The United Nations (UN) High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence (AI) emphasizes the need for a global approach to regulating AI, recognizing its widespread impact across borders. The advisory body was formally established in October 2023 to analyze AI’s international governance and has since published a report detailing how AI’s development and deployment concentrate power and wealth globally, raising geopolitical and geo-economic concerns.
Given that no entity fully comprehends AI’s capabilities or consequences, the body stresses that national governments alone cannot regulate AI effectively, advocating for global cooperation to mitigate its risks and ensure responsible governance.
The advisory body presents several recommendations to address the gaps in current AI governance. These include forming an independent international scientific panel on AI, with diverse experts contributing voluntarily, and hosting regular intergovernmental policy dialogues on AI governance.
It also proposes the creation of an AI standards panel to track definitions and standards and the establishment of a global AI fund to address the AI divide. Furthermore, a global AI data framework is suggested to foster local AI ecosystems by encouraging responsible data stewardship and exchange mechanisms, promoting equitable development.
UN Advisory Body Calls for Global AI Regulation to Address Power Concentration and Cross-Border Impacts
Professor Wendy Hall, a member of the advisory body, highlights the inadequacy of current efforts to establish AI governance, underscoring the need for a global approach to avoid harmful societal impacts.
Hall emphasizes that while AI has the potential to address challenges in health, energy, food production, and education, its unregulated development poses risks. She hopes the advisory body’s report will spark meaningful discussions about creating governance structures that ensure AI benefits humanity as a whole, rather than just the few leading its development.
In April 2024, over 120 UN member states supported a non-binding resolution aimed at using AI to promote sustainable development and human rights protection. However, this resolution did not enforce any specific governance frameworks, leaving individual states and private actors to pursue their own interests.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres criticized this lack of global coordination, warning that unregulated AI development mirrors the growing threats of climate change, and called for reforming international systems to address these shared global challenges.
The advisory body’s report identifies significant gaps in global AI governance, particularly the exclusion of many countries, especially from the Global South, from meaningful participation. While several frameworks and principles exist, none have global reach, and only seven nations have consistently engaged in AI governance discussions.
The body calls for a more inclusive approach, advocating for a light and agile structure within the UN to unite global efforts and ensure that AI governance represents all regions and communities fairly, ensuring equitable input and collaboration across the globe.
