Global Digital Compact
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The UN Global Digital Compact is a landmark intergovernmental agreement relevant to AI governance discussions; wiki users interested in international AI policy and coordination mechanisms should be aware of its commitments and institutional implications.
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Summary
The UN Global Digital Compact is an international agreement adopted at the Summit of the Future, establishing shared principles and commitments for digital cooperation, AI governance, and closing the digital divide. It represents a multilateral effort to ensure AI and digital technologies benefit all nations, with provisions addressing AI safety, oversight, and equitable access. The Compact establishes frameworks for international coordination on emerging technology risks.
Key Points
- •Multilateral UN agreement setting global norms for digital governance, AI oversight, and equitable access to digital technologies
- •Establishes commitments around responsible AI development, including safety, human rights protections, and risk management
- •Addresses digital divide concerns ensuring developing nations benefit from AI and digital transformation
- •Creates coordination mechanisms for international cooperation on AI governance and emerging technology risks
- •Represents a key intergovernmental policy instrument complementing national AI strategies and regulatory frameworks
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UN moves to close dangerous void in AI governance | UN News
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UN moves to close dangerous void in AI governance
UN News/Anton Uspensky
AI for Good Summit 2024, Geneva
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UN moves to close dangerous void in AI governance
By Conor Lennon 25 September 2025
Law and Crime Prevention The explosive growth of AI tools around the world has yet to be matched by effective, internationally agreed rules on how this powerful technology is governed. A high-profile event at UN Headquarters on Thursday is designed to bring effective global AI governance a step closer to reality.
Investment, optimism and anxiety: these are three of the big drivers of interest in artificial intelligence and its implications.
Because the challenges and opportunities are global, the responses also need to be far more comprehensive than the fragmented and siloed solutions that have been enacted thus far: A UN report from 2024 found that 118 countries were not parties to any of the significant “international” AI governance initiatives created in recent years, and only seven nations, all from the developed world, were parties to all of the initiatives.
The high-level General Assembly meeting on AI governance being held on Thursday, marks the first time that all 193 Member States of the UN will have a say in the way international AI governance is developed.
This event will seek to address this lack of representation: as well as diplomats from around the world, the meeting will gather together scientists, members of the tech community, private sector and civil society.
© Unsplash/Igor Omilaev
Building blocks for a new way to safely oversee technological development
The meeting will focus on two new landmark bodies designed to kickstart a much more inclusive form of international governance, address the issues surrounding this powerful technology, and ensure that it benefits all people: the Global Dialogue on AI Governance and Independent International Scientific Panel on AI.
Both bodies grew out of recommendations made by a group of experts and law-makers (the High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence ) in a 20
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