Reuters.
Guterres Calls for AI Guardrails
The two-day meeting in Geneva is the first government-level global dialogue on AI governance hosted by the UN. It isn’t intended to produce a treaty. Instead, it’s designed to give governments and other stakeholders a shared space to discuss how AI should be governed as the technology moves deeper into business, public life and national security.
“Innovation needs guardrails,” Guterres said. “If AI is to be powerful, it must be governed.”
The UN says the dialogue exists because no country can manage AI’s risks or opportunities alone. Its stated aim is to make sure AI governance reflects the priorities of all nations, not only the most technologically advanced ones. The first session is taking place on 6 and 7 July 2026 in Geneva, with a second session planned for New York in May 2027.
The dialogue will cover AI’s social, economic, ethical, cultural, linguistic and technical implications. It will also look at safe and trustworthy AI systems, human rights, transparency, accountability and the need for human oversight.
UN-Backed Panel Warns of Fast-Moving Risks
Delegates in Geneva are expected to consider a preliminary report from the UN-backed Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence.
The panel includes 40 experts from across the world and is described as the first global, independent scientific assessment of AI’s risks and opportunities. A fuller report is expected next year.
The preliminary report warns that AI capabilities are moving faster than scientific understanding and government policy. That creates a difficult problem for policymakers. They need strong evidence to regulate AI properly, but the evidence is struggling to keep pace with how quickly the technology is changing.
Reuters reported that the panel highlighted several risks, including more autonomous AI systems, deceptive AI behaviour, misinformation, fraud, cyberattacks and possible biological threats.
The report also raised concerns about countries’ ability to assess advanced AI systems. Many governments lack the technical expertise needed to evaluate the most capable models or help shape how they’re governed, leaving them dependent on systems they may not fully understand or control.
AI Benefits Still Central to UN Talks
The UN panel didn’t present AI only as a threat. Its report also said the technology could bring major benefits to countries and communities around the world.
The report found that AI is already showing expert-level reasoning in areas such as mathematics and science. It’s also helping accelerate drug and vaccine development, while task complexity is reportedly doubling every four to seven months.
But the panel warned that benefits and risks are developing together. AI adoption is growing quickly, but unevenly, across countries and sectors. Reuters reported that more than a billion people now use conversational AI each week, while adoption in developing countries still lags.
The report also pointed to concentration in AI development. Reuters said the United States accounts for 75 per cent of the computing power among the world’s top 500 AI supercomputers, while China accounts for 15 per cent.
Global AI Rules Remain Fragmented
The Geneva meeting comes as governments around the world continue to take different approaches to AI regulation.
Some countries have moved ahead with formal rules, while others are still relying on voluntary guidance, industry commitments or sector-specific oversight. For the UN, that fragmentation is part of the problem. AI systems don’t stay neatly inside national borders, and neither do their impacts.
Guterres has warned before that the world “cannot govern what it cannot understand”. On Monday, his message was more direct: AI is already moving into areas that affect economies, work, elections and security. The rules are still catching up.
The UN’s Global Dialogue on AI Governance is meant to create a more inclusive forum for that discussion. Whether it leads to firmer international rules remains unclear. For now, the UN is trying to establish a shared starting point before the gap between AI development and AI governance gets even wider.
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