United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged the international community to establish coordinated global regulations for artificial intelligence (AI), emphasizing the need to protect children from the technology’s potential risks. Speaking at the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, Guterres highlighted the rapid pace of AI development, which he said is outstripping the ability of developers and governments to manage its consequences.

“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 assembled delegates. The two-day government-level meeting, the first of its kind, aims to discuss strategies for mitigating AI-related harms while harnessing its benefits, rather than to negotiate legally binding agreements.

Central to the discussions is a report by a UN-supported independent panel of 40 scientific experts. The report presents the first global assessment of AI’s impact and governance challenges, with a more comprehensive version scheduled for release next year alongside a subsequent global dialogue in New York. The panel’s findings underscore the concentration of AI development within a limited number of countries and corporations. According to the report, the United States hosts approximately 75% of the computing power powering the world’s 500 most advanced AI supercomputers, with China accounting for another 15%. Adoption rates for conversational AI exceed one billion users globally each week, but lag notably in developing countries.

Guterres stressed that any global AI framework must prioritize the safety of children. He cited troubling examples of AI systems influencing minors toward self-harm or interacting with them deceptively by posing as friends. “We do not let medicine reach a child until it is proven safe. We test every toy. Yet AI has reached our children—their learning, their friendships, their most private questions—before anyone asked what it would do to them,” he said.

To address these concerns, Guterres proposed an AI Child Safety Pledge whereby companies would be required to demonstrate their systems are safe prior to granting access to children. He also advocated prohibiting AI from generating sexualized images of children and called for AI systems to recognize signs of distress in young users, automatically pausing and connecting them to human support.

While acknowledging AI’s significant potential in sectors such as healthcare, Guterres warned that institutions worldwide are unprepared for autonomous decision-making systems and the rapid velocity of change. “The internet took 15 years to reach a billion people. AI got there in two,” he noted. He further cautioned that the concentration of AI expertise and resources among a small group of countries risks marginalizing developing nations from shaping future AI development and reaping its benefits.

Despite these challenges, Guterres expressed optimism about AI’s potential to accelerate global development. If managed effectively, he suggested, AI could become a transformative force and “the great equalizer of the 21st century.”