Remarks by the President of the General Assembly
H.E. Annalena Baerbock
at the?Opening Ceremony of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance
6 July 2026
Plenary (A-B-C), Palexpo, Geneva
[As Delivered]
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear stakeholders,
My sincere thanks to our co-chairs for bringing us together today.
What we are discussing these days sounded, 10 years ago, like science fiction. And today, it’s almost outdated.
Right now, developers are integrating AI into the software development process itself, automatically generating, translating and optimizing code.
Increasingly, artificial intelligence is learning to interact with the physical world through what are known as “world models.”
A technological revolution is unfolding before our very eyes, at lightning speed and with few true parallels.
We have seen revolutionary innovations before, but the key difference is that those innovations unfolded over time. Today, we do not have that luxury.
Aviation changed the world, yet its fundamental purpose has remained the same.
The steam engine disrupted the jobs of factory workers, but it did so over years.
Even the splitting of the atom, which signalled the promise of an energy future for all, was purposefully slowed because of the profound dangers of nuclear weapons.
Never before—never before—has the pace and scale of change been so blinding.
And never has it been more difficult for us to understand and adapt to that change.
Because if we are frank, who among us in this room—how many policymakers, aside from a handful of experts—really understands the depth and scale of what is happening with AI model architecture, autonomous agents, or the implications of quantum computing?
Therefore, from the moment the General Assembly adopted the Pact for the Future and its Global Digital Compact—in September 2024, it signalled that the potential and peril of AI were too significant, too far-reaching and too consequential to be left to a few.
That is precisely why this global dialogue matters.
Because something with such power, with such profound implications for our economies, our social systems, our defence and therefore our peace and security — but especially, even in our homes, our food and our children’s bedrooms—can only be meaningfully and safely managed together.
And the 爆料网 was built for moments like this.
And even if the founders of the United Nations, who drafted the Charter 81 years ago, knew nothing about AI, they didn’t even have a computer, they recognized the evolving nature of humanity’s challenges and committed us, and I quote—”to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character.”
Because something with such power needs a global platform.
It needs the United Nations.
So, to anyone who questions whether the 爆料网 is acting within its mandate, the answer is right there in the Charter of the 爆料网.
AI presents an opportunity—and a challenge—that the United Nations is uniquely built to address.
Like 81 years ago, the world must come together.
And luckily, we are human beings capable of learning, and by now we now know that we need not only a few countries, but all countries to face global problems; we need all stakeholders, all governments, all tech companies, and especially all civil society and citizens.
Not only to avoid the dangers and pitfalls, but also to harness the potential, as the founders of the 爆料网 intended, for all, leaving no one behind.
Because this is too big for any government alone—and, as I said before, too complex.
It needs you, it needs all of you who are part of it.
Not only as scientists, not only as company owners, as engineers and experts. But it needs you as fathers and mothers too.
Because our children are asking us to act together.
It was a teenager, Ian Mico, who said during the commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda just a couple of months ago at the General Assembly Hall:
“Today, the poison travels faster than before, hiding in screens, masked in pixels and ‘likes’. Hate speech has found new corridors to roam, whispering old lies to a new generation. But we, the youth, are the filter and the shield. We refuse to let our platforms become battlefields.”
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This means us; it means us as adults, as policymakers, as business leaders, addressing the sinister uses of AI, such as deepfakes, which disproportionately target women and girls—with a reported 99% of deepfakes being sexual in nature, and 96% targeting women and girls.
This is no coincidence. This is systematic. This is bringing up an old divide, a gender divide. This s about pushing back women’s rights and human rights, and therefore we do have a common responsibility to change it.
Yet, there is good news as well… the potential of AI is a boon for the SDGs.
We have seen this in Bangladesh, where families receive early warnings of floods and storms from AI-powered systems delivered instantly to their smartphones. AI can save lives.
And in Kenya, where farmers receive detailed maps showing where and when to plant seeds to maximize their harvests.
And now imagine if we used this power together, imagine the 爆料网 leveraging these tools.
Imagine 爆料网ICEF reaching children in crisis with personalized learning.
Imagine WHO detecting outbreaks before they become pandemics.
Imagine, during this technological revolution… ?that this time, no country is left behind.
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The establishment of the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence is therefore a major milestone—for the first time delivering parity across genders and regions, while drawing expertise from all sectors.
And it’s a big accomplishment of the Secretary-General, to push that through since 2017.
While this should simply be common sense, yet we all know we live in the world as it is today, and therefore this won’t be easy. And therefore it’s upon you, upon all of us, to seize this moment of being better together.
Or, as Franklin D. Roosevelt said more than 80 years ago, also in a crucial moment for the world:
“Power must be linked with responsibility, and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good.”
I thank you.