AI must serve all of humanity, Guterres tells world leaders

Artificial intelligence cannot be allowed to become the exclusive domain of a few wealthy nations and corporations, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned Friday, calling for a sweeping global effort to ensure the technology works for every country on earth.

A warning from the top

Speaking to governments and technology executives, Guterres made clear that the window to act is narrow. AI is advancing at a pace that has left most of the world’s regulatory frameworks in the dust. He didn’t mince words. The Secretary-General argued that decisions being made right now — about who builds AI, who controls it, and who profits from it — will shape the global order for decades.

It’s not just an abstract concern. The UN estimates that roughly 2.6 billion people still lack reliable internet access. Without deliberate intervention, those populations risk being shut out of an AI-driven economy entirely before they ever had a seat at the table.

The concentration problem

Right now, AI development is dominated by a handful of companies based in the United States and China. The top five AI firms by research output and computing power are all headquartered in just two countries. That’s a structural problem, Guterres suggested, not merely a market outcome.

And it’s getting more concentrated, not less. The cost of training frontier AI models has ballooned to hundreds of millions of dollars per run, putting meaningful participation out of reach for most nations. Smaller economies in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia are watching from the sidelines as the technology reshapes industries, labor markets and governments.

“The benefits of AI should not be determined by geography or GDP,” one senior UN official said on the condition of anonymity. “That’s the core message here.”

What Guterres is actually asking for

The Secretary-General stopped short of proposing a single global AI regulator — a step that would face enormous political resistance. But he called for binding international cooperation on safety standards, access to computing infrastructure, and the sharing of open-source tools with developing nations.

He also pointed to the UN’s own AI advisory body, established last year, as a starting point. Still, critics have noted that advisory panels without enforcement teeth tend to produce reports rather than results.

So the pressure is now on member states. Guterres wants concrete commitments ahead of the UN’s Summit of the Future, scheduled for September 2025 in New York, where AI governance is expected to be a central agenda item.

What comes next

The stakes are real. Governments from Brazil to Kenya to Germany have all floated competing visions for how AI should be governed internationally. Getting them aligned won’t be easy.

But Guterres seems determined to push. His message Friday was essentially a line in the sand: shape AI now, together, or risk locking in a technological hierarchy that mirrors — and deepens — the inequalities the world already has.