Concept Note: High-level Multi-Stakeholder Informal Meeting to Launch the Global Dialogue on AI Governance

This concept note sets out an informal, high-level gathering of many stakeholders that will inaugurate the Global Dialogue on AI governance. It is scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday, 25 September 2025, in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at UN Headquarters in New York. The General Assembly's President will chair it under resolution 79/325, which created both the Dialogue and an Independent International Scientific Panel on AI in September 2025.

The note argues that the data, deployment and effects of AI extend beyond national borders, yet international cooperation remains fragmented, with 118 countries entirely absent from prominent AI governance initiatives. It treats the Dialogue and the Panel as companion bodies building on the Global Digital Compact. The meeting is described as the first time the United Nations gathers governments, scientists, technologists, business and civil society in a single forum under the General Assembly to address AI governance together.

Its objectives are to sustain the political momentum of the Global Digital Compact and affirm the UN's role as convener, to give an update on AI developments and future directions, and to prompt cross-sectoral dialogue on inclusive and accountable governance. The format has an opening segment with remarks from the Assembly President, the Secretary-General and the co-facilitators of the resolution, a plenary and a closing summary from a youth representative. The plenary theme is agile, responsive and inclusive global governance of AI for humanity, with four guiding questions on risks and opportunities, governance arrangements, responsiveness to rapid change, and closing capacity gaps among government decision makers.

Practical arrangements include speaker registration on e-deleGATE from 12 to 19 September 2025, and time limits of three minutes for delegations and five for group statements. The meeting will be streamed on UN Web TV.