GENEVA : “Innovation needs guardrails,” UN Secretary General António Guterres told delegates at the first government level global dialogue on AI in Geneva, adding, “If AI has power, it must be regulated.”

The two day UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance is not aimed at drafting a treaty, but at discussing how to establish rules to limit AI’s potential harms while harnessing its opportunities.

Delegates are reviewing a report by an independent UN backed scientific committee of 40 experts, presenting the findings of the first independent global scientific assessment of AI. A more comprehensive report is due next year, alongside a second global meeting in New York.

Guterres stressed that coordinated global rules on AI must prioritise children’s safety, following reports of young people being harmed through self harm and deception by fake friends that are actually machines.

He called for a children’s safety pledge that would require companies developing AI systems to demonstrate their safety before making them available to children.

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