GENEVA: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for a global framework to govern artificial intelligence, warning that the rapidly advancing technology should not be allowed to determine humanity’s future without proper oversight.
Addressing the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, which brought together governments, technology companies, academics and civil society representatives, Guterres said AI was developing at “runaway speed” and warned that “an experiment is being run on our own societies, without a plan and without consent”.
“That is not sustainable,” he said.
Highlighting AI’s growing influence, Guterres said, “AI is already transforming our world.”
“The question is whether we will shape this transformation together, or let it shape us.”
He cautioned that AI systems were “no longer tools awaiting instruction”, noting that they are increasingly writing code, operating online and making decisions with diminishing human oversight.
“Our institutions were built to govern machines that follow commands. They are not ready for machines that decide.”
Guterres also expressed concern over AI’s role in blurring the line between truth and falsehood, while warning against excessive reliance on technology to perform important tasks without adequate human judgement.
Referring to the growing practice of so-called “vibe-coding”—where users describe what they want AI to create instead of writing code themselves—he said the technology “can do wonders”.
“But we cannot vibe-code the truth. We cannot vibe-code the future of humanity.”
Calls for global safeguards
Guterres warned that AI development was becoming increasingly concentrated among a small number of companies and countries, leaving much of the world without a voice in decisions that will shape the future.
He said governments now faced a choice “between governing by design and drifting by default”.
While acknowledging AI’s potential to accelerate development, improve healthcare and expand access to education, Guterres stressed that innovation must be guided by safety, human rights and shared international standards.
He called for “common methods to evaluate and verify risks” and internationally agreed rules, particularly to protect children using AI systems.
“We do not let medicine reach a child until it is proven safe. We test every toy,” he said.
“Yet AI has reached our children — their learning, their friendships, their most private questions — before anyone asked what it would do to them.”
The UN chief proposed an AI Child Safety Pledge, under which companies would be required to demonstrate that AI systems accessible to children are safe, maintain zero tolerance for sexual abuse, and connect children showing signs of distress to real human support.
“No child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI,” he said.
Concerns over military use
Guterres also urged greater investment in AI capacity across developing countries to prevent the existing digital divide from becoming “an AI divide”.
He announced plans to ask the UN General Assembly to establish a Global Fund for AI to help countries develop skills, data resources and affordable computing infrastructure.
He further called on AI companies to disclose the environmental impact of their operations and commit to powering all data centres with renewable energy by 2030.
However, Guterres said his greatest concern remained the military use of artificial intelligence, particularly lethal autonomous weapons.
“Let us call them what they are: Killer robots,” he said.
“Machines selecting and engaging their target and taking a life — without human control and judgement.”
“That is morally repugnant… And it must be banned by international law.”
Concluding his remarks, Guterres stressed that immediate action was needed to establish effective safeguards for AI.
“We may be the last generation able to set the terms on which humanity and machines coexist,” he said.
“The door is still open. It will not stay open long.”
