The U.N. General Assembly has formally established two new global bodies to oversee the governance of artificial intelligence, a landmark move aimed at navigating a fractured geopolitical landscape and intense competition among major powers.
Passed by consensus among the 193 member countries on Tuesday, the resolution creates an Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and a Global Dialogue on AI Governance. The initiative is seen by proponents as a crucial win for multilateralism in a field dominated by national interests and the unilateral actions of private tech companies.
The resolution, the first-ever standalone text of its kind on AI negotiated at the General Assembly, is intended to forge international norms for a technology with the power to reshape the global economy and modern warfare. Its passage follows months of intense negotiations and builds on previous, less formal U.N. efforts to address AI.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres's spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said the scientific panel will serve as "a crucial bridge between cutting-edge AI research and policymaking," while the global dialogue will provide "an inclusive platform" for all members to debate critical issues. The Secretary-General is expected to begin an open call for nominations to the 40-member panel of experts soon.
The panel is loosely based on the Nobel Prize-winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is intended to serve as an authoritative, impartial voice. According to the resolution, the panel's work will be limited to non-military AI applications. The resolution itself focuses on promoting "safe, secure, and trustworthy" AI systems and stresses the need to protect human rights and personal data.
The Global Dialogue is scheduled to hold its first session next year in Geneva, a hub for international tech governance. Costa Rica's U.N. Ambassador Maritza Chan-Valverde, who helped oversee the discussions, called the vote a historic moment, as the world now "stands as a historic juncture for multilateral cooperation on artificial intelligence."
Chan-Valverde said the resolution establishes "the first two pillars of a new multilateral architecture on artificial intelligence." She detailed the two new mechanisms: a scientific panel to help the international community "better understand the risks, benefits and implications of this technology" and a global dialogue where countries and stakeholders can exchange views and foster responsible governance.
Since the rapid development of AI affects "all countries across the globe," she emphasized, the resolution reaffirms the U.N.'s central role in ensuring that AI will serve humanity and "help bridge the digital divide." She urged nations to "stand united and make this technological revolution a catalyst for a new era of multilateral cooperation."
However, the new bodies will face a formidable challenge in harmonizing the divergent regulatory approaches of major nations, from the market-driven stance of the U.S. to the E.U.'s rights-based framework and China's state-centric model. Critics have long argued that the U.N.'s slow-moving, consensus-driven processes may struggle to keep pace with the rapid innovation of AI. Moreover, the lack of an enforcement mechanism for any norms or standards created by the new bodies could limit their impact.
The resolution calls for international cooperation to address the digital divide and provide capacity-building to developing countries to ensure they can participate in and benefit from the AI revolution. For businesses, the initiative introduces both potential opportunities and risks. While a harmonized global regulatory environment could simplify compliance, it may also lead to stringent new rules that could stifle innovation.
