UN General Assembly President convenes ambassadorial lunch on AI governance momentum

In a speech prepared for delivery at an ambassadorial lunch in New York on 10 September 2026, the head of the General Assembly's eighty-first session set out priorities for multilateral AI governance. Hosting it were the missions of El Salvador and Estonia, the UN Foundation and the leaders of the first Geneva Dialogue. The President said it came after the first Dialogue in Geneva in July with planning now starting for the second Dialogue, set for New York in May, and for a Compact review at high level in 2027.

To explain the urgency, the speech cites figures: more than a billion people use conversational AI weekly, one in four workers is in an occupation with some generative AI exposure, and data centre electricity use is projected to more than double by 2030 to about 950 terawatt-hours a year. It says AI is run by a select few, and cites UNCTAD findings that 118 countries have not joined major AI governance discussions while under a third of developing nations have adopted a national AI strategy. Resolution 79/325 gives the Assembly the job of reaching shared understandings about priority areas of international AI governance.

The President says that this work cannot wait until May, through intergovernmental consultations, and lists themes: innovation with inclusion, access to capacity, infrastructure, data and skills, safety, accountability and human oversight, interoperability, and fairer sharing of benefits. The speech commits to appointing two co-facilitators each for the Global Digital Compact review and the New York Dialogue, strengthening contact among the Scientific Panel, the Dialogue co-chairs, member states and technology companies, and using of UN resources spread across several offices.