he AI for Good Global Summit 2025 will convene on 8 July, welcoming approximately 10,000 attendees online and in person. The event aims to foster collaboration among various stakeholders to establish global AI regulations and harness AI’s capabilities to improve the state of the world, particularly in pursuit of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Context
The UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) found that 55% of UN member states lack a national AI strategy, and a staggering 85% do not have any AI regulations in place. This summit will build on the work of the UN’s Global Digital Compact, a framework established to ensure global digital safety and security. This year’s event boasts an estimated 10,000 attendees with its hybrid model, underscoring the growing centrality of AI dialogue in global discussions. Yet the convening is not without its issues: tech summits in general tend to encourage innovation ahead of guardrails regardless of their purpose, and the actual usefulness of AI summits aimed at the social good are more symbolic than impactful without actual governance structures supporting, which are lacking here. What’s more, we live at a time when major governments are diverging on views of the future of AI and how it should be developed and utilized, complicating this summit’s mission severely.
What’s on the agenda
Heading into the largest AI for Good Global Summit, here’s what to expect:
Multi–stakeholder partnerships are popular whenever speaking about governance gaps today, and AI for Good is no exception. The summit aims to facilitate public–private partnerships that enable lasting agreements and change. Participants are encouraged to get out of their usual bubbles with several networking events, and are rewarded for social good achievements with an awards show.
Progress on global standards for AI remains spotty without global consensus. At the international summit, leaders will assess the progress made in discussing these standards since the Paris AI Action Summit. These discussions will largely revolve around agentic AI’s data access needs, the development of quantum technology, and development of a standardized, effective means of evaluating AI model strengths and limitations.
Ethical concerns are a core discussion point. Attendees will discuss ethical issues associated with AI—from the danger of deepfakes to misinformation to sustainability issues and various articulations of bias. Meanwhile, there are experts who have expressed ethical concerns about AI summits generally as well as warning that without real—and dynamic—governance structures, summits seeking to ensure AI is harnessed for the good are more symbolic than practical. It’s a set of concerns the summit is not blind to.
AI can address global crises. A bright spot on the agenda is a prevalence of discussions about AI’s utility in addressing modern crises. From developing disaster resilience to combating climate change, bolstering food and water security, and improving healthcare outcomes, there are some powerful solutions under discussion. Yet if ethical concerns remain unaddressed—and per the previous point these are items for discussion but there are reasons to be pessimistic about real governance structures—this capacity will be of uneven usefulness.
AI hasn’t immediately changed the workforce, but its prevalence is on the rise. Thus, the summit will address the potential benefits of AI to boost productivity and develop economic resilience in businesses and governments. AI–assistive technologies could also play a key role in the future, adapting to individuals with different abilities and needs. While the messaging is positive, workers and advocates worry about the impact on employees current and future employability. There are also concerns that adoption of AI is progressing far faster than either political or private sector initiatives to deal with the human impact.
What they’re saying
- How do we govern technologies if we don’t yet know their full potential? ITU Secretary–General Doreen Bogdan–Martin—on the central problem of crafting regulation.
- AI could be a game changer for the SDGs [sustainable development goals], but transforming its potential into reality requires AI that reduces bias, misinformation, and security threats instead of aggravating them—UN Secretary–General Antonio Guterres, comments from 2024 summit.
- Our AI standards are supporting innovation in areas from network orchestration and energy efficiency to multimedia coding and content authenticity. Our International AI Standards Exchange will help keep up global momentum on the technical underpinnings of responsible AI. Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau Seizo Onoe.
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UN’s AI summit convenes, but impact potential questionable
Image via Adobe Stock
July 7, 2025
The AI for Good Global Summit convenes on 8 July, bringing together around 10,000 attendees with the goal of fostering collaboration among stakeholders to establish global standards on AI, and harness AI for the global good. Diplomatic Courier’s Stephanie Gull explores the upcoming agenda.
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he AI for Good Global Summit 2025 will convene on 8 July, welcoming approximately 10,000 attendees online and in person. The event aims to foster collaboration among various stakeholders to establish global AI regulations and harness AI’s capabilities to improve the state of the world, particularly in pursuit of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Context
The UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) found that 55% of UN member states lack a national AI strategy, and a staggering 85% do not have any AI regulations in place. This summit will build on the work of the UN’s Global Digital Compact, a framework established to ensure global digital safety and security. This year’s event boasts an estimated 10,000 attendees with its hybrid model, underscoring the growing centrality of AI dialogue in global discussions. Yet the convening is not without its issues: tech summits in general tend to encourage innovation ahead of guardrails regardless of their purpose, and the actual usefulness of AI summits aimed at the social good are more symbolic than impactful without actual governance structures supporting, which are lacking here. What’s more, we live at a time when major governments are diverging on views of the future of AI and how it should be developed and utilized, complicating this summit’s mission severely.
What’s on the agenda
Heading into the largest AI for Good Global Summit, here’s what to expect:
Multi–stakeholder partnerships are popular whenever speaking about governance gaps today, and AI for Good is no exception. The summit aims to facilitate public–private partnerships that enable lasting agreements and change. Participants are encouraged to get out of their usual bubbles with several networking events, and are rewarded for social good achievements with an awards show.
Progress on global standards for AI remains spotty without global consensus. At the international summit, leaders will assess the progress made in discussing these standards since the Paris AI Action Summit. These discussions will largely revolve around agentic AI’s data access needs, the development of quantum technology, and development of a standardized, effective means of evaluating AI model strengths and limitations.
Ethical concerns are a core discussion point. Attendees will discuss ethical issues associated with AI—from the danger of deepfakes to misinformation to sustainability issues and various articulations of bias. Meanwhile, there are experts who have expressed ethical concerns about AI summits generally as well as warning that without real—and dynamic—governance structures, summits seeking to ensure AI is harnessed for the good are more symbolic than practical. It’s a set of concerns the summit is not blind to.
AI can address global crises. A bright spot on the agenda is a prevalence of discussions about AI’s utility in addressing modern crises. From developing disaster resilience to combating climate change, bolstering food and water security, and improving healthcare outcomes, there are some powerful solutions under discussion. Yet if ethical concerns remain unaddressed—and per the previous point these are items for discussion but there are reasons to be pessimistic about real governance structures—this capacity will be of uneven usefulness.
AI hasn’t immediately changed the workforce, but its prevalence is on the rise. Thus, the summit will address the potential benefits of AI to boost productivity and develop economic resilience in businesses and governments. AI–assistive technologies could also play a key role in the future, adapting to individuals with different abilities and needs. While the messaging is positive, workers and advocates worry about the impact on employees current and future employability. There are also concerns that adoption of AI is progressing far faster than either political or private sector initiatives to deal with the human impact.
What they’re saying
- How do we govern technologies if we don’t yet know their full potential? ITU Secretary–General Doreen Bogdan–Martin—on the central problem of crafting regulation.
- AI could be a game changer for the SDGs [sustainable development goals], but transforming its potential into reality requires AI that reduces bias, misinformation, and security threats instead of aggravating them—UN Secretary–General Antonio Guterres, comments from 2024 summit.
- Our AI standards are supporting innovation in areas from network orchestration and energy efficiency to multimedia coding and content authenticity. Our International AI Standards Exchange will help keep up global momentum on the technical underpinnings of responsible AI. Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau Seizo Onoe.
