Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Remarks at the
UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance – Opening Ceremony
[As prepared for delivery]
UN Secretary-General Guterres,
President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am deeply honored to welcome you, on behalf of ITU, to the first-ever UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
The Internet began arriving in homes and businesses in the early 1990s, but it would take an entire decade before stakeholders from around the globe would gather here in Geneva, at the UN-mandated World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to discuss how to make such a transformative technology people-centered, inclusive, and development-oriented.
This time, I think we can be proud that the United Nations has moved much faster.
In just three years, since generative AI (artificial intelligence) went mainstream, we are ready to shape its trajectory together during this Geneva Digital Week.
A week that includes this Dialogue, informed by an independent scientific panel, the AI for Good Global Summit and the WSIS Forum.
Here I want to appreciate the generous support of our host country, Switzerland.
This week the UN system, governments, companies, researchers, the technical community and civil society will discuss how to put humanity at the core of another transformative technology - perhaps the most consequential yet.
Together with UNESCO, ITU has proudly coordinated the Joint Secretariat for this Dialogue and continues to mobilize UN-wide expertise through the Inter-Agency Working Group on AI.
Excellencies,
Pope Leo XIV's
Magnifica Humanitas mentions the word dialogue 34 times.
Recognizing that while many ideological and practical differences exist among us as people.
Amid our diverse interests and sometimes frequent disagreements.
It is always possible "to engage in dialogue - to establish a set of basic agreements that enable the creation of a shared vision upon which everyone can move forward together."
I believe that is what we are here to do.
It is what the Secretary-General's vision calls us to do - driven by the Co-Chairs' steadfast leadership.
And what the common good challenges us to do - for the benefit of all people.
ITU will be here to support this Dialogue on artificial intelligence, as we have for every technology that has come before AI, since 1865.
And we stand ready to support humanity's cooperation on every technology that will come after it.
