UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance 2026 (Geneva)
📅 Monday, 6 July 2026 → Tuesday, 7 July 2026 in 31 days
The first session of the UN's Global Dialogue on AI Governance, at Palexpo, Geneva — the new intergovernmental forum established by the UN General Assembly, where the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI presents its preliminary report.
The Global Dialogue on AI Governance is the United Nations' new flagship intergovernmental forum on artificial intelligence, and its first-ever session is held at Palexpo in Geneva. Created by UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/79/325, it establishes a standing, inclusive space within the UN system for governments, international organisations, academia, civil society and the private sector to deliberate on the world's most pressing AI-governance questions.
On the programme
The two-day session combines a high-level segment with thematic sessions and side events, convened alongside the WSIS Forum and ITU's AI for Good Global Summit during a concentrated week of AI diplomacy in Geneva. A defining moment of the inaugural edition is the presentation of the preliminary report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence — the UN's newly created body, modelled loosely on the IPCC, tasked with giving policymakers a shared, evidence-based picture of AI's capabilities and risks. A second session is scheduled for New York in May 2027.
Where it sits in today's AI
This is arguably the most consequential development in international AI governance: the point at which AI oversight moves from ad-hoc summits and national regulators toward a permanent, universal UN process. As frontier models advance faster than any single government can legislate, the Dialogue is the venue where the idea of a global “governance floor” — shared norms, scientific assessment and capacity-building for the Global South — is being negotiated. For policymakers, diplomats, researchers and anyone tracking how the world will collectively steer AI, it is essential.
