Even as the conversation towards regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) gathers pace, the United Nations believes a global dialogue is crucial, building on the momentum of efforts by smaller groups of countries and industry leaders. Ahead of the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva from July 6, Dr Claire Melamed, vice president of AI and Digital Cooperation Strategy at the UN Foundation, tells HT that with AI models becoming more powerful, governance is critical.
“AI companies play a key role in developing and disseminating this technology. However, as the power of AI grows, increasingly the companies themselves are asking governments to step in and help to set guardrails. Sam Altman of OpenAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic have both recently called for this,” she says, noting that AI models have gained capabilities to an extent and at a speed that wasn’t anticipated till even a few months prior.
UN’s Global Dialogue on AI Governance is a key initiative, alongside the UNESCO Global AI Ethics and Governance Observatory adopted by 193 countries, and the G20 countries broadly recognising principles of safe, trustworthy and human-centric AI. The European Union enforces a comprehensive AI Act using a risk-based approach to categorise and regulate. India’s policies such as the IndiaAI Mission guide domestic AI adoption and establish standards.
“While it is ultimately up to democratically elected governments to set public priorities and legislate to meet competing interests, it is important that companies, along with civil society and other stakeholders, are also involved to advise on the relevant trade-offs and possibilities,” says Melamed.
The Global Dialogue on AI Governance will be addressed by Annalena Baerbock, President of the United Nations General Assembly alongside United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Prime Minister of Luxembourg Luc Frieden, as well as Egriselda López who is Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the United Nations and Co-Chair of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, and Rein Tammsaar, Permanent Representative of Estonia to the United Nations and Co-Chair of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state for external affairs, will represent India.
AI executives who are part of the dialogue include Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, Yossi Matias, who is vice president and general manager of Google Research, and Syed Quiser Ahmed, head of the Responsible AI Office at Infosys.
AI divide and people focus
A conversation about AI governance and regulation comes at a critical juncture, considering the pace at which AI’s capability claims are evolving. Anthropic’s next-generation Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 were abruptly taken offline in June, after a US government directive over serious cybersecurity concerns. Access has since been restored.
Lopez says, “It’s definitely the beginning of a global process to answer one of the most important questions of our time: how to ensure that AI serves humanity, equal opportunities, and does not leave entire communities or countries behind.” She notes AI’s continued shaping of various industries and streams, including education, healthcare and public services.
AI’s progression has been rapid. In just the past few weeks, Google has introduced a ‘computer use’ mode with Gemini 3.5 Flash models to execute workflow tasks like a human operator would.
OpenAI previewed its upcoming GPT-5.6 line which branches out to include the Sol flagship model, a balanced model for everyday work called Terra, alongside what they claim is a fast and affordable Luna model. OpenAI notes the US government insists on an initial release to “a small group of trusted partners whose participation has been shared with the government, before releasing more broadly.”
Lopez believes it is important to identify signs of an AI divide early on.
“It’s about infrastructure, it’s about data, skills, financing, institutional capacity, but also an ability to influence the standards that will affect everyone. Innovation exists everywhere. But opportunity does not,” she says.
Compute disparities, including the concentration of data centres, availability of hardware, lack of data localisation, as well as a skills gap, are becoming prominent issues for AI companies as well as regulators to assess.
At the India AI Impact Summit this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted an intention to reverse a geographical divide regarding AI’s balance of power. “For too long, the Global South has been treated merely as a market for technologies created elsewhere. With AI, we are changing the narrative. The Global South will not just use AI; we will shape it, build it, and lead it,” he said, addressing the summit.
In their latest Global AI adoption report released earlier this year, tech company Microsoft noted that adoption in the Global North grew nearly twice as fast as in the Global South. The report also suggested India’s positive trend of increased AI Diffusion, up from 14.2% in H1 2025 to 15.7% in H2 2025. The term ‘diffusion’ measures the share of people worldwide who have used a generative AI product.